Thank you, Frau Merkel

I am due to give birth to my second child at any moment now, so it seems like an appropriate time to 1. Blog while I still have the time and 2. Thank Frau Merkel for giving me some (paid) time off work in order to look after my newborn.

Since coming to power, Merkel has been focused on Germany’s low birth rate, which stands at 1.3 children per woman (the replacement rate should ideally be 2.1). Figures show that a third of German women are not having children and among graduates the figure is as high as 40% (Merkel herself included!) Perhaps this is due to the fact that University in Germany takes so long to complete – the average German student is in their late twenties by the time they finish, so finding a job and establishing a career take priority. Also, German society still very much expects women to stay at home to look after their family. Housewives get medical insurance through their working husbands and husbands, in turn, enjoy tax advantages for having wives without jobs. Childcare is inadequate and expensive. There is even a term in German for those bad, uncaring mums who selfishly return to work – “Rabenmutter” (raven mother).

In Germany, the allowances for maternity and parental leave are fantastic. The monetary benefits are good, but not really much different to other countries if you consider that we pay around 48% tax and expect some return on our money. The best thing is the time and the protection you are given. Where else can you take up to 3 years off to look after your child (as a mother OR a father) and still be guaranteed a job to come back to?

Every woman is basically entitled to 6 weeks before the birth and 8 weeks after the birth on full pay (the so-called “Mutterschutz” maternity leave). After that, mothers and fathers can take 14 months PAID “Elternzeit” (parental leave) and choose how to split the months between them. During this time, you receive 65% of your basic net salary, but no more than 1800 Euros in total (the so-called "Elterngeld"). Even if you haven’t been working, you are still entitled to at least 300 Euros pay during the first 14 months. In total, mothers and fathers can take up to 3 years UNPAID parental leave and can even split the parental leave period into two – deferring one year of time up until the child’s sixth birthday. The flexibility is amazing, particularly for fathers.  

And I’m still not finished…

If you have two children under the age of three, you are paid a “Geschwisterbonus” (sibling bonus) of 150 Euros net a month. Every child is also paid 180 Euros “Kindergeld” (child benefit) until the age of 18, regardless of income.

Are there any catches? Not really. Just be sure to get all the relevant paperwork filled out on time – there are separate forms for everything and they take time and patience to fill out. Also, beware that the Elterngeld (14 months pay) counts as household income and the tax man will catch up with you at the end of the year!

Despite all this time and money being thrown at young families, Merkel's measures paradoxically haven't had much effect on the birth rate and have simply cost the government millions. There is now talk of scrapping the parental leave. But, luckily this won’t affect me and so, vielen Dank, Frau Merkel, for what is my second round of German maternity/parental leave!

Hausschuhe!

Walk into the front door of any German house and you will be confronted with shoes. Shoes, shoes, and more shoes. Shelves with shoes of all kinds; Birkenstocks, Jack Wolfskin hiking boots, trainers, and of course, the essential Hausschuhe – or house shoes. More often than not, there is no space inside a German flat for all the shoes required, so they tend to overspill into the communal corridor outside the flat. Yes, you will often see shelves all the way up to the ceiling in corridors stacked with shoes.

In Germany, it is of utmost importance to have the right kind of shoes for the right kind of weather. Be prepared, be sensible, be practical. A requirement at my daughter’s nursery, for example, is that she has her “Gummistiefel” (welly boots), her winter boots, and her Hausschuhe with her on a daily basis and I see the advantages – for one, the weather here is extremely unpredictable, so it is always best to have the different options at hand.

Hausschuhe are indeed perhaps the most practical of shoes I have ever come across. The concept makes complete sense; you get home, take off your outdoor shoes and put on your indoor ones. I like the concept of going round to other people’s houses and respecting their home by taking your shoes off (although it does require a certain amount of forward planning with regard to wearing clean, matching, non-holey socks). Hausschuhe keep your feet warm in the winter and the floors clean. Many Germans opt for the Birkenstock variety, but you can basically choose what you want as long as you have a designated pair of house shoes that you, under no circumstances, wear outside.

My daughter’s first pair of Hausschuhe were bright pink and had little glittery butterflies on them – they were so cute that all the other children in the nursery wanted to touch them and take them off, making her very possessive of and, dare I say, obsessed with her house shoes.  

I will never forget the time I came home from my pilates class and walked into her bedroom with my trainers on. She was sitting on her changing table reading a bedtime story with her Daddy. She immediately stopped what she was doing, looked down at my feet, pointed, and said “Hausschuhe!” I didn’t know until then that the word existed in her vocabulary. The mere fact that the word Hausschuhe was the second word I had ever heard her utter in German, second only to “nein”, highlights the importance of house shoes in German society.

Walk into our house these days and don’t expect to be greeted with a hello, cuddle or a kiss. If you dare walk past the shelf of shoes in the house (yes, we have one, too) with your outdoor shoes on, be prepared for a little voice to pipe up: “Hausschuhe!”