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+++ Update from 24.09.2015 +++ At the federal congress of the Verdi union in Leipzig on 23.09.2015, the re-elected leader Bsirske, with 88.5% of the vote, announced a "massive escalation" of strikes in municipal daycare centers. It is expected to have "significant impacts on parents, employers, and the strikers." The strikes could take place as early as October and be unannounced and unpredictable this time, as Verdi spokesperson Schischefky already mentioned in September. What does this mean for mothers and fathers? The most important answers to questions that especially working parents are now asking.

Good news for people in need of care and their relatives – many small but necessary services can now be billed and applied for anew. 

Many professionals wish for a better balance between work and family, for example, through support in handling everyday tasks. 

Great, the summer holidays are just around the corner! What excites the little ones, however, gives many parents a headache.

Together with the AWO Parent Service, famPLUS has already organized three two-day workshops where participants primarily have one goal: to exchange ideas, share their perspectives, and deepen their knowledge in parenting and work principles.

On January 1, the amendment to the law on parental allowance and parental leave came into force. In particular, the newly introduced Parental Allowance Plus will provide young parents with more flexibility in balancing work and family in the early months of their child's life.

In Hamburg, schoolchildren can spend very special holidays: learning holidays that promote self-confidence and the joy of learning and strengthen personal development. 

Finding good childcare, suitable care for elderly family members, and help with household tasks, ideally through a professional agency that offers advice and makes a preliminary selection, greatly facilitates the balance between work and family life. But the market for providers is vast and confusing. How can private customers or employers know which agency reliably and competently informs, advises, and arranges services?

The emergency childcare service through famPLUS in the Cologne/Düsseldorf area has grown: With Leo-Kinderevents, a competent, reliable, and experienced partner for emergency childcare has been acquired. We asked the agency founder, Stephanie Beivers, how the whole thing works—from a parent's perspective. The questions were posed by Christine Finke, a mother of three and employed.

Grandparents often do not live in the same location as their grandchildren. Substitute grandmothers and grandfathers can be a reliable and time-flexible alternative for childcare in this case. Many parents already appreciate substitute grandmothers and grandfathers; the demand from young families is steadily increasing. Workshops by famPLUS and ElternService AWO in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, and other German metropolises aim to encourage interested older people to make themselves available as substitute grandmothers or grandfathers. Additionally, already active substitute grandmothers and grandfathers are given the opportunity for exchange and further training. The first workshop in Berlin took place in November with great success.

A supermarket where you can pay with tissues or cookies, a cafeteria and a shared kitchen, green space and a sensory garden amidst several residential buildings with shared apartments, where residents can furnish the rooms to their taste and are not subjected to the schedule of a nursing home – up to this point, everyone actually likes the "Alzheimer's Village" project.

She's almost falling asleep in the office - lately, Carola Eberle* has been sleeping poorly more often because she's worried about her elderly parents and her son's transition from kindergarten to elementary school.

As part of the "Bayer Family Care" program, BAYER employees in Leverkusen and Wuppertal had the opportunity to sit down personally with advisors from famPLUS on October 21 and 22. In collaboration with the HR department, famPLUS offers competent advice and assistance on questions concerning relatives in need of care, to enable employees to better balance work and family life.

An important person, sometimes the most important of all, is seriously ill and in need of care – this is an extremely stressful emotional situation. But the physical burden on the relatives is often very high. 

Many parents are familiar with spontaneous emergencies in organizing childcare, such as when important meetings are scheduled at short notice, schedule changes are unavoidable, or regular childcare is unavailable. Since June 1, 2014, the University of Regensburg and the University Hospital, together with the family service provider "famPLUS," have supported working parents with a new pilot project.