For the past eight weeks, the vast majority of small children have not been allowed to go to daycare as usual. Step by step, however, they should now return to the facilities. But how can infection protection and loving care be reconciled? A visit to the emergency care.
Dortmund (dpa) - It looks really threatening: Red, round, jagged and with a green face: A six-year-old has painted "the evil corona virus" with a felt pen.
How much he hoped it would start again soon was written in a letter that he dictated to his mother and sent to the nursery school teachers at the Hainallee nursery in Dortmund. "When I get back, I want to hug you all very firmly," it continues.
Many questions and uncertainties among parents
The boy will have to wait, as of Thursday (May 14th) the North Rhine-Westphalian daycare centers will open as a first step primarily for older children with special needs. All other preschool children should follow two weeks later, including the small corona virus artist. But will he then be allowed to hug his teachers? Are his friends already there? What works differently, what works as usual?
Parents have many questions and uncertainties, says facility manager Miriam Meyer zu Ummeln. She then reports to her over the phone about the many experiences she has already gained with the constantly growing emergency groups. Because many parents here belong to the group of systemically relevant professions. Most recently, almost 15 percent of the almost 711,000 childcare places in North Rhine-Westphalia were used, according to the Ministry of Family Affairs. At the beginning of the daycare closings, there were significantly fewer, also in Dortmund. Meyer zu Ummeln explains that those who initially managed to bring child and job under one roof are reaching their limits. Up to 18 children are now coming - separated into three fixed small groups.
Balance act between infection protection and pedagogy
The educators already have a certain routine here with day-to-day care under corona conditions, the balancing act between infection and occupational safety on the one hand and pedagogical self-evident on the other. "Of course, we have to distance ourselves a little from our educational concept, in which attachment and relationship are fundamental," says Meyer zu Ummeln. That means not exactly looking for situations where things get tight. There was also no group-wide, free movement for the children in the entire facility.
"But of course the children are comforted when they fall or need affection and closeness," she emphasizes. The distance requirement, which is the key to returning to business and social life in so many other areas of society, cannot be the yardstick for dealing with the youngest. Family Minister Joachim Stamp (FDP) also emphasizes this: "On the contrary: you need closeness and security," he writes in a letter to parents.
Don't be afraid of contact
The Dortmund educator Jacqueline Kreisel sits on a play mat in the group room. When she opens the picture book, it signals the little ones to climb onto her lap. "I'm not scared at all, the children need that," she says. In the much smaller emergency group, they miss the hustle and bustle of a full day care center the most. The little ones coped surprisingly well with the situation. "Of course they ask where their best friends are, but new connections are being made."
The corona arrangements sometimes cause considerable logistical effort for those responsible for the daycare: "We are very lucky that the rooms here enable us to separate the groups well," explains Daniel Kunstleben, Managing Director of Fabido, the owner. Every group room in the one-story building can be entered from the outside. Instead of behind the main entrance as before, parents now hand their children in at the patio door.
Day starts with hand washing
Of course, here too the day begins with a thorough hand washing. Parents are only allowed to go to kindergarten in exceptional cases - then please wear a face mask. However, the mask is not intended for teachers: "Children need facial expressions to understand adults," says Kunstleben. Only one group is allowed on the outside area. The duty rosters have to be written in such a way that educators always meet the same children in small, fixed groups as possible - and with significantly fewer staff.
At Fabido in Dortmund, 400 out of 1,600 employees are pre-sick or over 60 years old and do not have to come to the facility. According to the Ministry of Family Affairs, daycare providers and childcare providers currently have to work with over 20 percent fewer staff. How often the rest of the children can really return to their daycare centers before the summer holidays also depends on the human resources that are then available, Stamp writes in his parents' letter.
Parents' associations and also the head of the family department from Dortmund are putting pressure on giving all parents relief in childcare as quickly as possible. "We now have to think about how we will shape the second half of the year so that parents have the chance to reconcile family and work with a clear conscience. I wonder how the parents can still manage," says Daniela Schneckenburger (Greens ). To do this, it needed the opportunity to use personnel more flexibly. Shift models are also conceivable, so that some children are looked after in the mornings, others after the rooms have been cleaned in the afternoons. "In any case, there won't be a simple flip of the switch," she says.
Gradual opening concept
Minister's letter to parents
Criticism of the State Parents' Council
Specialist recommendation for daycare centers