Child Care Management Online Diploma Programs: Day or child care is watching over a child during the day by a person other than the child's legal guardians, typically performed by someone outside the child's immediate family. Day care is typically an ongoing service during specific periods, such as the parents' time at work. The service is known as child care in the United Kingdom and Australia and day care in North America (although childcare also has a broader meaning). provided in nurseries or crèches or by a nanny caring for children in their own homes. It can also take on a more formal structure, with education, child development, discipline and even preschool education falling into the fold of services