More and more Greeks are becoming parents of fewer children. The figures are relentless, almost half of Greek families (48%) have only one child.
According to Eurostat data, among households in Greece, 35% have two children and only 17% have three, that is, not even 2 out of ten couples.
Physiotherapist Konstantinos Kourakis said: “We have had one child, we would like a second one, but we ran into the financial crisis. We are both working and spend too many hours away from home.
It’s not just regarding how the child will eat, how he will dress, it’s that you try to provide what everyone else provides, when he asks you for different things, it’s tutoring.”
Remarkable, although constantly decreasing, is the number of large families, which exceed 210,000 of which at least 52,000 have more than 5 children.
The mother of many children, Efimia Avramidou, said: “having 5 children is 1 times 5 children, I dare say it can be 1 times 5. If I might go back in time I would do exactly the same I would have the children I might have and which I did, I feel happy and grateful to God that I have them.”
Mrs. Efimia worked hard at home, but also at school as a teacher. Having many children – she explains – was a conscious decision that she would not change despite the difficulties: “we didn’t have stable jobs, we didn’t have a house of our own and despite the fact that one child came one following the other. Everything went so smoothly along the way, we went as if we were falling off the cliff with a parachute, we didn’t know if it would open and keep opening.”
Ioanna Kotti, a mother of 8 children, coped with the increased obligations at home and at work: “I can’t say that things were rosy, always easy. What kept us going was the joy they gave us, we were frugal, our finances were just fine but that didn’t worry us, as long as the basics were covered we didn’t ask for luxuries. The anxiety is always lest some child think that they are on the edge, we didn’t notice it, that was our great anxiety”.
Greece is far from the Finnish model with an average age of 33 years, but for the general secretary of the highest confederation of many children, it should be a request and a priority for our country
The general secretary of the Supreme Confederation of Large Children of Greece, Ines Angeli, said: “I am a mother of 6 children at a time when families were not so big, finally we have to make the family fashionable once more, to show that the burden is not so unbearable and nor is it a matter of allowances.
It’s purely a matter of mindset. Greece is changing, but normally Greece is emptying. What can I do with all this, when we don’t have the corresponding population”.
The measures of the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family to deal with the demographic include, among other things, tax exemptions and allowances.
Allowances
-Increase by 1000 euros of the tax-free allowance for families with children
-Increase of the maternity allowance from 4 to 9 months for freelancers and farmers
-Reformation of the public child benefit -> increase of 20 euros for the first child and 50 euros from the second and each additional child.
In addition, the birth allowance increases from 2,000 to 2,400 euros for the first child.
1st child: 2400 euros
2nd child: 2,700 euros
3rd child: 3,000 euros
4th child and above: 3,500 euros
440 million euros to strengthen the family will be given in 2024, while the National Demographic Action Plan is expected at the beginning of May.
Source: ertnews
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