The time challenge faced by families who have to balance work and childcare is a real sudoku which must be resolved at the beginning of September, generally includes the initiation test called adaptation. It is about offering the little ones a gradual entry and in the company of their parents, which the former appreciate but which obliges the latter to take vacations, leave or grandparents to cover them.
For Elena and Javier, residents of Madrid, the challenge is twofold. Their youngest son, aged one, is starting nursery school, while the eldest, aged three, is making the big leap to school. Both require an adaptation in these first days and to make this possible, one of the parents, Javier, ended up taking a vacation. “It took me two weeks to manage these days because if it wasn’t impossible, it’s crazy,” he says.
Since Elena works in a foundation for disabled people and has to respect the school calendar, Javier, a journalist, took on this task. It began on September 4 with five days of gradual adaptation for the youngest. “First I left him for an hour, then two, then he stayed to eat and then he took a nap there,” he says.
On the 9th, the date of the return to school for the majority of Spanish students, it was the turn of the older ones. A full week of gradual entry, to which are added two additional weeks of schedules only in the morning. “The full program, until 4:00 p.m., only begins in October,” Javier confirms.
School adaptation, which has spread to most nursery and middle schools in recent decades, has a reason for being. “The process of entering the educational world requires a welcome, because we are talking about a new teacher, a new space, a new organization… And many hours,” emphasizes Eva Sargatal, early childhood educator and teacher trainer at Rosa Sensat. association. “As we get older, we have strategies and tools to manage it, but the little ones need those of their reference adults,” he argues.
Sargatal recommends that centers try to agree on this period with families, preferably individually depending on the progress of each boy or girl. However, the extension usually extends from the first days to two weeks or more, if it is complicated. “The family must disappear gradually so that the child can create a bond with the educator, but if the first day you leave him from 9:00 to 17:00, he risks crying all the time and it is a very long suffering,” he says.
One of the problems with adaptation is that there is a lot written about it, but little is regulated. It does not appear in the school calendar, nor in any law or decree, so each center ends up deciding alone and parents have little room to ask their respective companies for schedules to carry it out.
Unpaid leave that doesn’t start
Since 2023, there has been parental leave in Spain designed for such situations, but few people apply for it, partly because it is unpaid. Fathers and mothers can take up to eight weeks until their child is eight years old, an absence intended to cover school holidays, adaptations, intensive days and other time differences from school.
“As is often the case with new conciliation policies, there is little communication and therefore little is known,” laments Elisa Stinus, a researcher at the Institut Infància i Adolescència in Barcelona. “It is true that it is not paid, and that can put many people off, and it does not solve your life, but we must insist that it is already a labor right,” she argues.
Since I had no more days off, I took the option of unpaid leave. I won’t lose much money since I already work reduced hours.
Nuria Sanahuja
— 35 year old nurse with a 1 year old son
The approach to this permit is indeed insufficient. The European Commission, which sets minimums for member countries, has warned Spain, under penalty of a fine, that at least half of this leave must be paid. Its correction is currently on the table of the Ministry of Finance, in negotiation with the Ministry of Social Rights.
Núria Sanahuja, a 35-year-old nurse with a one-year-old son, Pau, is one of those who requested it. For the first week of adaptation, she used her vacation time and for the second, her unpaid leave. “Since I didn’t have any days off left and I wanted to do an adaptation with a minimum of minimums, I chose this option,” she says. And he jokes: “I’m not going to lose a lot of money because I’m already working reduced hours.”
“For me, it is advisable to make an adaptation with a little calm, because we are not talking about leaving a cat, but rather a little person separated from the one who provides him with security,” reflects Núria. “The more progressive it is, the less violent it is for him and the less family drama there is later,” he adds.
Should adaptation be mandatory?
One of the most discussed aspects of adaptation and the one that generates the most headaches for families is its obligation. Since it is not regulated, some centers offer it as an option, others strongly recommend it, and there are also those that make it mandatory for everyone.
Should it be? “I understand that it is controversial, but I think so, the problem is that we have little culture of childhood,” says educator Sargatal. “Only if we make it mandatory will we end up forcing companies and administrations to make it easier for families,” he argues.
Stinus, for his part, disagrees: “It should be flexible, to take into account different realities.” “I understand that it is pedagogically supported, but the families who can easily afford it are very few, and we must take into account those who cannot,” confirms this political scientist.
It’s not clear to me that schools should make their extension mandatory, and if so, companies should at least make it generally easier. I’m also not sure that it’s beneficial for the child to extend it so much, because there will always be a time when he or she will start crying.
Laura
— teacher, 35 years old, son of two children
“I share the need to make a minimal adaptation, but it is not clear to me that schools should make its extension mandatory and, if so, companies should at least facilitate it as a general rule,” says Lara, 35, a teacher by profession. At her two-year-old son’s nursery school in Barcelona, it lasts about seven days.
Since she can’t take a vacation, since she’s a teacher, they end up turning to the grandparents, who take care of the little one during all the hours he’s not yet at school. Your partner also takes advantage of a few days of teleworking to take a few hours off and return to his professional activity later. “I’m not sure it’s beneficial for the child to prolong it so much, because there will always be a time when he’ll start crying,” he points out.
Elisa Stinus explains that to achieve an optimal work-life balance, everyone’s collaboration is necessary at the same time: the couple, first of all, so that it does not rely on just one person. But also companies, the State and municipal institutions. “There are companies that offer measures adapted to families, such as greater flexibility in working hours or 100% teleworking during periods like this,” he emphasizes. The latter point, he adds, may not seem like much, but the conciliation fails because of the half hour lost to get home after work.
After the start of the course, already in October, the adaptations will be completed and the majority of students, with some exceptions where it may take longer, will find their place in the classrooms. Once this test has been passed, at home it will be time to finish balancing the schedules for the entire course. Another problem that often involves reductions in working hours – which are mostly taken by women –, extracurricular activities, foster care, grandparents and babysitters.
“We don’t even know how we’re going to do it yet,” Javier admits. His youngest child finishes kindergarten at 3:30 p.m. “No one or very few finish work before 4 p.m., so yes or yes we have to look for solutions. “Work life and that of children are incompatible,” he says.
