Early childhood (EC) teacher turnover is a chronic issue for the field that affects children, teachers, and programs; yet some teachers choose to remain in the profession. We interviewed EC teachers with the goal of identifying salient motivators and challenges to teaching in their EC workplace and the field generally. Teachers reported parts of their jobs as being both a motivator and a challenge. For example, working with children and families highly motivated teachers and simultaneously posed significant challenges. Findings suggest that the balance of motivators and challenges may be influential in teachers’ decisions to remain in or leave their workplace as well as the EC field. We present recommendations for increasing motivators and decreasing challenges with the goal of improving EC teacher retention. (author abstract)