Young children benefit most from their experiences in childcare centres when their parents are actively involved in centre activities. However, childcare professionals sometimes face obstacles in engaging and maintaining cooperative working relationships with families. This is especially true for families that are hard to reach or families that are reluctant to develop or maintain such a relationship. This article provides childcare professionals with a framework for understanding various factors--both external and internal to families--which might impede the development of such a relationship. Further, the article describes techniques for working with different types of family patterns in ways that increase the likelihood of centres and families providing a nurturing environment for their children. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)