30 years ago, a daycare facility in Nidwalden was undesirable. Today the Chinderhuis is a permanent fixture.
“Thank you very much, but we don’t need that here.” This was the tenor of the Nidwalden social leaders’ conference in 1991. Dominique Grütter and her colleagues presented them with the idea for their first daycare center. «We initially bit on granite. I thought women would welcome the idea with open arms. But they also said: We don’t need that, we have our families.”
Dominique Grütter could not count on the support of her grandparents to look after her children. The 33-year-old had moved away from them and her home canton of Zurich.
The family of her champion rider José Jost lived even further away, in Holland. It was also natural for both of them that they wanted to work as mothers.
Our generation was on the move. We were the women who no longer wanted to be a full-time housewife and mother.
They were inspired by existing daycare centers in the city of Zurich or abroad. In addition, such offers were increasingly discussed in rural areas as part of the Switzerland-wide women’s strike in 1991.
«Our generation was on the move. We were the women who no longer wanted to be a full-time housewife and mother,” she says.
Since there was no political support, the founders started on their own in 1994. The daycare offering in Nidwalden’s main town of Stans was initially only available in the morning. At that time, parents paid 20 to 38 francs for half a day of care.
Little by little the offer got around. The third member of the group, Anna-Barbara Kayser from Nidwalden, was important. “The fact that a local was part of the project helped open some eyes and ears,” says Dominique Grütter.
Politics remained skeptical for a long time
After a few years in which the daycare center was financed exclusively with parental contributions, loans and donations, the canton also got involved. From 1999 he made an annual support contribution. “At some point Nidwalden also realized that it was now socially acceptable to have a daycare center.”
However, the aim of the policy was not to support women who did not want to do all the care work alone. “If a mother wanted to work but her father’s wages were enough, there was initially no understanding. We had to do educational work here.”
Today things are different. The fact that the daycare center also makes a contribution to the economic attractiveness of the canton of Nidwalden is anchored in most minds. The operators estimate the economic benefit of their childcare at around 60 million francs per year. This is the income that parents earn while their children are cared for externally.
Today Nidwaldner Kita is a stately SME
30 years after it was founded, Chinderhuis is a functioning company. It employs almost 100 people, has two daycare locations, works with day families and nannies and offers extra-school care on behalf of communities.
The founder Dominique Grütter is no longer involved today. But the project still fills her with great pride. Her persistence paid off, even if she says looking back: “We always knew it would be a success.”