This article reports findings from a research project on the early career path of a group of male elementary school teachers. Issues of caring for children and disparities between how male and female teachers are permitted to relate to their elementary-age students are explored. In the preservice situation, the participants experienced tensions between how they, as male teachers, would naturally be inclined to show care toward students and the limitations that they felt were imposed on them by societal concerns about issues of child protection. During their 1st year of teaching, some of these frustrations endured, but participants found different and more acceptable ways of showing care. These ways of showing care can be described as being located on a professional rather than a parental end of a continuum of caring.