It is not easier for parents in France

Dear Lizzie,

I was surprised to read debattinnlegget where you idealiserer the French familiepolitikken. You write that France has introduced several measures to increase the country's fødselsrate and have succeeded with it. This is not true and there are several counterfeit heroics of the French scheme in your post.

Julie Diep Show more

I have lived in France for almost 14 years, and have toddlers. My husband and I work full time. We have difficulties to understand that you think that the French system helps to increase the fødselsraten, and that we can spend more quality time together with your children. Most frenchmen know to the Norwegian fødselspermisjonsordningen prefer it over the French.

How do we do it in France Debate

Fødselspermisjonsordningen in France is at 16 weeks for the first and second child. From the third child you can get 26 weeks (approx. 6 months and not 10 months as you type). In addition to it, you can apply for a parental leave of 1 year (to be shared equally between both parents) from the first child (and not from the 3. the child). Under foreldrepermisjonen you do not get a salary but a grant/support from the state government on 396,01 euros per month. This grant you can only get to the child is 1 year old.

For most of us, it is actually difficult to go from two salaries to one. That is why many couples who can't afford to take out parental leave. Why must children all the way down in the 2.5 months old baby spends up to 50 hours a week in the nursery or with dagmammaen. There is a lot for an infant. Here you can read more about the French fødselspermisjonsordningen.

You type it are few French women who are at home until the child reaches 3 years of age and begins in preschool. This is not entirely correct, since many women choose to work part time to get cabal to go up. They might not afford to take the full parental leave. According to figures from the French central bureau of statistics (INSEE) working approx. 30 per cent of women with children between 7 and 15 years part-time. The number is even higher for those who have younger children.

In France, it is difficult (almost impossible) to get online unless you know a local politician with influences or have contacts high up in the system that can push your application forward in the queue. Qualified dagmammaer (nounou), it is also very difficult to find, and it is extremely expensive even with the support and tax credits from the state. Not everyone can afford it.

For some, it is actually more profitable to stop work or work part-time than to pay dagmammaer. One must not believe that one can avoid that the kids resort to TV and computer games with dagmammaer, for some dagmammaer will not do other activities with the children. Many dagmammaer speak little understandable French (or English) which makes communication with the children and their parents difficult. If you are lucky enough to have found a dagmamma can she quit on the day even if, in the contract stipulates that it is the notice period.

You write also about quality time with your children in the evenings, but unfortunately it is so that when the parents come home at. 19 – 20 (if you are lucky and there are no problems with the metro/train) it's bedtime for the kids, especially the youngest. Most often you'll get as far as the time to give them a godnattklem. One is extra lucky one night, you have maybe time to read a bedtime story. Many of us prefer the Norwegian system, where you often can get home at. 17 and eat dinner with the kids.

That the children sleep in the nursery/preschool (until they are 6 years of age) does not make them less tired in the evening. It is probably just the smallest of which sleeps. Those on the preschool has a "sleep time". By my own experience (I have a niece at preschool) have many of them ceased to sleep in the morning. If I'm not mistaken sleeping also the smallest kids a couple of hours in the kindergarten in Norway.

Women stand in a proper skvis in the most fertile years Comment

In the French debate regarding skolepolitikken is heldagsskolen and the long vacations often a controversial topic. Many believe that the school day is too intensive for the children, who often comes home exhausted. Indeed, it has come a suggestion that the children ending a little earlier in the day, but that the school offers leisure activities in the afternoon instead (sports for example).

There are few frenchmen who have 10-weeks of vacation, the way you write. This only applies in some industries/companies, where they have a bit more vacation than the average. According to a survey done by the French ministry of labour has a frenchman in average 33 days holiday a year (6,5 weeks), but there are large differences between the industries. The norm is a 5-week vacation in Norway.

Even if you are among the lucky ones who have more vacation, it is not easy to take out all your holiday in the course of the year, or when the children have holiday, because your colleagues also have children, and we must share it. You can't close your business just because it is on break. Because of this, many of the children sent on the feriekolonier and with his grandparents in a part of the school holidays.

When it comes to the homework , it is not correct to say that it is forbidden in France. The law is more nuanced. Nay, may not the teachers in elementary school (primaire) give written homework to students, but they can give "oral" homework as, for example, a leselekse or "læringsoppgaver". In practice, the most kids a bit of homework in elementary school. My niece at the age of five have at least a leselekse every day. From middle school and up, they get tons of homework, even in the school holidays.

When it comes to fødselsraten in France it has historically always been high. Although France has the highest rate in the EU according to the survey from 2016 so has it actually gone down in the last few years. Figures from the French central bureau of statistics (INSEE) and the institute of national demographic studies (INED) shows that the number of births in France has gone down since 2010. One observes, with a fairly sharp decline between 2014 of 2016. It may have something with the Hollande government in the same period, among other things, reduced the powerful tax advantages obtained by getting the "many" children (at least three children).

Therefore, one can say that good while the remaining and the economic benefits is important to get up fødselsraten, for it can help the parents with tidsklemma. I think not, France is a country one should look up to in this case. In the national familiedebatten in France looking up to the scandinavian countries when it comes to fødselspermisjonsordningene. What is interesting is that Sweden, which has similar arrangements as the Uk has the second best fødselsraten in the EU after France.

My husband and I are among the lucky ones who have, respectively, eight and ten weeks of vacation. I am also among the lucky ones who works in a company where we have almost as long maternity leave as in the Uk, with full salary paid by the employer (in eight months). I'm very grateful for, as this meant that I could spend time with my child.

Many of our friends wish that they got just as long maternity leave as me. However reluctant we are to have more children because we think that the French labour market and society is not well enough adapted for families with small children. Like many families my husband and I store the shortest amount of time in everyday life. The working day is infinitely long, and does not fit with the opening hours of the nursery (if one is lucky enough to get a place).

It is hard to find an dagmamma, especially in a big city like Paris, where demand is greater than supply. There are also limitations on how much dagmammaene can work in the course of a week. Also, is the meaning of having children is to be able to spend as much time as possible with them, and do not let them grow up with dagmammaer. This is no more holiday, barnevaktordninger or heldagsskole will solve.

Maybe we prefer the parents to have a little less vacation, but to be able to come home a little earlier in the evening to be together with the children.

Why we get so few kids? Ask the young people themselves Debate