twobabies/ Why family day care
A small group. A familiar adult. A real home.
Family day care is Australia's quietest answer to the early childhood crisis — small mixed-age groups in an educator's home, with a single warm adult who knows every child by name. It's older than most centres. It's loved by the families who find it. And it's been chronically under-served by software built for everything else.
Australia has seven thousand family day care educators caring for seventy-eight thousand children, mostly in their own homes — and the country barely talks about them.
They run on Excel, paper, and a handful of apps designed for centre-based care. The work is brilliant. The tools are not.
twobabies exists because this model — small, familiar, home-shaped — is one of the best things Australia does for young children. It deserves software that loves it back.
Three ways Australia cares for under-fives
Same subsidy. Three very different days.
Long day care, family day care and in-home care are all approved CCS providers. The difference is the size of the world your child lives in between drop-off and pickup.
Centre-based
A larger world · multiple rooms · structured rotations · several adults a child must learn.
- Best for families wanting peer-rich days & structured routines
- Often the only option in dense urban centres
- Highest waitlists; staff turnover felt by children
Family day care
Mixed ages, sibling-style group, walks to the park, nap on a familiar bed. The child's day looks like a child's day.
- Best for under-2s, sibling groups, families wanting continuity
- Same warm adult morning to evening · low turnover
- Flexible hours — early starts, shift workers, irregular weeks
In-home care
For families who can't access standard care · shift workers, remote families, children with complex needs.
- Limited to ~3,200 places nationally · gateway approval required
- Highest cost · lowest peer interaction
- Genuine lifeline for families it's designed for
A day in family day care
Tuesday at Priya's, with Mia (2), Theo (4), and Nora (10 months).
A real shape of a real day. Three children in one home. One adult who knows them all. Learning that looks like life because it is life.
Why this matters
For under-3s especially, the research is unambiguous: one familiar adult, present and attuned, predicts secure attachment more reliably than any other care variable.
Family day care is the only approved Australian model that delivers that, every day, by design.
Sources · referenced
AIFS Australian Institute of Family Studies · ACECQA National Quality Framework · Department of Education CCS data 2023.
Same person at the door
Priya knows Mia's signs of a hard morning · Theo's joke about toast · Nora's soft hand-over from her dad. No transitions, no new faces, no waiting room.
The walk to the park
Three children. One pram. One adult holding two little hands. Everyday life as curriculum — the snail in the gutter, the magpie's call, the stop sign Theo can now read.
Mixed-age, like siblings
Theo reads to Mia. Mia hands the book back upside down. Nora crawls under the table. Children teaching children — the most efficient learning system there is.
A familiar bed
Mia's nap mat is in the same corner every day. Nora has the cot upstairs with her own muslin. Not a row of cots · not a stranger's hand on her back.
One handover, in detail
"She slept 1h 12m, ate the broccoli, found a snail and watched it for 6 minutes." The handover at a centre is the queue at the door. Here it's a conversation in the hallway.
Children under three don't need a curriculum. They need an adult who notices them. Family day care is the only model where noticing is the entire system.— Dr. Sue Dockett, early childhood researcher · paraphrased from The early years are forever, Charles Sturt University, 2019.
What people get wrong
Six things parents assume about family day care · that aren't true.
"It's just babysitting in someone's house."
FDC educators are approved early childhood educators with a Certificate III or higher in Early Childhood Education and Care, working under the National Quality Framework — the same framework that governs every long day care centre in the country.
"My child won't get socialised."
A mixed-age group of 4 in a home is, developmentally, closer to a sibling family than to a peer cohort. The research on mixed-age care shows stronger empathy, language, and self-regulation outcomes than same-age groups.
"It can't be safe — there's no one watching."
Every educator's home is visited by a qualified coordinator monthly. WWCC, First Aid, CPR, anaphylaxis training and police checks for every adult at the residence are mandatory and visible. The accountability is closer than at most centres.
"It must be more expensive than a centre."
It's typically $10–$30 per day cheaper than a centre. CCS applies identically. After subsidy, most families pay $20–$50 per child per day for full-time care.
"There won't be educational outcomes."
Educators plan against the EYLF and MTOP — the same Early Years Learning Framework as centres. Documentation is just less visible because it isn't theatrical. With twobabies, parents see those plans plainly.
"What if the educator is sick?"
Every FDC educator is part of an approved service that arranges back-up care. Most services run a small pool of relief educators; some pair educators in the same suburb so families have continuity even on sick days.
Why we built twobabies
The model is brilliant. The software has been a tax.
Family day care has been making do with software designed for centres, banking, or aged care — never for itself. We're changing that, with the people doing the work, in the homes where the work happens.
Built with services, not at them
Every feature has been shaped by a coordinator at one of three pilot services in NSW, VIC and QLD · we sit in their offices monthly.
Built for educators on phones
The educator app is mobile-first by design — most educators don't own a desktop, and we don't pretend they should.
Built for the parent who doesn't want a stream
A handful of meaningful moments, not 30 photos a day. Notifications quiet by default · because parents are busy too.
Built to disappear
The best software is the kind you don't think about. We measure success by minutes returned to the day, not engagement metrics.
If this matters to you
Help us build the operating system Australian family day care deserves.
Whether you run a service, work as an educator, or are a parent looking for the kind of day we just described — there's a next step here for you.
We share data & insights with peer bodies and university researchers studying FDC outcomes. research@twobabies.co
For media and policy enquiries about the FDC sector or our pilot data: press@twobabies.co