Following some issues raised in reflection groups carried out in private nurseries in Rio de Janeiro, I ve tried to understand the influence of the current crisis of labor on the relationship among parents and their little children. I have recurred to a bibliographical research about the relationship between family and work in capitalism, including its recent changes. It was also accomplished a qualitative research in which mid-class parents were listened in interviews. I have verified that the emergence of the industrial society brought about a split between the domestic and the work environments; the former is considered the space of care and intimacy whereas the latter is seen as cold and impersonal. The domestic environment will start, then, to be defined in a way as to satisfy the requirements of the industrial organization. I ve also verified that the most recent transformations in the productive process destroy stability and in this way create the ideal of a completely - independent worker, so enhancing the contradiction between the ideal of protection in the domestic environment and that of absolute exposure in the public one . I ve also tried to understand how such new model influences the expectations that parents have about their children , with all their intrinsic difficulties. A counterpoint to that is thought in the light of the concept of transitional experiencedeveloped by Winnicott, that allows a critic to the modern concept of parenthood that reduced it as being disconnected from the wider cultural field.