Women talk
Most mothers remember that they started paying for their child before they even gave birth to it. They paid for the gynecologist, some specialized tests, nutritional supplements, the private maternity hospital, the midwife. If they had to do IVF, the financial burden was even greater.
Then, after birth, they pay the pediatrician, the babysitter, the private nursery – because there was no place in the public nursery in their neighborhood. Next come extracurricular activities, foreign languages, tutoring, private lessons or private school. And if they’re lucky, they won’t have to find a mental health professional, because then things will get really difficult. The exorbitant expenses do not end after the university entry exams because the young adult may move to another city, at which point the torture of looking for housing begins.
With the creation of the Ministry of Social Cohesion and the Family by the government, mothers were placed at the center of the prime minister’s agenda: What else does she need besides an increase in the child benefit, aid to families with three or more children, neighborhood nannies and digital tutoring to help solve Greece’s demographic decline?
The exorbitant expenses do not end after the university entry exams because the young adult may move to another city, at which point the torture of looking for housing begins
The ruling conservatives, especially after the shock of the European Parliament elections where they received just 28% of the vote, have placed special emphasis on supporting families, for obvious essential but also symbolic reasons, that is, for their voters to forget the marriage equality bill which was subsequently assessed to be electorally damaging for New Democracy.
However, the thought that worries a woman when she thinks about having a child is that private education costs in our country amount to 3 billion euros per year. And of course, these figures leave out the money paid under the table (lessons at home, undeclared rent of the student etc). Out of the total costs attributable to each citizen for their health, 35% are paid to private entities, while for the average European citizen it is 15%.
If the mother-to-be does not have secure housing and is one of the many exhausted renters, she will be even more worried. Even more so if her parents do not live nearby to support her, if the father works long hours or does not have a decent income, if her own job is particularly demanding, if she cares for a relative with a health problem. Benefits and patchwork interventions maintain the clientelistic structure of the state, while reforms to make public health and education truly free require a long-term plan, strong political will, national consensus and clashes with various interests – which means a political cost.
Most mothers are tired and in a hurry. They recognize each other and understand each other without many words, because, beyond the uniqueness of their circumstances, they have something in common: a difficult everyday life that has not changed after the prime minister’s announcements at the Thessaloniki International Fair and will not change in the foreseeable future.
