German mulls extending child care leave to grandparents

AFP, January, 2008

BERLIN (AFP) — The German government is considering extending child care leave to grandparents who are raising their teenage children's offspring, a family ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

"This will allow grandparents to interrupt their professional activities to enable them to take care of their grandchildren if the parents are minors themselves," Hanno Schaefer told AFP.

Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats and a mother of seven, has proposed that the grandparents be allowed to take unpaid leave for up to three years.

Schaefer said the Social Democrats, partners in Merkel's ruling coalition, have indicated that they will support such a move.

Merkel's government is seeking to improve child care support in a bid to raise Germany's birthrate and defuse the potential social welfare crisis posed by the ...