Germany has just approved a controversial measure: people who stay at home to take care of their children will receive a benefit economic and that has made me wonder if it is a good measure.
The benefit has a small amount, but it is a help for those who do not work outside the home and do not use childcare. You will have an amount of 100 euros per month for each child who has to take care between 13 and 24 months of age, later, in 2014 the aid will be increased to 150 euros per month.
The measure, at first glance, seems magnificent, a true way of recognizing the work of fathers and mothers who take care of their children personally all day giving up paid employment. This substantially benefits the reconciliation and it would allow a free choice, although, really, the amount of money is small.
Caring for children at home It is an important task for society, it also means a reduction in public childcare expenses, promotes freedom of choice and will also save a lot of money in health care, since children who go to daycare get sick more frequently in terms general
Criticism that parents charge for caring for their children
However, the measure has raised controversy. Some people believe that condemns women not to work outside the home (is that 100 euros will make you not look for a job if you need it or want it?).
However, it seems that the fiscal pressure when two salaries enter a home is very high and that many women have part-time mini-jobs, which makes this add to a series of measures to discourage incorporation of women into the labor market.
Some say that this expense should be dedicated to the creation of childcare centers, as if there was only one legitimate form of childcare.
There are those who indicate that, when austerity measures are demanded, this expense will be exorbitant, since it will reach 300 million euros in 2013 and 1,100 million euros in 2014.
What a nursery place costs by check-baby
I applaud her instead. Moreover, I believe that a true reconciliation measure would be a baby check that was the same amount as the public expenditure per day nursery and was delivered to each family per child, regardless of whether they work or not, to spend in nursery, babysitter or in charge them for staying at home with their children.
I assure you that receiving as compensation for the important work of taking care of your children personally what it costs to the State each nursery place many mothers and fathers would choose to stay at home.
I don't know how much each nursery or nursery school costs the State, but it sure exceeds 3,000 euros a year. And in that I do not count what the land, the construction, the maintenance or the officials who are responsible for the management of the resource will have cost, although this is then transferred to third parties.
In addition, it would be necessary to add the saving in health expenditure, the one of the days of low that the parents take to take care of the sick child and the one of transport or gasoline.
Separate babies from their mothers for work reasons
And is that taking care of children is considered a job if delegated to third parties, but not if the parents themselves do it.
But, although parents have an obligation take care of your childrenThe truth is that they do a very important work at a social level that should, in some way, be recognized, more knowing that it is the best for children. Then, let each one decide freely what his life option is, but not bound by the circumstances. But today we must look directly at the consequences of the suspense in conciliation that our society presents.
Never, in all Human History, has there been a sociological experiment as large and as abrupt as this model that is now imposed, that babies stop being in the direct care of their moms so that they go to produce to another place outside the home.
I really believe that the incorporation of women to work It is a right, but it is not an obligation, much less with the current labor model designed for people who should delegate the care of their children to companies or state institutions. Work has become an obstacle to motherhood, as sociologist Isabel Aler points out.
It had never happened that a mother, that most mothers, should give up spend the first years of your children by your side at all times. And of course, it has never been defended, on top, that this is good for women and much less for children, because it can even slow its development as the child psychiatrist Eulalia Torrás points out. The truth is that, according to Carlos González and I with him, the nursery is not necessary for children.
We have to spend more time with the children, and that is what many mothers want. I think we've missed the road and that Women's liberation has been done at the expense of children's needs and motherhood and that it is necessary to create another model that allows both to be happier and enjoy their rights: women to work, children to be with their mothers and also men to spend time with their families.
Charging for staying home may not be the best of reconciliation solutions and perhaps, I understand, it is not budgetary viable, but I do believe that, at least, it is necessary to ensure that women freely choose whether to devote themselves to full-time motherhood or to look for a job that makes them separate from babies for several hours (sometimes up to 10 including transfers).
The truth is that I believe that the best thing for a child is that he is at home and his caregivers are his parents, and the benefit of the child should be the engine of society, and this work model designed for the market, and not for People dehumanize.
Given all of the above, it seems to me a good measure that Germany is going to pay parents who decide to stay at home taking care of your children Scarce, but good. And I think we have to rethink our entire model of childcare, for their sake and for everyone's.
In Babies and more | The conciliation tiptoed through the electoral debate, The 10 commandments for work-family conciliation, Real Conciliation Now: another way to reconcile family and work life is possible, Spain does not trust the benefits of work and family conciliation
