Children, Daycare and Career
When mom has a job
Ursula von der Leyen, Germany's Federal Minister of Family Affairs, triggered the debate by issuing a demand for more daycare facilities. The opposition objected that German women should not be degraded to the status of childbearing machines. But this misses the point, namely that all working mothers should have maximally flexible opportunities to leave their children at reliable, high-quality daycare facilities during working hours. And to do so with clear consciences. Adequate childcare frees mothers who expect more of life than the role of housewife and mother to pursue their careers with confidence, freed from anxieties about their children’s well-being. This documentary features three mothers with careers outside of the home, each striving in her own way to meet the challenges of harmonizing childcare with large or small-scale professional commitments. What is it like for a working mother who cannot procure a childcare placement, and must make other arrangements, whether this means leaving a child with grandparents, or with a private babysitter, usually the least flexible option? What about the single working mother, who must constantly make new arrangements for her child or children? What about mothers who are planning to return to work but cannot find childcare facilities? And what about the bad consciences of German women who begin leaving a child in daycare when he or she is just a few months old? This documentary visits three different working mothers as they attempt to organize their schedules, and shows them coping with varying degrees of success. These encounters can only raise the viewer’s awareness of the extraordinary challenges facing German women who attempt to reconcile the demands of motherhood with those of career life. They also make it very clear that mothers who work for a living love their children just as much as housewives who remain at home. And that despite the difficulties involved, there is a lot to be said for trying to have it all: children, daycare and career.
