23.04.2015

With the support of MLZ the TUM Physics Department recently has a parent-child room at parents’ disposal who need to care for their child themselves for a short time.

The equal opportunities commissioner of the TUM Physics Department, headed by Prof. Laura Fabbietti are working on how one can improve the support for parents and facilitate their everyday life. The career of young scientists should not stall during parental leave; they therefore often have the problem that they must be present in person for group meetings and need a quiet space to breastfeed or to bridge the gaps between dates. Sometimes a child needs to be cared by the parents themselves despite professional placement in kindergarten or nursery, for example, when the nannies are not available due to further training. Sometimes, the young father is also busy on the campus and can step in and relieve the mother. This saves a lot of time for both, because the parents do not have to commute several times a day between home and work. It even happens that users of the FRM II have to travel with children and need a place where the child can stay during the measurement period.

A few months the MLZ had to set up additional office containers behind the Physics Department because of lack of space, and contributed one room as a parent-child room. It is equipped with a convenient and useful toy box, a computer table with a good work chair and a sofa. The little ones can puzzle, paint or tinker at a children's table with two small chairs; a changing table with heat lamps for infants is also available. Depending on demand, more appropriate playing material for different age groups will be gradually provided, and the efforts concerning a loving design with curtain and posters will be continued. Parents get the key to the room for the time being in the dean's office. But Laura Fabbietti hopes "that the young parents accept the room well, so soon a proper accounting system is necessary." Meanwhile the room can be booked by the regular Physics Department Booking system.