A parent is apparently driving the staff at a daycare center in Bavaria to the brink of despair. There is even talk of “psychological terror.” But there currently seems to be no way out in sight.
A daycare center in Au in the Upper Bavarian district of Freising is in a precarious situation, as the “Merkur” newspaper reports. The facility had to close temporarily at the end of April due to a massive shortage of staff. Now the entire staff is on sick leave again.
But according to the report, there seems to be something else behind the staff shortage. A parent is the cause of the unrest, as a member of the parents’ council and father of a child in the daycare revealed to the “Merkur”: “One parent has been behaving like a bull in a china shop since the beginning of the daycare year and has been harassing the staff.” The situation has escalated to such an extent that the person in question has now been banned from the premises.
According to him, the daycare staff describe the working situation as “psychological terror” and insist that they cannot work under these conditions. He is calling on the municipality to support the daycare staff and to impose consequences for the disruptive parent.
Official statements from the municipality are rather vague. According to “Merkur”, they are “in the process of investigating the causes” and are holding talks with all those involved.
Things are not looking rosy in Germany’s daycare centers anyway. According to a recent study by the Paritätischer Gesamtverband, there is an average shortage of more than two educators per daycare center, a total of 125,000 skilled workers.
According to “Bild”, this also has an impact on Germany’s economic strength. A study by Stepstone shows that the economy is losing around 22.7 billion euros in potential because employees are unable to work as much due to a lack of childcare places.