The reason I first started out working in and studying childcare was just because I had a general interest in wanting to work with children. After having been in the industry for 10 years now and am currently a Director for a council run service, I can say that you really need a genuine interest in wanting to work with children to do this and also patience.
This is not a job that you would do for the money and the people that do often burn out in the industry very quickly, it is more than just caring for children and changing nappies and playing with them, it is about educating children, extending thier skills and learning, teaching them to interact with others and use social skills, on a daily basis you are negotiating, counselling, comforting, educating, guiding, it's so much more than people realise.
Then there is the paperwork and mountains of it, keeping upo with changes in frameworks and curriculums, working out the best way to document, meet requirements etc.
All I can say there is a lot more to the job than people realise, but if you are genuinely interested and find you enjoy it all the hard work can be very rewarding to.