Generally speaking, if you provide care for more than one family, especially if care is provided in your home, the you would be self-employed.
If you provide care in the homes of specific families according to their schedules, you might be their household employee. The employer is required to issue you a W-2 if they pay you more than $2,200 in a year. You could be the employee of several households. You will generally pay slightly less tax if you are a household employee than if you are self-employed. However, if you want to consider yourself as self-employed, but one of your families wants to treat you as a household employee, you can discuss it with the families you work for and figure out what is best. Or, do that family as an employee with a W-2 and do the others as self-employed.
