Although quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) and strong collaborations between families and ECEC educators are important for all children, they may be particularly important for children and families who utilize nighttime or weekend ECEC. This study focuses on ECEC educators’ discourses about closeness versus distance in educational collaborations between parents with nonstandard schedules and professionals who work in extended hours ECEC. The data for this study were collected by interviewing ECEC teachers (n = 12) and nurses (n = 18) working in Finland. Research findings: Using the principles of discourse analysis, we found three tensional discourses: (a) the timing of ECEC and asynchrony; (b) a sense of time versus hurry; and (c) care versus criticism. Practice and policy: The findings revealed that extended hours ECEC provides both challenges and possibilities for creating close educational collaboration with parents. This has important implications for the kinds of structural supports and training educators in extended hours ECEC may need to foster quality collaboration with families.

尽管优质的幼儿教育和护理 （ECEC） 以及家庭与 ECEC 教育工作者之间的密切合作对所有儿童都很重要，但它们对于使用夜间或周末 ECEC 的儿童和家庭可能尤为重要。本研究的重点是 ECEC 教育工作者在非标准时间表的父母和加班 ECEC 的专业人士之间的教育合作中关于亲密与距离的讨论。本研究的数据是通过采访在芬兰工作的 ECEC 教师 （n = 12） 和护士 （n = 18） 收集的。研究结果：利用话语分析的原则，我们发现了三个紧张话语：（a） ECEC 和异步的时间;（b） 时间感与匆忙感;（c） 关心与批评。实践和政策：研究结果表明，延长 ECEC 时间为与家长建立密切的教育合作提供了挑战和可能性。这对 ECEC 可能需要的延长时间内的结构性支持和培训教育工作者具有重要意义，以促进与家庭的高质量合作。