Who will take care of you today?

The state hinders parents' initiative in arranging day care for their children on their own, despite the fact that there are very few kindergartens available. A popular wisecrack has it that rest homes for retirees are children's vengeance for crèches in their babyhood. A horror of wretched socialist institutions persists, but we are just now beginning to solve the problem of how to replace them, as the number of newborns is increasing.

The most developed European countries teem with mothers' helpers, day-care providers and more-or-less quality institutions where you can often register even 2-year-olds. The possibilities in the Czech Republic are limited for the time being. Nannies and private crèches are expensive, and there is a shortage of public institutions. Parents' attempts to establish co-operative associations run into legal barriers. Labour and Social Affairs Minister Petr Nečas is promising to untie parents' hands, but so far it seems it will not be enough.

It is not worthwhile

Long maternity leave, a tight labour market and the shabby chain of pre-school institutions deter Czech mothers from returning to work, former Czech National Bank board member Michaela Erbenová recently complained to Respekt last time. She experienced a similar situation recently with her own children. „We have no grandmothers, and we excluded crèches. Children in their babyhood do like their own routines and environment,“ former banker…