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Markus Feldenkirchen
"An equal and future-oriented partnership is measured by the fact that men naturally do half of the family and housework,"
you said recently.
Her husband quit his job.
You are a federal minister.
Can you manage to do half of the household despite the burden?
Anne Spiegel
You can be sure of that.
I support and do what I can.
And above all, I make sure that whenever I have time, my husband gets his time off too.
And frankly, I love it. I really enjoy it when the kids jump around me and... they frown.
But I also really like doing housework.
Markus Feldenkirchen
You once talked about your husband, who, as I said, has been with the children completely since they had their first child, that he, in turn, experiences discrimination for precisely this reason.
What kind of discrimination is this?
Anne Spiegel
Well, we've already experienced it four times, so to speak, with the four children that, for example, when my husband is out and about in the city, one of the children is still in diapers and he has to change the diapers.
If the changing table is only in the women's toilet, then that's simply problematic, because logically he can't use it.
Markus Feldenkirchen
What does he do then?
Anne Spiegel
I mean, if need be he has to set himself up somewhere makeshift or look around until he finds a changing table that is also accessible to men.
To the point that someone in a café, for example, a woman, wanted to give him tips on how to give him the bottle correctly.
And I am convinced: Of course, men can do everything except breastfeed.
It's clear.
Markus Feldenkirchen
There is currently a really precarious care situation in many daycare centers in this country because many caregivers are in quarantine if they are not currently infected themselves.
For example, what do you say to single working parents who really don't know how to combine work and caring for their children these days?
Anne Spiegel
I know very well that the corona pandemic, which has been going on for two years, poses massive challenges, is exhausting, nerve-racking and of course frustrating, especially for single parents.
But I think...
Markus Feldenkirchen
That doesn't help them with a view to the next few weeks.
Anne Spiegel
Yes, I'll come to that with my half-sentence.
However, I believe that it was absolutely the right political decision to say that the last thing we should talk about is the closure of schools and day-care centers and not the very first thing.
In other words, that the schools and daycare centers are open, so that single parents, for example, but also other families who urgently need them, can use the daycare centers and schools.
What is even more important to me is looking at the children, because everyday life in schools and day-care centers is of very, very great value to them.
This is actually such an anchor of stability, especially in such a turbulent pandemic.
Markus Feldenkirchen
We have prepared a small feature film about the point you just mentioned, namely about the mental problems of children, especially during the pandemic.
Let's take a quick look at that.
MIRROR
Loneliness, fear, depression.
The mental stress on children and young people has increased since Corona.
This is shown by a representative online survey by the Hamburg University Hospital.
Almost every third child is mentally disturbed.
While 15 percent of the children had anxiety symptoms before the crisis, it was 24 percent in the first wave, and even 30 in the second wave. In the case of depression, the figure has risen from 10 to 15 percent.
And psychosymptomatic complaints such as depression and headaches are also increasing.
Children and young people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds or with a migration background are particularly often affected.
Markus Feldenkirchen
How did this happen?
Anne Spiegel
I consider the findings that we have here to be taken very, very seriously.
Especially since one must unfortunately assume that we also have a number of unreported cases that is even higher, because we are talking about the cases that we already know and I therefore think it is urgently necessary.
And I am also personally committed to ensuring that we always look at all the decisions we make in the context of the Corona Pandemic: What is it doing with children, with young people, with families and also have this view that children and young people are very, very particularly affected by the pandemic.
Some children don't even remember the time before the pandemic and that shows....
Markus Feldenkirchen
Is that what you see in your children?
Anne Spiegel
I see that to some extent with my children, but also with others.
For example, if I ask my son if he remembers the time when people didn't have to wear masks, he says he can't remember.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the playgrounds were closed, we were all in a lockdown and that made children and young people very, very unsettled.
This turned her everyday life upside down.
From us adults too, of course.
But it is important to me that above all and that is our responsibility as adults, we pay attention to how we protect and support children and young people in the best possible way.
Markus Feldenkirchen
But how do we get out of what you just described?
Anne Spiegel
Diverse.
Well, on the one hand, I think it's absolutely important, as I said, to talk about the closure of schools and day-care centers first and foremost.
But the everyday life of children and young people is much more than just school and day-care centers.
And we have committed significant funds.
Every euro is in good hands there, for example for families, holidays, leisure time, offers for children and young people during the holidays, more school social work and other projects to cushion this a bit.
But also the question, which is also in the coalition agreement, to create more therapy places for children and young people.
So we need a whole smorgasbord of answers to meet this challenge.
