In contrast to the wider education literature, rather little is known about the lives of early childhood education (ECE) teachers and the impact of those lives on their practice. Drawing on surveys completed by Head Start assistant and lead teachers, teacher lifelines, and interviews, and through the lens of life-course theory, the author portrays the life histories of four teachers. Teachers were selected whose lives represented some of the range of the challenges faced by ECE teachers as they struggle under current institutional, social, and economic conditions in the United States to achieve balance between family and work demands. (author abstract)