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WORLD:
A year ago, during the first lockdown, you co-founded the “Parents in Crisis” initiative.
How did it come about, Ms. Löwenstein?
Louisa Löwenstein:
At first it was completely inexperienced.
We had all taken our children out of daycare, some of them before the lockdown was ordered, and were waiting for the political decisions.
Then came the first paper with recommendations from the Leopoldina.
Parents and children only appeared in a subordinate clause.
That stunned me.
Louisa Löwenstein, 36, is married and has two daycare children (two and five years old).
She is a self-employed strategic management consultant
Source: Martin UK Lengemann / WELT
I saw on Facebook that others felt the same way.
So I decided, together with other working mothers, to first set up a Facebook group to create a forum.
Within a few weeks, 15,000 people were there.
The spectrum ranged from uncertainty and despair to disappointment and anger.
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WORLD:
What was your common concern?
Löwenstein:
At first it was simply the desire to react to this lack of perception, the lack of perspective and communication.
The message from politics was: the parents somehow sort it out.
Families stood in the blind spot.
We didn't want to leave them there.
WORLD:
The message was also heard in politics.
There is a commitment to the priority of education, there is financial aid such as child benefit bonus and child sickness benefit.
Is that enough?
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Löwenstein:
I don't think so.
These are minimal concessions.
Only when the importance of parents as voters and in the economy is recognized will the big wheels start to turn.
What we would have needed would be a big family summit.
Why didn't it exist?
Families are just as important to the system as the auto industry.
Above all, they and the people who work in their environment - such as care and school - are a gigantic group of voters.
WORLD:
How do you determine that the topic was not put on the right track?
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Löwenstein: In
the summer, for example, I applied for compensation for loss of earnings in accordance with the Infection Protection Act because I couldn't work because the daycare centers were closed.
Theoretically there are also freelancers.
So far I have not received anything.
Employees received their wages from their employer.
But he had to laboriously get the money back from the state.
And that without protection against dismissal.
That doesn't exactly make parents attractive as employees.
The short-time allowance, however, flows automatically.
And the calculation base is higher.
Why this unequal treatment?
WORLD:
But there was readjustment here.
Löwenstein:
Yes, in the meantime the topic is regulated differently due to the extension of the childhood illness days.
And thank God it has become known, at least verbally, that home office and childcare do not work.
However, it must then also be ensured that mothers and fathers do not experience any disadvantage in their job.
#Proparents, an initiative of one of our co-founders, therefore calls for parenthood to be anchored as a feature in the anti-discrimination law.
WORLD:
Does the state have to regulate everything at all?
Isn't the parents' expectations too high?
Löwenstein:
I often hear the accusation: “You wanted children.
Solve your problems alone. ”Many pretend parents have given their little finger, but they want the whole hand.
I would rather say: You don't bite the hand that will nourish you in the future.
It harms society when the investments made in educating people fail to materialize.
Every euro that is invested in education brings nine times the return.
With such a return you would otherwise have no problems finding investors.
"The daycare educators are currently doing superhuman"
Source: Martin UK Lengemann / WELT
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WORLD:
You yourself have children of kindergarten age.
How did you experience the situation there in the past year?
Löwenstein: It
was an incredible feat for the daycare centers.
The hygiene concepts cost time and money.
Educators failed because they belong to the risk group or had to be quarantined themselves.
New admissions that are hard cash - have been postponed.
In addition, there was uncertainty about care claims and always new forms and applications.
The kindergarten teachers are really doing superhuman things at the moment.
They are paid far too badly for that.
Always.
I think you should have received vaccination prioritization much earlier.
WORLD:
What are the effects of the lockdown on children?
Löwenstein:
The health and social consequences are already serious.
Youth welfare offices report that they have a lot more to do;
Refugee supervisor that the children forget German.
Doctors sound the alarm because many children have put on massive weight or because parents become violent, often because they are overwhelmed.
The preliminary figures also show that significantly fewer babies were born during lockdown.
Desires for children are postponed or even given up.
That will fall on our feet in a few years.
WORLD:
So you register fatigue fractures?
Löwenstein:
In any case.
Many, many parents tell me: Actually, I should have seen a psychologist a long time ago.
With a system that is sewn on the edge, the seams will burst at some point.
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WORLD:
What did your initiative achieve?
Löwenstein:
That you can hear the topic itself.
We cannot offer any solutions.
We have neither the time nor the expertise to do this.
Most importantly, we weren't elected.
The Facebook group “Parents in Crisis” still exists, but we have stopped our other activities in the meantime.
I believe that after the pandemic, a kind of commission will be needed to deal with the corona trauma.
After reunification, we saw what problems there are still for people and systems after decades if the human, the psychological, is not taken seriously enough in the event of a social change.
For me, coming to terms with the issue also includes the question of how to deal with the older generation.
The fact that it is taken seriously that the old people don't die doesn't make up for the fact that we haven't cared enough about how they live.
WORLD:
Your whole family fell ill with Covid in January, you were even in the hospital.
Has that changed your view of the pandemic yet again?
Löwenstein:
Above all, it changed my view of the problems that this brings with it for families.
We got infected through the day care center.
Single parents, for example, have the right to emergency care, but no vaccination.
Who looks after the children if a single mother falls ill with Covid?
Or if both parents have to go to the hospital?
It has been eight weeks since my illness and I still have severe aftereffects.
It confirmed to me personally how serious this disease is.
At the same time, how important stabilizing structures are.
WORLD:
What particularly annoyed you?
Löwenstein:
That we are called a lobby.
I need a lobbyist to sell sugar, even though everyone knows it's harmful.
But do I seriously need a lobby to explain to people that someone else is paying for their life insurance?
Children are tomorrow's prosperity, and we are the treasurers of that prosperity.
Classes in Lockdown - It's that bad for students
Many parents share the concern that children learn too little during lockdown.
The Ifo Institute evaluated a large survey on this.
Even if there is potential, the result is not very encouraging.
Source: WORLD / Matthias Heinrich