Danish nurseries offer free childcare so parents can make more babies
A group of Danish nurseries has come up with a novel way to help the country's low birth rate – offering parents an evening of free child care so they can go home and make more babies.
Seven nurseries in Denmark are offering an evening of free chilcare to parents in the hope they will use the extra time to make more babies. Photo: Alamy
By Helena Kaznowska
4:12PM BST 14 Sep 2012
Seven Danish kindergartens are taking part in the scheme, offering two free hours in the hope it will encourage parents to procreate.
Employees at Grasshoppers kindergarten in north Fyn, about six miles from Odense, hoped the scheme would draw attention to the country’s dwindling number of births and encourage parents to do something about it.
The first free evening was on Thursday night, and was designed as a party for the children, complete with music and a tea party.
“We have 42 children in the kindergarten, and we’ll be looking after 20,” Dorte Nyman of the Grasshoppers kindergarten in North Fyn, said on Thursday.
“If the children ask what the party is for, we’ll tell them it’s to give the parents a chance to speak at home,” she added.
Ms Nyman said if their evening was successful, Grasshoppers kindergarten would be happy to host more events in the future.
Many parents have apparently said they will take advantage of the evening, but not for the reason intended.
“Lots say, 'We’ll bring our children to the party but you won’t be getting any more children out of us’,” Ms Nyman said.
Demographers fear the declining population could undermine the welfare system.
Denmark’s birth rate is 185th in the world and in 2011, 4,400 fewer Danish children were born than in 2010. For the first three months of 2012, the number declined even further with this year due to be the lowest birth rate in the country since 1988.
Hans Oluf Hansen, former professor of Economics at the University of Copenhagen, said: “Our fertility rate is well under the replacement rate. In the long run, there will be fewer young people to provide for the elderly.”
According to experts, the continued decline in birth rates in Denmark is because fewer families are having a third and fourth child, which would help compensate for those with one or no children.
For the population to remain at a constant level, experts say that the fertility rate must be slightly above two children per woman, but last year, the fertility rate was 1.76 per woman.
Ms Nyman said the lack of children meant the future funding of local nurseries was uncertain.
“Without money we can’t look after the children well, and if there aren’t enough children, there are not enough jobs for our workers.”
