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Gerda wants to know who is on the phone.
"A woman who asks why you don't go to daycare," explains Christina Kopczak, mother of the three-year-olds and an infant, and asks pleadingly: "Do you want to hop on the bed while I'm on the phone?"
Kopczak, 43 years old, works in the service center of a car manufacturer, her husband looks after the database of a chemical company.
According to the Berlin Senate, both of their professions are not systemically relevant, so the Kopczaks are one of the few families in Germany who currently have no care for their children.
Because Hamburg and Berlin are the only two federal states whose daycare centers currently only offer emergency care, and here, too, the occupancy rate is not exactly low.
68 percent of children in Hamburg go to daycare centers, in Berlin it is even 78 percent.
On 31 pages the Senate lists the professions that entitle to emergency care;
In addition, preschool children are allowed to go to daycare, children of single parents and children with special needs.
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“I have to avoid the daycare center with Gerda, because of course she cannot understand that her friends are allowed to go and she is not,” says Kopczak.
She regularly gets tantrums, and sometimes the little one screams too, who is frugal but unfortunately doesn't sleep well for his age.
The State Parents' Committee of the Berlin day-care centers describes the Senate's measure as window dressing: A lot of bureaucratic effort is required - without point: There is hardly any protection for families and educators against infection with the corona virus with such a high level of workload.
Then why order emergency care first?
"It's absurd, you change the terminology, but the accessibility is hardly restricted", says Wolfgang Freier, managing director of the Berlin Bootkitas with eleven facilities.
"The difference between restricted regular operation and emergency care is only marginal."
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About 15 percent of parents are currently not entitled to bring their children.
Who is allowed to bring his child and who is not, the individual Kita management would have to negotiate with the parents almost all the time.
Wolfgang Freier
Source: Boot Kitas Berlin
Children who are cared for in one of Berlin's Bootkitas
Source: Boot Kitas Berlin
Is the author of a travel guide relevant to the system or the consultant of a medium-sized company?
“I can absolutely understand that parents try at all costs to keep a place for their child,” says Freier, “as two sides are rushed against each other, which actually depend on mutual trust.
That is extremely unsatisfactory. "
The mood among the employees is fluctuating.
“The educators are terrified,” says Freier.
Only around ten percent would have already received a first vaccination.
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In addition, he had just run out of the quick tests, which are mandatory for his employees twice a week.
“That takes a lot of security from our employees,” says Freier.
“Fortunately, infected children show few symptoms, but that makes it all the more difficult to discover them.” When changing diapers, when comforting, there is often the thought: Am I getting infected?
A regulation that does not constantly change every few weeks is urgently needed.
If the nationwide solution envisaged by the government prevails, normal day-care centers would be prohibited in future if the seven-day incidence exceeded the threshold of 200 on three consecutive days.
The federal states can then set up emergency care.
Wolfgang Freier does not believe that such a regulation will lead to uniform handling.
“There will be room for maneuver,” he is sure.
"Each federal state will then probably have to decide for itself what emergency operation means if the incidence threshold of 200 is exceeded."
“Great fear in certain sections of the population
Daniel Kunstleben, head of the municipal Fabido daycare center in Dortmund, does not believe in an improvement either.
“If our state government stipulates that no day care center is closed, I don't expect any change,” says Kunstleben.
Daniel art life
Source: Roland Gorecki / City of Dortmund
“Then the question would be rather what happens if an incidence of 200 is exceeded.
If the emergency care is interpreted harshly, the child can only come if both parents work in key positions.
With us, that would correspond to an occupancy of around 25 percent.
Above all, however, the children with a special need for protection must have continued access to care, everyone agrees on that. "
In North Rhine-Westphalia there is currently regular operation under pandemic conditions;
this is not welcomed in all cities.
Dortmund's Lord Mayor Thomas Westphal (SPD) wanted to close schools and daycare centers in Dortmund in mid-March because of the increasing number of corona infections among young people, but was not allowed to do so.
Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) emphasized that he wanted to adhere to the principle of opening schools and daycare centers first and closing daycare centers and schools last.
Westphal and Laschet accused each other of incompetence.
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Nevertheless, Kunstleben describes the childcare situation as stable at the moment.
“However, we see clear differences in the families in which both parents work and in the families that are socially disadvantaged.
They make the opportunity to have their children looked after.
significantly less use. "
There are some parents who have left their children at home since the turn of the year.
"In certain population groups there is a great deal of fear, this is especially the case when there is only limited information or language barriers," says Kunstleben.
"Many also want to avoid the situation that their child has to be quarantined for two weeks if there is a child in the group that has tested positive."
Children's sick days are being expanded again
For the Kopczak family, there is no great hope that Gerda will soon be able to go to daycare again.
If the design of the emergency brake remains above an incidence of 200 state matters, the criterion of systemic relevance in Berlin will probably be retained.
A small ray of hope is that the childhood illness days are now being extended again: ten additional days are granted per parent and child, which parents can also use if the child is healthy but does not have access to daycare.
Each parent is therefore entitled to child sickness benefit for a total of 30 days per child.
Federal Family Minister Franziska Giffey (SPD) speaks of an "additional safety net in the event that childcare options are not available due to a high incidence".
Christina Kopczak has meanwhile taken shelter with her parents with her husband and children so that she can get some support.
From her day-care center, she would like the educators to try to keep in touch with Gerda, give him a call or send a song on video.
But, she says, there is also no such thing as a result in this area.