The study focuses on dilemmas in storied experiences of everyday after-school care arrangements amongSwedish and Finnish mothers. Finland and Sweden, which share a history of strong labour marketattachment among women, arrange institutional after-school care in similar ways. The data consist ofinterviews with three Swedish and six Finnish mothers. A positioning analysis of four stories showshow decisions related to children's after-school hours were allocated among different actors. Two reoccurringdilemmas, Competent-dependent child stories and Unburdened-deficient mother stories, emergedfrom the data analysis as related to prevailing moral discourses on childhood and motherhood.