Sharing the caring responsibility between the private and the public: childcare, parental choice and inequality. In: C. Martin, A. Moreno & A-M. Castren (eds.). Palgrave handbook of sociology of the family in Europe. New York: Palgrave Introduction: childcare matters Children are increasingly cared for by people other than their parents. Across European countries, the numbers of children under three being full-time enrolled in formal childcare services rose almost continuously since the turn of the century. Many countries report pre-school participation rates of almost 100 percent of children between three and five years old. This has changed the nature of parenthood and parenting, and according to a substantial body of research, to the betterment of children (Engle et al., 2011).There is now a robust body of evidence on the benefits of participating in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services for children's cognitive and noncognitive outcomes. The attention for the educational potential of ECEC originated with three famous U.S. based longitudinal studies on poor children attending high quality ECEC, as these studies for the first time showed that not only these children fared better in school, but also that the effects are still noticeable in their adult lives. This knowledge laid out the scientific foundation for the importance of public investment in the early years (e.g. Barnett, 2011). Today there is also robust evidence from diverse European longitudinal studies on the impact of high quality ECEC on children's cognitive and socio-emotional development as well as on their school readiness, learning outcomes and later-life educational and labour market achievement (see Vandenbroeck, Lenaerts & Beblavy, 2018 for an overview). It has now been generally accepted in academia as