Familien e.V.

Over the weekend 4-5 May, our sister organization in Germany, Familien e.V, organized a conference on childcare at the Johann-Wolfgang Goethe Universität in Frankfurt am Main with well known speakers on the subject such as:

• Sir Richard Bowlby (son of and intellectual heir to psychologist John Bowlby, the developer of the widely accepted attachment theory in child psychology),
• Prof. Emeritus Theodor Hellbrügge (a well known and well respected child psychiatrist in Germany),
• Anna Wahlgren (author of books on parenthood and experienced and wise mother of many children),
• Eva Herman (a well known journalist and TV personality in Germany and author of books on how to live and look after children),
• Prof. R. Gordon Neufeld (Canadian psychologist and author, e.g. of the book Hold on to your Kids),
• Dr. Steve Biddulph (Australian child psychologist and author of many books on parenthood, the latest one being The Secret of Happy Children),
• Prof. Johannes Pechstein (a well known and well respected paediatrician and child psychiatrist in Germany),
• Maria Steuer (one of our contacts in Familien e.V. in Germany, paediatrician and family therapist), and
• Jürgen Liminski (journalist and father of no less than ten kids).

At the end of the seminar the assembled people united around the following statement under loud acclamation:

Appeal from Frankfurt for the Wellbeing of Children

The international conference on childcare in Frankfurt Germany on 4-5 May has once again confirmed the fundamental importance of the mother-child relationship, primarily during the first three years of the child's life. The reliability and durability of this relationship determine, to a great extent, the emotional, intellectual and social development for the rest of the child's life. A child who is deprived of this contact exposes his/her entire personality development to risk.

For this reason, parents must not be subjected to political or financial pressures to hand over their under-fours to strangers for care. If external care cannot be avoided, then a trusted day-care mother is preferred.

The latest scientific findings on childcare confirm that large-scale "industrial" care is fraught with risk.

When such care is unavoidable, the children-to-staff ratio must not exceed 3:1 and each child must be given at least a month of acclimatization time with his/her mother.

We appeal to society, politicians, mothers and fathers to promote good and undisturbed bonding between parent and child during these pivotal years.

And we call on the state to grant parents enough time and money to enable them to look after their children by themselves these first three years.

Speakers and participants of
Familien e.V's conference on child- 
care, Frankfurt am Main, May 4-5, 2007.