Childcare: It's stuck everywhere!

Daycare centre - crèche - childminder. What is best for the child? How many hours? And above all, from what age? There is no shortage of studies on this controversial topic. And yet my answer is completely unscientific and not very precise: it depends. On the child. On its nature.

In all the discussions about the compatibility of family and career, equal rights, etc., we should not always lose sight of this aspect - the child. Every child is different. If crèche care worked great for your first child from the age of 12 months and he seems to enjoy his everyday life, it is by no means certain that your second child will be happy with the same model. That's why I think it's too short-sighted to only ever call for the expansion of childcare.

Now it's getting politically explosive and interesting. Because there's one point I've never understood: Why should it even be modern, left-liberal, emancipatory to fight for an expansion of childcare for children under three? On the basis of our current social situation, with women still at a clear disadvantage on the labour market, the simple demand for even earlier, even more excessive early childhood care is more of an anti-emancipatory, anti-feminist position. After all, where is the man?

Corona shows us one thing more than clearly: if the system collapses, who will be left holding the bag 80 per cent of the time? In other words, the unattended children bickering loudly and spilling milk in the background during the video conference? That's right. The mum.

What would a solution look like? If you ask me, it would take three steps:

Step 1: Politicians must finally put more energy into creating a completely equal financial and legal framework for both genders and the whole family.

Step 2: Nevertheless: further expansion of daycare centres and similar facilities.

Step 3: More individual freedom for families to decide for themselves which of their children should be looked after from what age and how.

And then, hopefully, one of the most important aspects will be added in the end: That we get to a point in society where no woman is looked at the wrong way if she puts her child in childcare from the age of one. But also not if she wants to stay at home with her child for three years. And that no man is ridiculed if he stays at home and the woman goes out to work. There is still a lot to do. For everyone. Everywhere.