The Spanish Federation of Large Families (FEFN) has asked the Government for work-life balance policies that consider the reality of large families and include a certain proportionality based on the number of children, in order to be able to attend to all adequately.
The association reminds that in a large family everything is multiplied by 3, 4, 5, etc. and “that parents organise themselves to reconcile work and school schedules, but they cannot work miracles and divide themselves infinitely; their situation is special and support must be provided in the same way”, emphasises the president of the FEFN, José Manuel Trigo.
The FEFN therefore calls for the special needs of these families to be taken into account and for some measures to be extended. For example, in the case of parental leave, which the government intends to extend to 6 months, the FEFN proposes that it should be
for each parent to be increased by one week. “In a large family, when a child is born there are other children to take care of and this reality cannot be ignored, because they all have care needs, all children count. When you come home with a newborn and you have more children, you can’t forget about them and focus only on the baby, you have to take care of everyone”, stresses the Federation’s president.
The FEFN is also calling for an extension of the paid leave days that the government will soon approve for caring for sick family members. The Federation considers that this leave cannot be for the same number of days if you have one child as if you have four, so it is calling for it to be increased by at least two more days for large families.
