EISEMROTH, Germany (AP) – A year after the coronavirus pandemic, Katja Heimann, a mother of 11, is still trying to keep her spirits up – despite several lockdowns and months of homeschooling seven of her children. The secret to her success, she says: structured daily routines, patience and love.
Heimann, who lives with her husband Andre and their children in the small village of Eisemroth in central Germany, keeps a strict daily schedule to get everything done when you have 11 children. That involves a lot of self-discipline: getting up at sunrise, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, cooking, and on top of that – since schools closed for most students in Germany at the end of last year – helping her children with remote controls. learning.
Despite her persistence, “the situation has become very exhausting lately,” the 41-year-old told The Associated Press in an interview on Thursday.
“The biggest challenge is to keep going,” she added.
Like millions of families in Germany and around the world, the Heimanns are grappling with the continuing daily burden of the pandemic. But where most families, at least in Germany, have to take care of one, two, three or rarely four children, the Heimanns have an entire football team with children at home.
The oldest, Milena, 22, has already moved but lives nearby and visits several times a week. In addition to the seven school-age children, the Heimanns also have three little ones – the youngest only 18 months – who are still in kindergarten, which is also closed some of the time due to the virus.
“It is very noisy and stuffy here,” said Katja Heimann with a sigh, but also with a smile. When the four high school students video conference with their teachers, she helps her three primary school students solve their exercises at the long wooden kitchen table.
“In the early days of homeschooling, we only had one laptop for our whole family – it didn’t work out at all,” she said. Friends and neighbors quickly helped out and lent their spare devices to the family.
Husband Andre, 52, a locksmith, says he is impressed with how his wife manages to keep their family together during the pandemic.
“She takes care of the housework, the homework, the cooking, the cleaning, the paperwork, everything,” he says. “She is amazing.”
Of course the Heimanns have good days and bad days.
Sometimes the kids argue with each other, get bored and don’t want to do distance learning anymore, but want to hang out with their friends again – which is not allowed due to the distance rules.
“Of course we have stress and we also argue,” says Andre. “But in general, the situation brought us closer together.”
Across the country, families are hardest hit by the pandemic, and both parents and children are exhausted from the ongoing school closures. While in some German states some schools have been cautiously reopened and only half-sized, other states still keep many children in distance-only learning mode.
At the start of the pandemic, Germany appeared to be relatively well in control of the virus, but it got worse last fall, as the onset of the second wave quickly filled hospitals and yielded death rates. As of November, the country’s 83 million people have been living under various lockdown measures. Restaurants, bars and many leisure facilities will remain closed.
Despite the limitations, however, infection rates in Germany have risen again in recent weeks as the more contagious virus variant first discovered in Britain has become dominant in the country.
Germany has recorded more than 75,000 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic a year ago. On Thursday, the country’s disease control center reported 22,657 new confirmed daily cases, up from 17,504 a week ago.
Getting the infection is a constant fear of the Heimanns, as their 3-year-old son Oskar suffers from a rare genetic disease, has an intellectual disability and is therefore particularly vulnerable.
“We have two patients at risk in our family: Oskar with his genetic defect and my husband,” says Katja Heimann. “So we live in constant fear that someone will take the infection home.”
Despite their concerns, some children have recently returned to school part-time and are hoping for full-time classes again soon.
“The best thing will be when we can all go to school every day and meet again and play in groups,” says 10-year-old Martha.
“And playing football again, that’s currently canceled – which is really stupid,” added 12-year-old brother Willi.
The rest of the Heimann family can’t wait for the pandemic to end either.
“The most important thing will be when the children can finally be children again and enjoy their hobbies,” says father Andre. “That they no longer get bored and can go where they want and do what they like again.”
Grieshaber reported from Berlin.