Millions of parents use non-parental childcare for their preschool-age children. Prior research has focused on family characteristics that are associated with parents’ preferences of early care and education arrangements. Yet, little is known about preschool parents’ perspectives of the childcare search process. To further explore how parents search for childcare, we conducted a mixed methods study focusing on parents in a single state in the USA. Our findings suggest that families have to make trade-offs between quality and practicality when choosing childcare. During the childcare search process, families relied heavily on personal networks for childcare referrals and were unaware of public childcare information sources. Parents make childcare decisions based on their perceptions of care. As states across the nation develop their consumer education program, it is important to develop a family-friendly program to reduce search barriers for parents who look for childcare information. (author abstract)