Researchers have made progress understanding how families with young children make decisions given available options, how the economic and policy environment can affect their options, and the impacts these decisions have on families, communities, and the economy. Building on earlier models of maternal time allocation and investment in children (Becker and Tomes 1976; Heckman 1979; Ribar 1995; Kimmel and Connelly 2006), recent economic research has focused on the rich set of choices parents with young children must make in balancing competing uses of their time and money, recognizing the implications for their children's development and for society (Cunha and Heckman 2007; Cunha et al. 2010; Bernal and Keane 2010; Gelber and Isen 2013; Del Boca, Flinn, and Wiswall 2014; Chaparro and Sojourner 2015). This evidence highlights the importance of the choices families make and how policy can empower families with better options. The returns to additional investment in young children can be high, especially for children whose parents have lower earning power (CEA 2016a). This brief highlights evidence on the economic constraints facing American families with children and how these constraints loosen as children grow older due to increased availability of both private and public resources. Given the way that human capacities develop, additional high-return investments in early childhood, particularly for children whose parents have low earning power, represent an opportunity to strengthen both overall economic growth and to increase equal opportunity (Heckman 2006; Caucutt, Lochner, and Park 2015). (author abstract)