Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Have Italian Women Given Up on Having "Bambini"??

The ANNOTICO Report

Is Italy becoming a child-free zone?

If so, blame the need for two paycheck families to merely maintain the former "life style", the absence of affordable day care, and Grandmothers are not readily available as in the past. Now they are spending time on travel and cruises!!! :)

Why Italian Mammas Have Given Up on Having Bambini

Cristina Odone asks why Italy is a child-free zone

Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom
August 2, 2007

I'm on holiday in my native Italy and everything seems much the same: the sun, the mopeds, the youths in shades. But something is missing from this Dolce Vita: i bambini. A pushchair is as rare a sight as a Fiat Cinquecento (the symbol of a thriftier age); the sound of children's laughter in the piazza as incongruous as a cuckoo clock.

Italy a child-free zone? It sounds like a contradiction in terms. From the Renaissance to the novels of E M Forster, Italians have been portrayed as worshippers of the family, and above all of children. Baby Jesus in a Leonardo, or urchins in an Antonioni film, children were at the forefront of Italian life.

No more. Italian women have given up having great broods of 10 or 12 children and now average just 1.33 - the lowest in Western Europe. And many of those who do procreate are leaving it till their forties.

When I had a baby at 42, I thought my Italian relatives would think me odd. Instead, I was the rule rather than the exception at almost every playground I went to: more children are born to mums over 40 in Italy than anywhere else.

All of this runs against Vatican teaching, and in the homeland of the Roman Catholic Church Italian demographics strike a particularly discordant note. The Pope's repeated ban on birth control and his praise of the family as the perfect social unit seem to fall on deaf ears.

Our local pharmacist is a stunning thirtysomething who has been married for 10 years and has no children. She shrugs her shoulders when I ask about the Church: "This is not a problem the Church can solve, it is a problem only the government can fix.

I'm scared to lose my job if I take time off work, but I also know that leaving a baby in a private nursery is not an option - a place there costs \u20AC1,000 a month."

Despite the efforts of feminist politicians like Emma Bonnino, childcare remains a low priority even under the Left-wing government of Romano Prodi. Some local authorities offer comprehensive services, but most are patchy.

Given that in Italy's flagging economy both partners work - not out of choice but out of need - it is little wonder that dissatisfaction with childcare options has silenced the pitter-patter of piedini.

Blame grandmothers, too. Once upon a time, where the state failed to provide, Nonna stepped in. Often a live-in presence, she was a free cook, babysitter, and storyteller. Nowadays, though, she is no longer a fixture.

Many OAPs in Italy (this is the last generation to enjoy the generous pensions offered by the Italian state) are spending their sunset years spending - mainly on holidays (cruises are a big favourite).

But the Dolce Vita itself holds a clue to the current state of affairs. The majority of Italians take for granted luxuries such as long (six weeks) holidays; stylish clothes; smart cars and excellent food.

When the economy was humming, these pleasures came at a low price. But when Italy was hit by the manufacturing boom in China, borrowing money to pay for the high life seemed the obvious thing to do. For the debt-ridden, raising a baby, let alone keeping her in Dolce e Gabbana, seems a burden too far

Benito Mussolini believed you could prod the Italians into bambini-mode. He launched a campaign that included punitive taxes on single men.

Romano Prodi would probably resist such strong-arm tactics, but his government had better step in to assure Italian mammas that they can work without having to worry about i bambini. Otherwise, Arrivederci, baby.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/main.jhtml?xm

l=/education/2007/08/02/faitaly102.xml

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