As of: February 23, 2024, 6:00 p.m
By: Christoph Peters
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There is work in the front, play in the back: Martina Bentenrieder and Stefan Walcher are happy about the new parent-child office.
© Christoph Peters
The daycare center is closed, grandma and grandpa are far away: this situation regularly presents challenges for working parents.
That's why people in Herzogsägmühle came up with something new.
Mothers and fathers have recently been able to access a parent-child office there if there are childcare shortages.
Herzogsägmühle – Luisa stands curiously in front of the low chest of drawers and pulls out a drawer.
While the two-year-old is interestedly inspecting the toys inside, Miriam (5) has discovered the chalk crayons and is busy beautifying the large blackboard wall.
The play area in the new parent-child office seems to be a hit, as is quickly apparent during our morning visit.
Stephanie Barth is happy about that. The management assistant brought up the idea for the new offer for the employees of Diakonie Herzogsägmühle in a team meeting a few months ago.
Barth works part-time and has two children aged five and seven.
“My husband’s old employer had a parent-child office like this, so I thought it would be nice if we had something like that here too,” she says.
Finally, Barth also knows from his own experience the problem when good advice suddenly becomes expensive when it comes to looking after children, for example because the daycare center is closed and the grandparents are not available.
In such a case, the parent-child office should in future offer an opportunity to reconcile work and childcare by allowing mothers and fathers to take their offspring with them to work.
After the management gave the green light for the project, Barth got to work together with the equal opportunities officer Martina Bentenrieder.
With the active support of caretaker Stefan Walcher and craftsmen, the classic office space in the building of the “People with special circumstances” business unit was redesigned over the past three months.
The back part of the office was converted into a play area
While two modern workplaces were created in the front part, the back part was converted into a play area.
The aim is to captivate young visitors with books, crafts, the blackboard wall, stuffed animals, a climbing arch that can be used as a cozy lounger and cave, as well as a play mat and lots of small vehicles.
If the employment opportunities aren't enough, then the playground at the Gasthaus Herzog is not far away, and there is also the boules court and the beach volleyball court right next door.
The new offer was ready just in time for the carnival holidays.
Since then, the parent-child office can be booked like any other meeting room via the intranet, explains press spokeswoman Barbara Eschlberger.
The mother of two children has already made use of the new option herself.
“Of course we have generous home office regulations, but there are always situations where it is better to be on site,” says Eschlberger, happy about the new option.
A welcome side effect: “The children also get an idea of what their parents actually do when they are at work.”
For Bentenrieder, the new offer is an important step towards equality.
“We make it easier for both parents to work,” she emphasizes, while daughter Luisa happily pulls out the next drawer.
The employer also benefits because employees are not absent.
The offer is also explicitly aimed at fathers like Stefan Walcher.
The caretaker was one of the first to test the parent-child office with his daughter Miriam when she couldn't go to kindergarten one day.
“All the equipment was still missing.” When he recently showed his daughter photos of the finished room, the five-year-old was immediately hooked, says Walcher.
“She said she really wanted to go back.” Meanwhile, Miriam enthusiastically conjured up another small work of art on the already colorfully painted blackboard wall.
It shouldn't be the last.
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