In politics, ideas sometimes appear that seem logical at first glance, but reveal a deep misunderstanding of the real problems in society. Such is the debate about reducing motherhood, but with enough places in nurseries, raised by MP Vladimir Nikolov from “Progressive Bulgaria“. After his statement, it took his colleagues days to explain what he wanted to say. And, in fact, believe me, Vladimir Nikolov, in his life as a former athlete, does not fall into that category of people who have nothing to say to you when you interview them. But in politics, it is different. It will take time, but he will certainly get used to the system.
However, let's get back to the topic of motherhood, children, families and all the good things that come from this for Bulgarians.
The proposal for less time-consuming motherhood itself is not the biggest problem. The big problem is the point of view behind it. Because at its core, the child is already a fact. Regardless of whether it is a family, cohabitation or a single parent, the child has already been created. The question here is how to more effectively organize the mother's return to work. This is a conversation about managing an already existing parenthood.
But Bulgaria today does not suffer from a shortage of discussions about nurseries.
Bulgaria suffers from a shortage of children.
While politicians count months of motherhood, over 14,500 Bulgarian families or couples count not months, but years. Yes, over 14,500 couples. But you know that they are not alone. Next to them are parents, siblings, friends and acquaintances who also share their problem. So around these 14,500 there are at least four times as many who share it. And this is already a large community that in some way touches on the problem.
It is about years of hopes, failed attempts, medical procedures, loans for treatment and painful disappointments. For them – these over 14,500 couples – the problem is not when and for how long they will enjoy maternity leave.
The problem is whether maternity leave will begin at all.
So, will Vladimir Nikolov have the eyes to address these people with reproductive difficulties and explain to them that the big public issue before the government is how and whether maternity leave should be shortened?
Will he tell them that the state's priority is to discuss when mothers should return to work, instead of how more Bulgarians can become parents?
For people who wake up every morning wondering whether they will ever hold their own child in their arms, such a conversation sounds like political bullying, like an abstraction. It is detached from the reality of families, for whom the birth of a child is not an administrative issue, but the greatest battle in life.
Even more worrying is the message that such ideas send. Instead of the state showing that it values parenthood as a national priority, it begins to view motherhood through the prism of economic efficiency – directly speaking, through the prism of budget expenditures.
The mother gradually ceases to be a parent and becomes a resource that must be returned to the production process more quickly. The child ceases to be the center of demographic policy and becomes an element of labor statistics.
This is a philosophy that treats motherhood as a tool, not a value.
The real demographic question facing Bulgaria is not how long mothers stay at home. The real question is why fewer and fewer families manage to reach the point where they can even call themselves mother and father.
A country that is losing population cannot afford to put the discussion about shortening the period after childbirth in the first place, while thousands of people continue to fight for the birth itself.
Because before we argue about how much motherhood will be, we need to answer the much more important question: how will we make it so that more Bulgarians have a chance to become parents at all, to hear “mom“ or “dad“.