Finding a daycare place for your offspring in Munich is a stroke of luck. Kind of like discovering a four-leaf clover on a green strip near Stachus. Not far from there, on Lenbachplatz, the representatives of a daycare center and a desperate couple of parents met in front of the Munich I Regional Court: The daycare center had fired their two-year-old son because the parents had failed to agree to an increase in contributions within four weeks. The price for the day care center: 1231 euros.
Both parents, they say in court, are very busy professionally. They had already thought about looking after their son long before he was born: “We chose our condominium because there was a day care center around the corner,” explains the father. Even before the son was born, the childcare contract was signed at the daycare center in Neuhausen. This is right in the neighborhood, little Timmi (name changed) feel very comfortable there. A contract has also already been concluded for the subsequent kindergarten in the same facility.
In March of this year, the facility informed all parents that the price for the day-care center would be increased from 1,195 to 1,231 euros and for the kindergarten from 895 to 922 euros. The email also said that approval was expected within a month. At the same time, a daycare group had to close due to the pandemic. The parents asked the daycare center to refund the contributions during the closure. They therefore wanted to meet for a conversation, but this did not take place due to a corona case in the plaintiff’s family.
The month passed and what followed was the family being fired. “We didn’t want to quit,” the father wrote back, saying they agreed to the increase. “You can’t throw a child out just because an email hasn’t been answered,” he says in the conciliation hearing. The head of the Neuhauser daycare center explains that it was clear to her that the family was dissatisfied. “I thought they didn’t want any more space.” Finally, the day-care center gave notice to the family within three months of August 31, in accordance with their terms and conditions, and allocated Timmi’s place.
The court agrees “on a regulation that is in the best interests of the child”
The parents kept asking for a place for their little son, so they were offered a day-care center at Nymphenburg Palace. Timmi could then also go to kindergarten there. So it happened that the parents called the court to issue an injunction that Timmi could stay in Neuhausen.
“I have no problem with making a judgment today,” said presiding judge Georg Werner. But especially when it comes to children, “a sensible solution is to be preferred”. He suggests that a termination within three months could “possibly be ineffective” if an “unreasonable disadvantage” arises for the parents.
To interpret a non-approval of the contribution increase as a termination and to simply pass on the place, “I have a problem with this behavior”. Taking the child out of the familiar environment and getting used to it elsewhere is not easy. “I helped my children get used to it myself,” says Werner. The day care center should consider whether it would not be possible to continue to accommodate Timmi in Neuhausen.
In the end, the parties agree “on a regulation that is in the best interests of the child,” about which they have agreed not to disclose anything.