The Croatian Large Family Association has various updates on its current projects. The Association’s vice-president, Đurđica Mostarčić, gave an extended interview on her analysis of Croatia’s changing demographics.
The Croatian Association of Large Families submitted its comments on the proposed amendments to the Maternity and Parental Leave Benefits Act, and their suggestions were accepted. The changes enter into force in March 2025.
The full salary up to the first year of the child’s life will be increased up to 3,000 euros instead of 995 euros, the allowance for a newborn child has doubled, and paternity leave has been 20 days instead of 10 days for one child, and 30 instead of 20 days for twins or more children born. It is exciting that these requests have been accepted, although there is still plenty of room for improvement.
The Croatian Association of Large Family’s big project about media literacy of parents has begun. It discusses how to recognise electronic bullying among children and young people and how to respond. The first on-line workshop hosted almost 60 parents and educators. A second workshop on how to use digital tools to protect children in the online world is currently being developed.
Đurđica Mostarčić, vice-president of the Croatian Large Family Association, speaks for Glas Koncila about the new demographic measures presented by the government in December and about concrete steps that could improve the image of Croatian families or at least slow down the devastating demographic trends.
Recently, the Croatian Large Family Association sent a statement regarding changes to the Act on maternity and parental benefits. What exactly is it about?
At the e-consultation, the Croatian Large Family Association praised the fact that the Ministry of Demography accepted our earlier proposal to increase parental benefits for the second six months of leave to the balance of the average salary of the mother. We think that’s good. But we also pointed out that maternity benefits are the most prominent demographic measure that actually remains insufficient. When someone is on maternity leave for a third or further child, after the end of the first year of maternity leave there is a right to another two years of leave. If a woman has an average net salary of around 1,500 euros, she receives a salary of 1,500 euros for a year with her third child, after which the income drops to 800 euros. And that’s a situation of increased costs, the woman is at home, she can’t work. In the end, having a third child is a joint decision of the spouses, but when the entire demographic situation is taken into account, a way should be found so that those who decide to have a third child and each subsequent child after one year of maternity have a higher compensation.
Money in itself will not encourage someone to give birth, as the Minister of Demography pointed out. However, we would like to emphasise that the amount of money shows how much the Government really cares about helping families who are ready to have more children.
For a larger family, 800 euros can only partially cover some necessary needs, such as food. In such a situation, the family’s needs fall on one income holder, and it is usually the father as a mother is usually on a lower income. That is why a woman can rightfully feel “punished” if she wants to have another child. As harsh as it sounds, it is actually a realistic picture of the current situation. For years, we have been demanding that every child has the right to child allowance. Multi-member families have been living and functioning for years “without the state” in the sense of the absence of real support, but the question is how long the state will continue to function without multi-member families.
When the Government decided to allow those returning from abroad to not pay income tax for five years (for families that were abroad for more than two years), the Croatian Large Family Association warned that the new law was not aligned with the Law on Income Tax. So families who return, if they want to have children, must be continuously registered on the stock exchange in the last nine months or have three years of residence in Croatia, which they do not have because they have an interruption of at least two years. So we are calling families to come back to us – families who didn’t leave because they really wanted to – and now when they come back, they won’t actually be able to use maternity benefits.
In December, the new demographic measures of the Government of the Republic of Croatia were presented, which – due to the proximity of Christmas – did not actually pass through the proper “sieve” of the Croatian public. Namely, the new package of measures did not come with any special regulation on the basis of which all departments could be united around the crucial demographic issue, something like the Law on Areas of Special State Care. How do you comment on that?
We don’t need a ministry that has the term “family” in its name. We need a ministry that will really deal with family issues. In difficult situations like the attack in Prečko, someone from the Ministry of Family should have asked what will happen to all those parents and their children. Is it possible to find an ad hoc institute that will allow parents to stay at home for a few days and that in this extraordinary situation they will be paid for those days of absence from work?
“We don’t need a ministry that has the term “family” in its name. We need a ministry that will really deal with family issues.“
My experience in practice is that all new proposals must be persistently pushed, calls must be made in all directions, and nothing goes as fast as we might expect. But if demography is an issue that has national, strategic significance for the future of Croatia, if it is a key problem – why aren’t all forces directed to solve this problem? Life should be made easier for everyone who decides to have children.
It is no secret that our public is trying to impose the image that families with several children are “dysfunctional”. But how do they really live? What are the experiences of the Large Families Association? Who are the parents who decide to have more children and in what conditions do these children grow up?
I would like to mention some recent research that made us quite angry. It showed the “classiness” of society in Croatia and at the lowest class level were families with several children, which were shown with parents who were tired and exhausted, and children disheveled. The Croatian Large Family Association reacted to this by conducting research among families. It has been shown that there are class differences. Some of these families classify themselves in the working class, some in the middle class, some in the upper class. This classification corresponds to the general classification in Croatia. About 58 percent of families with three or more children classified themselves as working class, but most of them (69 percent) also said they were satisfied with their income and felt they had enough money to cover their expenses. But there is also a middle class and what we could call an elite among families with more children, so we are talking about higher incomes and parents who are highly educated. We also notice that highly educated mothers now more often choose to stay at home and have children, and that their career is not so important because they still value some other values. Large families tend to cook more at home, so the budget can be “stretched”. But none of these families would probably refuse state support.
Mothers are too often victims of trends in the modern economy. How did it become possible that today it is normal to work 12 hours for an employer and subjugate your whole life, including your family, to career achievement?
Certainly, this problem also affects demography. But I think that the newer generations help more in changing that paradigm. Because they want to have clearly defined working hours, their attitudes towards work are different. They are ready to set some of their own conditions. The older generation is used to the fact that conditions are not set, it may have been normal for them to work 12 hours a day. New generations set new conditions and employers see this, so they are more ready to adapt. And it happens that today the conditions are much better in the sense that you can work less. And working parents – which is also the experience of our contacts in the Croatian Large Family Association – are really ready to put the family first. Accordingly, they arrange their work duties.
There are, of course, some exceptions. For example, I am an accountant and in my job, the scope of obligations at the end of the year is large. And it happens that I am really less present at home at the time of the final reckoning. But even that can be compensated, when it can be organized differently. It is typical for multi-member families that children can also take on some tasks. They have an obligation, for example, to vacuum around the house. In this way, obligations can be distributed. This does not mean that nowadays something is simpler, but that it is precisely large families that can be better coordinated in a different way. And children in multi-member families mature much faster that way. We can teach them much faster to go somewhere independently, by bus, tram. They also accept some work duties more easily. We also have experience that when children from multi-member families enter into working relationships, it can really be noticed that they approach work more responsibly, they understand that once a task is started, it must be completed. It is necessary to look at the family as a school of life from which children will come out with values that no one else can teach them except their parents.
How should we improve entrepreneurship in families – both in the financial sense, but also in terms of the distribution of obligations, which you already said something about in the previous answer?
Children can be persuaded to participate together with their parents in some obligations that are clearly appropriate for their age. I can say from my own experience that as a mother of five children, I tried to “draw” all of them into some tasks through some kind of game. These were also basic things – for example, tidying things up after the game. Someone will say that this is already a big step forward today. There are also other activities, such as cooking, where children can still learn that until, say, they are teenagers, they can independently prepare something to eat, that it is not something hasty and by the way. In fact, through play and fun, you can build the foundations for skills that will be very useful later in life.
“Large families are indeed sometimes messy and loud, but they are actually a source of joy. They are not an expense, they are a pledge of the future, and this really needs to be constantly repeated.“
Large families are indeed sometimes messy and loud, but they are actually a source of joy. They are not an expense, they are a pledge of the future, and this really needs to be constantly repeated. Whether we are talking about Croatia in general, or about a specific issue of the future such as pensions, there is no doubt that we must invest in children.
We are far from the peak of the tourist season, but it is known that some providers of services in tourism – be it apartments or large hotel chains – are not inclined towards children, and especially not families with many children. Why hasn’t a special niche in the tourism sector, which would be oriented towards multi-member families, crystallised so far?
Today, there are even hotels where parents can come to rest from their children, where they can “disconnect” from parental responsibilities for a few days. The Croatian Large Family Association tried to encourage hotels and other accommodation units to open up to families, to be friends with families with several children. We tried this with the help of a family card, and those who have a family card can see a wide range of service providers who recognise families with three or more children, who also offer accommodation and good discounts.
We also spoke with the ombudsman for children to try to influence the image of the family in the public. In Hungary, for example, when families are discussed in public, that content is often accompanied by a photo of a family with at least three children. We asked to try to do “marketing” in this way, so that families with three or more children become something that is normal. That this is still not normal, any mother of four or five children who comes to a park, for example, will probably ask her: “Are these all your children?”
But it is also positive that families with several children recognise each other. We also hear the experiences of those who, with two children, said they were looking forward to a third, so that they could join the association and connect with families with similar views. In everything, however, we can find those in which we will recognise support for the values we hold dear.
These are issues that the state can regulate, from our position it is also its obligation. Why not also use special labels for everyone who is willing, for example, in the tourism sector to favor families with more children. It can also be a symbolic discount, 10 to 20 percent. It is important to mention that there are more than 97,000 families with three or more children in Croatia.
How do rising real estate prices in big cities affect the lower number of children born? And should everyone live in big cities? On the other hand, the first “enclaves” of severe depopulation are located just 45 minutes’ drive from major cities, where one could, for example, live, maybe not commute to work every day of the week, but also work from home…
Maternity benefits are the most prominent measure and it has been a good measure for years, but it is really insufficient. More can be done. Why should only the first real estate be exempt from taxes and VAT? What if the family grows in the first property and needs to move to a bigger space? Because it is likely that with the second child, that first property will become too small. What happens when the third and fourth child arrives? Therefore, we should also think about exempting those who acquire new real estate to solve the housing issue of a growing family. This is not done for luxury, but out of necessity. For example, why shouldn’t families who buy a car with seven seats be exempted from tax because not all children can fit in one vehicle anymore? A luxury tax is currently in effect for that matter. A family with four children will hardly talk about luxury. Sometimes it is the most difficult with the fourth child, because that is where the challenge is the biggest – the living space becomes more cramped, one car is not enough.
“In everything there is a lot of space and possibility for the state to start. Only if one wants to send a clear message – that family and children are important.“
And when we mention working from home, we can again take Hungary as an example. Why don’t we “rewrite” the measure according to which parents who can’t find a kindergarten take care of their children with grandparents, but that they are financially compensated for this in some way with state funds or funds from local self-government units? And we have situations where kindergartens in big cities do not have enough capacity. We have mothers today who do not work because they are forced to do so because no one can take care of the children. And we know that the happiest families are those where the mother is the happiest. What about situations in which the child needs to be taken for an examination during working hours? You should take a vacation day. Kudos to the employers who recognize this and are ready to come to an agreement and find some compromise regarding such employee absences, so that the missed time at work can be made up later. But we do not have a legal institute that would regulate such situations. What, for example, about the parents of children from the Prečko Elementary School, among whom there are certainly children who may be afraid to go to school now? Parents want to be with them, to stay at home, because it is natural for a parent to stay with the children during that time. That parent will take sick leave, but will also receive 70 percent of the salary for that month. So, in everything there is a lot of space and possibility for the state to start. Only if one wants to send a clear message – that family and children are important.