Many families rely on relatives to care for children while the parents are at work, but the child care field has been missing a basic picture of relative care use in the United States. This paper uses the 1999 Survey of America's Families to look in depth at the use of relative care, including who uses it, for how many hours, and how often it is relied on as the only child care arrangement versus one of a combination of arrangements. Our analysis indicates that relative care provides an important support for many working families and affects the lives of millions of children.