Objective: This article examines Chilean working parents’ perceptionsabout the right to childcare, care needs, and the future of this right.Background: There is widespread debate about working parents’ care strategiesand their capacity to reconcile work and family. Latin American studies haveconcentrated on welfare regimens, social protection policies, and flexibilityin the labor market. However, few studies have explored how workers exercisetheir right to childcare and its consequences for the work–life dilemma.Methods: Data were collected in 29 semistructured interviews with couples andeight discussion groups with working parents. A total of 109 peopleparticipated, 56 men and 53 women. Results: The findings show the ambivalentnature of working parents’ right to childcare, with limited time andbenefits, and the need to extend it to all workers in the future. Conclusion:Exercising the right to childcare is transitory due to its short duration,and partially because it is meant for working parents who have their socialsecurity payments up to date. Both characteristics are partly due to theweakness of the institutional mechanisms that guarantee the right tochildcare. Support for the extension of this right by those interviewedclashes with general distrust toward making use of the right. Implications:The findings suggest that State resources for childcare are insufficientwithout education rights. Education as a prolongation of care is a futuredemand of working parents with children beyond the pre‐school stage.