Mother’s Day, Claudia: “Alone, with three children but the pandemic did not break us”

Working hours reduced from four to two hours, three children aged 5, 8 and 13, at home in distance learning, a babysitter to be paid. Inside and out: the pandemic. Thus began the story of Claudia, who today 9 May, Mother’s Day, we decided to celebrate in honor of all the mothers who doubled and transformed into many different women during the pandemic. The Equilibrists, that every year Save The Children, an organization that has been fighting for over 100 years to save children at risk and guarantee them a future, says in its report dedicated to motherhood.

“I work in a bar and with all these openings and closings this year I had to struggle” says Claudia, who lives in a small village in the South. “When the schools were closed and I continued to work, I called a babysitter to help me with the children. Then I had my sister come from Taranto just to give me support because I couldn’t always pay for a babysitter. I have not been able to work continuously. My work has been reduced in terms of hours. My sector, that of catering, is really in crisis ».

In Italy le mothers with minor children in Italy are just over 6 million. The pandemic has affected many of them, forced to respond to an unprecedented domestic and care workload, which has penalized them from a professional and work point of view. Out of 249,000 women who lost their jobs in 2020, 96,000 are mothers with minor children.

Claudia managed not to lose her job but was able to take advantage of the redundancy fund two months late. A time that was forced to fill by asking for help from family members, close people but also the Municipality and the Spazio Mamme of Save The Children from which received support through shopping vouchers. Furthermore, through networks in the area, it was able to receive food parcels. “The people who had donated anything, those who didn’t have anyway made themselves available to others. It has been a year of truly personal growth for every family ».

Thanks also to the solidarity of many, Claudia was able to respond to the needs of her children. Without ever losing the smile, the same one that does not lose while speaking. “We were promised that we would get out soon but we didn’t. What tried me the most was the constant change linked to the emergency. Adapting and making children adapt is not easy. It is difficult to explain to a 5-year-old girl why she cannot go to school or tell the children why they cannot celebrate their birthday with friends or Christmas with relatives, it is difficult ».

Claudia’s first goal was to transform the daily habits imposed by the pandemic into a new normal. To give a normality to the new daily habits imposed by the pandemic. “It was all very complicated in the beginning. I had to put the landline at home because the children were all in DAD. My mother gave me a pc for my eldest son while my 8 year old son connected to my cell phone but it was impossible for me to leave it to him all day, even when I was at work. Fortunately, he was readmitted to face-to-face lessons and this improved the situation. Instead my 5-year-old girl was unable to go to pre-school due to this situation ».

From a health emergency, Covid soon turned into a social, economic and educational crisis. “Mothers in Italy have paid and continue to pay a very high toll on these emergencies,” he comments Antonella Winter, Head of Childhood Policies at Save the Children. “Children at home, the sudden collapse of family welfare, due to the need to protect grandparents from contagion, the excessive care and household burden and its lack of sharing with the partner, not very effective support measures, are all factors that have led to the disruption of their working life. It is now important to direct efforts towards the concrete realization of objectives that aim, as well as to to encourage the participation of women in the labor market, to free them on the unpaid work front».

The pandemic has highlighted a condition that for women and mothers was already exasperated before. A situation that Claudia hopes will be addressed with precise measures. “The possibility of extending school opening hours would be very important, especially for single mothers like me who live in a city other than their home city and who cannot count on close family members. Furthermore, it would be important that there were more centers dedicated to children, such as the Mothers Space and the Light Point. They would be very useful for mothers like me who work, who do not have a driving license and therefore cannot move easily. Places where there are competent people who can take care of the children and their growth in the best way ».