Family creates future - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1992 - 100 Pfennig

A society without families is a society without a future. The birth of children in families secures the generation success. As a life and education community, family is the first and most important place of individual security and meaning. Here, children can grow into life-conscious and responsible citizens. Here, people learn behavior that shapes our society: love and trust, tolerance and consideration, sacrifice and co-responsibility. The citizens of our society want to live in families. Being married is the most common form of life for 25- to 55-year-olds. According to a study published by the German Youth Institute on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Family and Senior Citizens in 1991, about 60% of 25- to 34-year-olds and almost 80% of 35- to 55-year-olds were married and lived together with their spouses. Of the 30- to 34-year-olds, only 7% do not want a child, but 31% do not yet have a child. 56% want two children, but only 26% have two children. Even with older respondents, the realization usually remains behind the desire. The discrepancy is very high especially for women with a high school diploma. The data shows that a decision to start a family today is made much more consciously than in earlier times. For many people in our society, a decision for marriage and for children is increasingly competing with other ways of life planning and lifestyle. However, with the decision of couples for children, as well as the decision for our future, it is necessary to contribute, through an appropriate social climate and favorable conditions for families, to the fact that couples can relieve their desire to have children. In a survey conducted by Infratest in the autumn of 1991, 80% of young parents with children under the age of 15 said that a partner should stay at home as long as a child is under the age of three. When the youngest child goes to kindergarten or school, a majority of 66% still want part-time work. Another 30% consider home ownership as the best solution. For many parents, the compatibility of family responsibilities with a life perspective in the learned profession thus becomes a particularly difficult task in shaping their lives. In accomplishing this task, they have been effectively relieved by the introduction of parental and parental leave and by the recognition of periods of education in pension law. For children born on 1.1.1992, there are three years of parental leave and three years per child as years of education in the statutory pension insurance. Educational allowance in the amount of 600 DM is paid for 18 months, for children born from 1.1.1993 for two years. 7.8 million families with 13.250 million children in the old federal states and around 2.4 million families with 3.8 million children in the new federal states receive child benefit and child allowances as part of the dual family-load balancing scheme. Families need family-friendly apartments and a child- and family-friendly living environment. It remains the task of all levels of government, especially the municipalities, to gradually eliminate the remaining deficits. Families need day care services for children of all ages. Especially in the old federal states, the expansion of offers for the day care of children is particularly urgent. Parents need help with the education of children. This is especially true in the area of ​​sex education and the preparation for marriage and family. Necessary is a needs-based offer of marriage, family and life coaching. The Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany places marriage and family under the special protection of the state order. This obliges the state and social groups to protect and promote marriage and family. Marriage and family should not be disadvantaged compared to other forms of life. Thus family policy contributes to people choosing children and thus creating a future. (Text: Federal Ministry for Family and Senior Citizens, Bonn)