Results suggest that the quality of mother-youth relationships is a key determinant of the family success in balancing market work and family care activities. The relationships moderate the effect of work on child well-being. Mother-youth relationships marked by mutual understanding acted as resources that enabled the families to successfully navigate daily life. For many families, parents’ time spent at work creates challenges for daily routines that also include household work and the provision of supervision and care for children. This article reports on a study of how low-income employed single mothers and young adolescents manage household daily life. Analysis is based on longitudinal ethnographic data collected from families of 35 young adolescents over 3 years following the 1996 welfare reforms. Appendix and references