Kita deficit: I can't cut a Kita from the ribs

Some parents are threatening to write CVs for their one-year-old children – all for the rare places. A daycare director tells about her everyday life in Berlin.

Kita deficit:   I can't cut a Kita from the ribs
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  • Page 1 — "I can't cut a daycare site out of my ribs"
  • Page 2 — "We can't take a difficult child"
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    Kita deficit reigns in Berlin and or major cities, with many parents desperately looking for a place. But not only are y under pressure: how are people who run daycare centers? How do you address flood of applications and stressed parents? Jacqueline Hoinka, 51, has been an educator for 30 years and has been head of Kita Hanuri-Demmi in Berlin-Charlottenburg for ten years. In minutes she talks about foreign shame and overdemand.

    "Outside our daycare, re is a note that says we have no more seats for 2018 and 2019. The parents ring anyway, phone rings all time. And I'm sure to get ten mails a day. Especially ringing disturbs daycare everyday, children who are still in familiarity, think y are picked up. I spend two or three hours each week answering requests for seats. If I had staff, I could open anor daycare.

    I have been an educator for 30 years, I have been in nursery at Mierendorffplatz in Berlin for ten years now. We serve 21 children aged one to six years from families from 18 different countries. Every year we have four or five seats to be awarded. Forty more children will be on waiting list if a family says no.

    "I can't cut a place out of my ribs"

    Sometimes I just don't know where my head is. The situation has become extremely aggravated because re are more children, and because Kita in Berlin is now free. The Berlin Senate has promised something that it cannot hold. My parents have already waved ir way around with Kita voucher and said: "We have right to a place!" I had to say to m: but we're full, I can't cut a place out of my ribs.

    We said years ago: re is a baby boom. And have heard from Senate that re is no need to determine that a new daycare should be set up at our own risk. A year later it was suddenly said: we need places very urgently. Who makes se statistics, for God's sake?

    "The parents ring anyway, phone rings constantly." © Sonja Hamad for Time online

    Some parents are so angry y insult me. I forgive places according to order of waiting list, unless someone is pampig. I say this: We will report to you, if necessary, and that is it. Parents who grumble are also later disturbing parenthood in daycare.

    "Sure, I'm sorry"

    But I understand what pressure y're under. We now have women who have just gotten pregnant and are already applying. Sure, I'm sorry. I ask mors and fars on waiting list to report every two or three months, because many also jump off because y are on so many lists. I'm afraid I can't call all my parents afterwards.

    No one has bribed us yet. But re were already parents who promised us donations when y applied for a place. But I basically reject that. Most are rar desperate: "Please, please, we desperately need a place, we both have to go back to work!" We hear such cries of help more often.

    For waiting list, we really just need to know how old child is, and wher it's a boy or a girl. But many parents write correct applications with a CV and a cover letter from child's perspective: "Hello, I was born in July 2017, I like to spend time with my parents, tinker and sing and I am a cheerful child." I find this very uncomfortable, which also transcends limits of privacy for child.

    Date Of Update: 09 September 2018, 12:00