As the war continues into its second week, working parents of young children have been facing their own battle at home, with daycares and kindergartens throughout the country remaining shut indefinitely.
Schools, too, are closed but continue to operate remotely via Zoom. Many employed parents, however, were required to return to work after Home Front Command lifted restrictions on Thursday, further complicating the situation.
The Jerusalem Post on Sunday spoke to a sampling of parents across the country about the challenges they are facing, the ways in which they are coping, how the government could better support them, and some unexpected positives.
In Rehovot, Maytar, a father of two boys, described having the children home during the day as “a big-time balancing act.”
“You’re trying, on the one hand, to establish good routines that somehow resemble normalcy, and on the other hand, you need to know how to adjust to this incredibly challenging situation,” he said.
“And that doesn’t even begin to take into account the need to balance work with that [childcare] and our own personal well-being,” he added.
“My four-and-a-half-year-old had a very hard time at the start of the war with the alerts and sirens, especially now that he’s at an age where he understands it better. We also have a one-year-old who’s very curious and energetic, which is also challenging because they’re not very independent yet.”
Parents spend time with their children despite situation
Despite the difficulties, Maytar said he has been trying to make the most of the situation by discovering new places to take the kids, which they enjoy.
“I try to appreciate the quality time that I’m spending with them,” he said. “I’m also communicating with my wife when I need my own personal time, such as for working out, video games, etc., to decompress. I also encourage her to do the same.”
When asked about his thoughts on returning children to daycare amid the war, Maytar said he would feel comfortable sending them back “as long as there’s a protected space,” since alerts before the actual siren provide more time to get children to safety.
“We have experience sending our kids to gan [daycare] during the Israel-Hamas War, and I don’t think it’s realistic to suspend gan indefinitely.”
Meanwhile, for a mother living in central Israel, where missiles have been fired constantly, it has been harder to see any positives in the current situation, in which she finds herself both at home with the children and working.
“I don’t see many positives except giving them emotional support,” she told the Post. “They should be in gan. There are shelters there and friends and teachers.”
She described the situation as “really hard,” as her job requires full availability, while she needs to be with her children around the clock.
Regarding the possibility of returning children to daycare, she said the decision should already have been made.
“I definitely think they should be back in gan. It’s been a week, and the missile launch capability has been degraded even more than during the June war,” she said.
“The government is stating that parents can go back to work, but they are not providing anything [in the way of assistance] to parents.”
THE GOVERNMENT announced a plan to assist working parents while schools remain closed for in-person learning. It would provide unpaid leave (“halat”) for one of the parents in families with at least one child under the age of 14.
However, Riki, a mother of children aged seven and 14 living in Jerusalem, criticized the plan to the Post and spoke about the financial loss the situation was causing her.
“Even if they say that [having] kids under 14 means you can stay home and not get fired, kids 14 and up are also having a really hard time and may not be okay [with] being left alone,” she said. “They are, after all, still kids.”
The pros and cons of working from home
She also described the technical challenges of remote learning.
“My son connects through his phone to Zoom, but my daughter needs my computer. So in the morning hours, while I’m trying to get her to do her Zoom, which is difficult in itself, I can’t work because she has my computer.”
“I’m not managing to get in all of the hours that I need to [for work], so it’s going to be a very big financial loss,” she explained.
“The government should understand that if parents need to stay home with their kids, then there should be full compensation for it,” she added.
“The positive aspect is that I am able to work from home. My office has given me that ability, so I am able to be here with them and help support them and cook for them and keep them calm,” she said.
“I feel safer knowing that I’m around rather than leaving them and trying to find somebody to watch them while I go into the office.”
The negative, however, is that “having to be available for them doesn’t allow me to complete all of the hours that I’m required to [work].”
Another Jerusalem resident told the Post that he and his wife have spent the past week trying to work from home while caring for their two young children, aged five and two.
“It has been, on one hand, nice to spend more time with the kids, but on the other hand, I know they miss getting out of the house for a full day and seeing their friends,” he said.
“The children have been great any time we have had to go down to our bomb shelter in the basement of our building. Through the night, we try to keep them asleep in our arms as much as possible, and during the day, they listen to us and respond calmly.”
He said the municipality had arranged virtual activities for children that had been especially helpful for his family.
“We have managed to get them outside to the park every day, and the municipality’s education department has been great, putting on Zoom meetings every day of fun activities, such as theatrical shows and krav maga for the kids. A big shout-out to them.”
He added, “Balancing work has not been the easiest, but this is war, and we just find a way to cope. Hopefully, they will be back in gan sooner rather than later. Jerusalem, on the whole, is quiet enough that I think it should be doable.”