Investing in childcare provision makes good economic sense. Yet, conventional and behavioral market failure theory suggest that the benefits of childcare may fail to materialize because parents are irrational childcare consumers. The current study examines whether parent satisfaction with childcare is symptomatic of this imperfect rationality. Data were drawn from the MeMoQ project, the first rigorous baseline study of childcare quality in Flanders (Dutch-speaking Community of Belgium). Classroom quality was assessed in 380 infant/toddler childcare settings and survey data were collected from 2650 parents. Findings from multilevel models indicate that parent satisfaction is only modestly associated with classroom quality, as well as with childcare type. On a more personal level, parent satisfaction is predicted by partner status, frequency of attendance, migrant status, and how parents perceive their options in childcare. The results demonstrate that while the question of parent satisfaction with childcare has a glaringly obvious answer, it is less predictably irrational than commonly anticipated. The explanatory power of our models is limited and warrants further inquiry into the more complex nature of parent-childcare relations.

投资于提供托儿服务具有良好的经济意义。然而，传统的和行为市场失灵理论表明，由于父母是非理性的育儿消费者，育儿的好处可能无法实现。当前的研究检验了父母对托儿服务的满意度是否是这种不完全合理性的症状。数据来自MeMoQ项目，这是法兰德斯（比利时荷兰语社区）首次进行的严格的托儿质量基线研究。在380个婴幼儿保育环境中评估了课堂质量，并从2650个父母那里收集了调查数据。多层次模型的发现表明，父母的满意度仅与教室质量以及托儿类型有关。从个人角度而言，父母的满意度是由伴侣的状态来预测的，出勤的频率，移民身份以及父母如何看待他们在育儿方面的选择。结果表明，尽管父母对托儿服务的满意度问题有一个显而易见的答案，但与通常预期的相比，它的可预见性较不合理。我们模型的解释力是有限的，需要进一步调查父母与子女的关系的更为复杂的性质。