«The rules keep changing in Munich»

Series: Families and Corona worldwide - Part 4

Heike, 41, and Andy Muthmann, 47, live in Munich with their three children Carla, 7, Henri, 5, and Theo, 3. Heike works as Head of CRM in the digital sector and Andy is a freelance coach and consultant. They both originally come from Lower Saxony, where their parents and siblings still live.

What is the current situation with the coronavirus in your country?

We live in Munich, where the rules change with regularity - as they probably do everywhere. We're now back in hard lockdown with schools and nurseries closed. However, we parents have been limiting our contact to an absolute minimum for a long time anyway.

Masks are compulsory for children here from the age of six. Our daughter therefore wears a mask, currently also in class and at lunchtime supervision after school. Our boys still go to kindergarten, where it has been compulsory for teachers to wear masks for a few weeks now. Relatively little has changed for the kindergarten children, apart from strict group segregation, frequent ventilation and hand washing, of course.

What is the work situation like for you and your husband?

We are very lucky to both be able to work from home. I have a great employer who «banished» us to the home office as a precaution before the first lockdown, which works wonderfully. Most of my colleagues also have small children, so everyone understands when a rascal in pyjamas blows up the Zoom call. My husband is normally travelling a lot as a coach and consultant, which was quite an adjustment at first. Almost everything now runs online, so we now have even more family time than before coronavirus.

How is childcare organised?

During the first lockdown, when all three children were at home, we consistently did «shift work»: I started at 7 a.m. and my husband was «allowed» to start at 12 noon. I even kept up the early start to work when nurseries and schools reopened so that I could pick our granddaughter up earlier from lunchtime childcare as long as she had to wear a mask at all times. At times, we also teamed up with our neighbours: there was a school next door to us and a nursery next door. A good network is definitely worth its weight in gold, as our families don't live in Munich and we don't have any external help.

How close is Corona? Have you been in isolation or quarantine yourself?

We had two cases in our immediate neighbourhood in the first few weeks of March. That was at a time when I hadn't yet fully realised how serious the situation was. The children had been playing together the days before, so it was a shock at first. However, they all tested negative, even though I had symptoms.
We were then quarantined a second time in October because of a case at school. The first time was a bit chaotic, the second time was much more relaxed. The children played Lego and Kappla for hours, the older one liked doing arts and crafts and we occasionally had a film night. Especially during quarantine, it was practical that our three children don't have too much of an age difference. We also have a small garden, which we have learnt to appreciate in a completely different way. Especially when the playgrounds were closed here in Germany.

Christmas is just around the corner: do you already know how you're going to celebrate?

Normally we would drive 800 kilometres north to visit our parents and siblings. This year, with a heavy heart, we will be doing without. Fortunately, we all saw each other again in the summer. There's a zoo party for Christmas. The grandparents in particular are of course sad, but we try to look ahead and look forward to seeing them again at Easter or in the summer at the latest.
The Christmas party with work colleagues will also take place online. The nativity party for the children will take place outside this year, which will certainly be very special. I'm trying to look forward to everything being a little quieter than usual this year.

How do you experience the situation as a whole: has corona opened new doors for family life or rather caused additional stress?

We've got through this time really well, and we're very grateful for that. Of course we'd like to go out again, meet up with friends, plan our next holiday ... But: we have a house with a garden, we are not affected by short-time working and can work from home, and the children have always had their siblings to play with during quarantine.

I think the children in particular even enjoyed the «corona holidays» in spring to some extent and discovered completely new talents away from the daily routine of kindergarten and school. Our middle child taught himself maths with kitchen magnets and discovered his penchant for scissors and glue. The littlest one's language skills have really taken off. And while homeschooling, the older one has learnt to organise herself with the weekly schedule and has even planned «extra free time» for playing and crafting.
Even the cancelled or reduced birthday parties in the summer were no big drama. We simply try to instil a positive attitude in the children and make the best of the situation.

What do you want for 2021?

Honestly? A holiday! A few days just to unwind - that would be great. Normally I'm the «round trip with lots to see» type, but now we're leaning towards a relaxed North Sea island holiday, as the year has been very exhausting at times.
Of course, we want to see our families and friends again - and give them all a big hug.

And for the «big picture», I hope that we will perhaps listen to each other a little more and show consideration for each other again. I would like to see more gratitude and respect for those who have done an amazing job in this crazy year: in care, in hospitals, in the police or fire brigade, in sales, in research or as educators, for example. And of course I hope that the vaccine can bring us back to a bit of normality.
Read about the situation in the Czech Republic in part 5 of our series Families in everyday coronavirus life around the world. You can read all the family portraits published so far here: Families and Corona worldwide.

More about Corona:

• «Corona vaccination for children: in one year at the earliest»
  What are the latest findings on the role of children in the current coronavirus crisis? And: Can a school require a corona test? Prof Dr Christoph Aebi provides important answers.
• How much coronavirus can parents put their children through?
  The second wave of coronavirus is here and every day we are confronted with news of new infections and new guidelines. How much should parents expect their children to be exposed to? And how do you react when the virus is really close; affecting friends, relatives or the child itself?
• Coronavirus dossier
  In this dossier, all articles containing relevant topics for families are collected on an ongoing basis.