Parents should drive up the costs – with childhood sick days

There is one thing that you cannot blame the federal government’s corona management on: that children and young people were not always thought of first. Unfortunately, however, you always thought of them first when you asked yourself what had to be shut down first in order to face the crisis. At most in the form of cheap and consequential assurances.

The Federal Republic, the state with the fifth oldest population in the world, has continuously demonstrated its structurally rooted hostility towards children and young people since the beginning of the corona. And not learned much in almost two school years. Fourth wave, fourth attempt: And so now, shortly before the end of the Berlin summer vacation, the discussion begins again, once again initiated by the relevant well-known voices.

The SPD politician Karl Lauterbach is currently calling for Corona measures to be adhered to, including, if necessary, changing lessons. And parents know that Lauterbach statements are something like early indicators of the corona policy that will follow later. No matter how often pediatricians’ associations or the German Medical Association can stand up and emphasize that the dangers of corona restrictions at educational institutions outweigh those of corona infections for the majority of children.

Parents pursue this disinterest in large parts of politics towards the youngest generation and thus towards the future of society with concern and anger: Families definitely have an effective toolbox that they just have to use at last. There is of course the ballot for the next federal election.

But perhaps it would be even more effective to drive up the costs for the failure, which has persisted for a year and a half, to make schools and daycare centers fit for regular operation even under pandemic conditions: by working parents – should educational institutions actually be partially closed again – all of them take due childhood sick days. With a grand gesture, they were generously increased for the first time in 2020 and a second time this year for precisely this reason.

You could be absent from work for up to 120 business days

A family of four with two children under the age of twelve could legally stay away from work for up to 120 working days per year if the educational institutions are closed in whole or in part. The state, i.e. the taxpayer, pays up to 90 percent of net wages.

With a good nine million children between the ages of one and twelve, gigantic sums of money would arise if parents decided to make use of the new legal entitlement. Now is the time to wave such a calculation. Only in this way can politics and administration be motivated to do intellectual work that goes beyond what has been done so far. Yes, that would be at the expense of the community. Children plagued by suffering would probably answer “Fair enough” if their last English lesson wasn’t too long ago.

So far it has been the other way around with parents. You dragged yourself through, agreed on family, job and corona for the devil and ruined yourself in the process. Many parents are just giving the nation the nerds. And politicians seem happy to have found someone on whom they can unload the brunt of the corona politics.

A parents’ strike, it would be the last resort for many completely exhausted families in Germany. It takes courage towards employers and ignoring the permanent bad conscience towards the economy. Is it going to happen? Probably not. Alternatively, one would have to look out for private tutors if one can afford it. It’s getting very tight here, hold on! This is another catastrophe for educational equality in Germany. But you don’t have to worry about their consequences until later.