Families are diverse. These are children living with their parents, children living with their mother and her new partner, with siblings and step-siblings. Families are single parents and rainbow families, i.e. families with same-sex parents, families with many children and families with children with disabilities. The Munich family report describes 146 pages the situation of the 147,000 households with children and young people under the age of 18 and asks: What is going well and what is bad? And what is missing to make Munich even more family-friendly?
The report focuses on family forms that deviate from the typical family – father, mother and one or two children. He also sheds light on the situation of families with children with disabilities during the pandemic. The report contains long lists with many suggestions for improvement. For example, school social work should become the standard in every school, there should be more places where young people can meet and sometimes be noisy, short-term care offers should be expanded.
The report is a relatively broad and good analysis of the problem, says Susanne Otter from the Siaf association, which advocates for the interests of single women. She and her colleague Roswitha Zirngibl contributed to the family report, gave an interview and wrote a guest article. The ideas in the report make sense, says Otter. “The only question is what happens to it now.”
Single parents are particularly at risk of poverty
18 percent of families with children are single-parent households. And these families are disadvantaged in many situations compared to traditional families, says Otter. For example, there are usually no discounted family tickets for a father or mother with children in leisure facilities, theaters or museums, only for two adults with children. The situation of single parents is not taken into account when allocating daycare places, nor when allocating socially subsidized living space.
This is problematic because single-parent families are particularly at risk of poverty. This was shown by the Munich Poverty Report 2017: 42 percent of single parents are threatened or affected by poverty. In the case of two-parent families, it is only 14 percent.
“When allocating daycare places, it must be taken into account whether someone is a single parent,” says Roswitha Zirngibl. She doesn’t like to speak of preferential treatment, but of compensation for disadvantages. They have been in talks with the city on the subject for a long time. At the moment she feels a great openness, she says. “In the end, however, the question is how the authorities will implement it.”
“It makes a financial difference whether there are one or two workers in a family.”
When it comes to housing, Susanne Otter calls for priority points for single parents when municipally subsidized housing is allocated. “It makes a financial difference whether there are one or two workers in a family.”
The family report becomes very basic in some places. For example, it says: “As single-parent families, single parents should find a stronger place in the general public’s awareness.” That sounds good, but how do you do something like that? Susanne Otter proposes workshops and training courses for the employees of municipal institutions, in which they are confronted with their values and ideas. “We see again and again that single parents come up against points where there is little understanding for this type of family.”
The importance of understanding that different types of families have different needs becomes clear in the family report. That, for example, patchwork families and families with many children need larger apartments than others. That it can be very important for single parents that day care centers look after children even at off-peak times. And that rainbow families, in turn, often deal with the same issues as other families, that they are recognized and do not want to constantly justify themselves.
It is often not just concrete things that should change in everyday life. With all types of families, it is also about improving the image that others have of them. And take them for granted. Sometimes a wording or an image is enough to show the diversity, says Marion Lüttig, an employee of the Munich specialist and advice center for rainbow families. For example, by stating in daycare flyers that one is open to alternative family models or by showing the variety of families on the city’s website. Anyone who opens the Family and Children section there sees a picture of a happy family at the moment: father, mother, child.