The current sociopolitical context of schooling is positioning play as incongruous with children's academic learning. As a result, teacher educators must increasingly guide future early childhood professionals to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to become effective play advocates. This includes articulating the value of play across the lifespan to a variety of stakeholders. Yet, ironically, many adult women entering the early childhood profession report that a wide range of barriers prevent them from including play in their adult lives. Two case studies highlight how early childhood graduate students use their experiences with play across the lifespan as a foundation for becoming play advocates. Nel Noddings's care ethics and feminist poststructural critiques of the construct of care inform the analysis and discussion of the findings. Implications suggest the importance of guiding early childhood professionals to acknowledge self-care as a component of care and play as an essential expression of self-care. (author abstract)