The aim of this article is to analyse in tandem the choice of mothers with young children to work and their decision to use childcare services,the focus being on the impact of the cost of care. First,a multinomial logit model is used to contrast the following three situations: (1) non-work, (2) work and intra-household or unpaid childcare, (3) work and paid childcare. The distinction between part-time and full-time work is then introduced. The data are taken from a French local survey of couples with preschool children. The study shows that the cost of care has a negative effect on the probability that mothers will work, whether full-time or part-time, and use paid care.