Great Expectations for the Children's Playroom of the FSS MU
The Children's Playroom has been located in the FSS building since 2005. It can be found in the basement of the building, close to the bistro. To use it, simply review the Rules of Use, pick up a key at the faculty reception desk, and sign the guest book right in Dět-ko (as the Children's Playroom is called for short). Signing the guestbook, including the muni-mail, is important for, among other things, keeping track of the interest in the Dět-ko. The room is designed for spending time with children: you can feed them, play with them, and perhaps manage a consultation or team discussion over a piece of research or a seminar paper. Iva Šmídová from the Department of Sociology, who was behind the creation of Dět-ko and still serves as a kind of liaison between the Dět-ko student community and the faculty administration, presented the Dět-ko in a text for NewFSSletter.
What is the Children's Playroom and how does it work?
Since 2005, you have been able to find a room in our faculty building where you can stay with your children, feed them, play, and perhaps manage consultations and team discussions over a piece of research or seminar papers. The world of children has thus penetrated our academic world, but it does not disturb with its immediacy and noise the mostly silent research found in the offices or the atmosphere of the classrooms. Children of staff and students are also welcome in the Faculty's Children's Playroom where parents can arrange their own babysitting or reciprocate within the community of parents by arranging to watch each other's children. So far in the semester, there have also always been student volunteers who, when they have time, offer to babysit for parents who need to attend a seminar, lecture, or consultation. Such babysitting is short-term, one-time, and is not meant to substitute for daycare or a playgroup.
Dět-ko, as we call it for short, has since its beginning brought together parents, their children, and students with caring tendencies who want to help. Dět-ko's mission is to make it easier for people with children to reconcile their private and professional lives. In addition, with the two regular events that Dět-ko holds in the Faculty Atrium before Christmas and Easter, we also break up the daily routine of academic life a little. Namely, by facilitating the visible presence of the children in the life of the building and the academic community. In doing so, the team behind the Children's Playroom also wants to encourage those without children - or those not currently providing care for them - to reflect on the barriers faced by parents with children in our ranks. And to remind everyone of the opportunity to get involved.
How to use Dět-ko as a parent?
Know that all you have to do is review its Rules of Use in IS - you can also review the Nanny Code of Conduct - pick up a key at the faculty reception desk, and sign the guestbook right in the Dět-ko room in the basement of the building (you can find it on the way to the Common Room or "Krmítko"). Signing the guestbook there (and your muni email) is also important because it's how we monitor the use of the room for the faculty.
Documents and information about the operation of the Playroom can be found after logging into the IS here and also on the FB pages of the Children's Playroom of the FSS Brno, where you can also message the coordinator of Dět-ko directly. If you have any questions, you can also contact detko@fss.muni.cz, as you may recall from the emails that have been sent at the beginning of each semester by me, Iva Šmídová, who has serves as a kind of liaison between the Dět-ko student community and the faculty management since its inception.
How did the idea come about and where is it headed?
The Children's Playroom was created as an initiative of people around the student association Gender Centre and has been operating with the support of the management of our faculty since then. At the time of its creation, the so-called Mother Centres were well known - we reflected inclusive language and practice in the name: both female and male students of the faculty took turns in the role of coordinators and nannies. The idea for Dět-ko was already established during my pregnancy in 2001 and since then we were thinking with the management of the faculty, especially with the then secretary, Vojtěch Moštěk, about how to implement it. This was achieved with the move to the new building, where FSS MUNI has been located since 2005. Nowadays, children's play areas seem to be quite commonplace in many institutional environments, including shopping centers. Back in the day, however, this was the first institution of its kind at a university in the Czech Republic. I find it useful to recall this context also because the composition of the faculty staff has changed significantly since the beginning of the Children's Playroom, so for some of you the information about the history, idea, and operation of the Children's Playroom may be new. Since the inception of the Dět-ko, its team has also been intensively following and involved in projects and debates about the university daycare or playgroup, several times it seemed to be already "in the offing". In September 2022, the Elánek children's group started at the MUNI Rectorate; as a side note, my daughters will turn 21 in January.
We are pleased with the several years of cooperation with the Faculty of Arts, which, together with the FSS MUNI, uses the room and also contributes to the stipend for the coordinator of the Dět-ko. The coordinator ensures its daily operation and events, monitors the state of the room, and mediates babysitting opportunities between those who have requested it and the nannies. The role of the coordinator was taken on with vigor and new ideas this semester by Mgr. Kateřina Čanigová, a Ph.D. student in sociology, who herself combines study and care for a young child - and for the first time, Dět-ko has a person with experience as a parent in this position. However, after a pause due to the pandemic of almost two years, and with the current increase in the cost of living and the insecurities of students - stemming from the effects of the lockdown, the energy crisis, and the war in Ukraine - Dět-ko may transform too. We may be about to rethink the operation of Dět-ko in terms of nannies who babysit as unpaid volunteers. Perhaps the demand from parents is also changing - both they and nannies have for many years now operated on the principle of informal relationships of trust and solidarity across life stages. The original teams of nannies have now completed their studies and new ones have so far applied in scant numbers. You can help revitalize the Children's Playroom community with your ideas and tailor it to current needs and possibilities. This is also why this article for the faculty newsletter is being written.
If you want to give some feedback to the FSS Children's Playroom, you can use the questionnaire at this link. We are interested in your opinion and thank you in advance for it!
“Come and join us (and with the reference to Charles Dickens in the title of the article) to start realistically fulfilling the great expectations for the Children's Playroom at FSS MU.”
Iva Šmídová
