January 2010

  • Working Moms Struggle In Germany

    By erika on 1/20/10 4:25pm
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    Last autumn when Manuela Maier signed her children up for an all-day school program in Germany and went back to work, she was "ostracized" by everyone in town.  They called her a "Rabenmutter, or raven mother, after the black bird that pushes chicks out of the nest."  (I guess that's the opposite of a "helicopter parent.")

    For over 250 years, school for German children has ended at lunchtime.  This of course required a parent at home to care for them.  As opposed to America, for example, where all-day (or most-day) schooling is the norm, and both parents can take jobs outside the home.  A single mother in Germany is in big trouble, unable to accept full-time employment because she has to be home when the kids get out of school at noon.


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