Working parents whose children are still small know this: In order to get through everyday life as smoothly as possible, a fragile system must function reliably and stably.
This system only works if you can rely on external factors such as reliable care in the crèche and kindergarten.
Because as soon as this factor fails, the whole beautiful system collapses.
Then you have to juggle.
If the day-care center spontaneously closes earlier or even completely, the parents have to step in quickly.
They then often share the care of the offspring and, with a guilty conscience, hope that their employer will understand them.
If you are very lucky, you can fall back on grandparents.
But this system should not be strained unnecessarily.
Because it causes immense stress in everyday life and, in the worst case, it means that parents cannot meet both requirements: their job and their children.
It was particularly bad in the first Corona phase.
Many facilities were closed, the parents could no longer work reliably for weeks and months.
And even today, when you pick up the phone in the morning, bad news sometimes announces itself.
For example, when a daycare center chat group calls for children to be left at home that day because a teacher has fallen ill.
Many institutions have been suffering from a shortage of skilled workers for years.
We remember the sympathetic children's shop in Frankfurt's Nordend, which was so understaffed that the preschool children made their pictures out of ironing beads day in and day out because there simply wasn't enough staff to prepare them properly for school.
Probably no one suffered as much as the head of the children's shop himself.
The municipalities and the providers of the facilities are initially responsible for ensuring reliable care.
She ensures that children and parents are happy and that the family situation relaxes.
Because stressed and dissatisfied parents who cannot fulfill their professional obligations and fear consequences at work are not good parents.
But the state should also make its contribution to improving the care situation in the day-care centers.
For example, by intensifying the training and making the job profile more attractive.
A training offensive is apparently already having an effect: almost 9,000 students are currently being trained as educators, more than ever before.
The country should not let up in these efforts.