Yesterday telecinco issued this report on clandestine nurseries. It is not the first news we see on television about this type of nursery and I fear that it will not be the last.
It happens in Fuente Álamo, in Murcia, a town of 17,000 inhabitants where 30% of the population are day laborers who work 12 hours a day and cannot take care of their children.
This situation has meant that many residents of the town have devised a clandestine nursery business. For around 7-9 euros a day, they take care of the children the hours they need, either day or night.
They play in the living room and, as we see in the video, they sleep even in the kitchen. The city council has no complaints, I imagine that because many neighbors will be aware of the situation and will be part of the illegal business.
In the municipality there are authorized nurseries and in the public nursery there are places available. None of the immigrants have requested them because by law a child cannot stay more than 8 hours in a nursery and, as they comment, with their work schedules, they should stop working.
I put myself in the place of children and I find it tremendous both personally and educationally to be 12 hours without your family in an apartment full of children, with limited space and with non-qualified staff for their care.
I put myself in the place of mothers and understand the situation in which they find themselves. You have to get the bread and the schedule leaves them no alternative.
Too bad that in Spain (and many other countries) going to work with your children is so frowned upon. Well, I rectify, it's not that I'm frowned upon, it's that it's unthinkable. However, in many countries, taking your children to work, or to university, is the most common and often the best way to reconcile family and work life.
Perhaps in this case the solution must go through either a schedule change, reducing the hours to 8 daily, or to allow these mothers to go to work with their children. The collection level will probably drop, but children will benefit from it and it will prevent neighbors from taking advantage, illegally and improperly, of the need for childcare.
