For this edition of Crossing Continents, Rosie Goldsmith examined how the next generation of Europeans is being nurtured in two different countries. She travelled to the town of Laer in Germany where a childcare revolution is underway and mothers can pursue their careers.
And she visited Estonia where women are being pushed back into the home and paid to breed.
If you would like to have your say on any of the issues our online feature or programme raise, please send us your views using the e-mail form at the bottom of this page.
Women paid to breed! What an idea! In the UK, far from being "pushed into the home" women are pushed out of it, forced to take poorly paid work simply to make ends meet.
Successive governments have subsidised, through the tax payer, a fall in the birth rate.
Toddlers are cooped up together in nurseries, often without gardens in which to play.
And this is portrayed as "better" than home care. Whose interests does this serve? Not women's, and definitely not children's.
Ann Farmer, UK
I have a three-year-old daughter. We have just returned to the US from Germany, where she was born.
The contrast between childcare availability in the US and Germany is striking.
 |  Ample childcare does not mean children will be raised by institutions, it means that parents will have choices |
We had many choices here at a variety of costs, times, and programmes. There were not many at all for a child under three in our town in Germany. I do think that having more care available makes the prospect of spending years at home with small children more bearable, and more likely.
If you know that for a few hours a week you can regain peace, quiet, and adult conversation while your child is having fun with other kids, it seems like less of a chore to have children and more like what it really is, a gift.
Ample childcare does not mean children will be raised by institutions, it means that parents will have choices.
Having choices does not turn parents in to lazy louts that just want to earn money and ditch the kids with a nanny!
Helen Stergius, US
I believe children who grow up with real relationships as opposed to paid care become adults capable of genuine love and care for themselves and others.
The current trend toward institutional child-rearing could in years to come be looked back upon with sadness and regret.
As wonderful as it is, parenting is undoubtedly the most demanding job there is. Mothers and fathers need to be supported financially, socially, and emotionally in order to be able to carry out this most sacred role.
Deborah Short, UK
What kind of society are we going to have when more and more children are raised by people who are paid for taking care of them all day?
What will these children know about love and dedication?
We should build a society where family, not economy is the driving force.
Therefore both parents should share the work and care for their young children.
Maybe families would have less money, but they would certainly have more love and our world would become a more caring place. Only governments can make this possible.
| Children belong in a loving home, not in a care centre |
We should stop pushing mothers to be more like men, and start demanding fathers to be real fathers. If you are not willing to change your life to become a parent, then you should not have children.
Children are not another object to be acquired and paid for. Children are our future, they should be the most important achievement of their parents' lives.
They belong in a loving home, not in a care centre.
Gorete Figueiredo, UK
Most former communist countries are slowly breaking down their childcare systems.
Having grown up in Hungary while the system was in place, and now considering having children in Western Europe, I still don't understand how people manage here without it, but hope to find out soon.
Tivadar, Hungary / Germany
What is the point in having children if you pay someone else to look after them for most of their waking hours?
It is derogatory to talk of "pushing women back into the home and paying them to breed".
| Increase child benefit and tax breaks so that more mothers or fathers can choose to stay at home |
Children are a precious gift. If they receive institutionalised, regulated "care", however expensive, they will lose much sense of identity and self-worth. Increase child benefit and tax breaks so that more mothers or fathers can choose to stay at home to do the most important job in the world.
Jenny Henderson, England
The point seems to be that providing more childcare will increase the birth rate.
Well, it might well do. Anything that makes raising children less expensive probably helps. But by the same token, giving money to all parents - whether in paid employment outside the home or not - would do the same.
The message for the UK government is increase child benefit and parents can then choose whether to stay at home to look after their own children or pay other people to do it.
Alan Bright, UK
I am a ex-pat living in Germany and I really empathised with this report.
Although I do not regret having been able to spend time with my children when they were young, I have found primary school here a nightmare.
| The state should invest more money in primary education |
In my experience, lessons can be cancelled at the drop of a hat, and if a child hasn't understood something in school parents have to fill in the gap. The state should invest more money in primary education and not expect all parents to be doing a job which is actually a professional one.
Liz Hutchinson, Germany
I grew up in the US. My mother is from Venezuela, and my father is Irish-American.
Most of my white peers attended day care before they were old enough for pre-school, but I was always cared for by my maternal grandmother.
In Latin cultures, families often live close together and grandparents normally provide childcare instead of an institution, which takes a huge financial burden away from working mothers and fathers. My Venezuelan grandmother always cared for my sister and I while my parents worked, and we didn't go to pre-school until we were both about four.
While I believe affordable childcare is very important, I also think that fragmented family structures create a huge burden on childcare institutions.
Elena Valesquez-O'Halloran, USA
I disagree that "Laer has been showing the country how change can happen".
The description of Germany is a description of West Germany. Here in Dresden, childcare is available from 6.30am to 5pm Mondays to Fridays, including school holidays.
It is available to children almost from birth, although places are harder to come by for babies. And you need to prove you have work.
It also possible to get a grant to pay a childminder for children under three for four and a half hours a day.
| Generally in the East childcare is still far better than the West |
From the age of two years and nine months children have a right to a place in a kindergarten. This is a remnant of the old GDR system where women were expected to return to work when their child was six weeks old. Generally in the East childcare is still far better than the West, although cuts are being made.
People here are worried that cuts in spending on childcare are going to lead to the closure of kindergartens, and make the East more like the West.
They would definitely be surprised to hear that any Western town is leading a childcare revolution!
Anne Koth, Germany
Why is it a good thing that 67% of British mothers of children under six go to work?
Surely this is an indictment of all that is wrong with our culture?
| I believe we would have a far better society if mothers were able to stay at home |
I am not by any means suggesting that a woman's place is in the home but a mother's place should certainly be with her children until at least school age. I believe we would have a far better society if mothers were able to stay at home.
There has to be a better way than encouraging mothers to leave their children at such a young age in order to work to pay for their lifestyles.
I am a father of three who paid off the bulk of the mortgage before having children so that we could live on a single income at least until the kids were at school.
Andy Lloyd, UK
Norway, along with the other Scandinavian countries, addressed these issues decades ago.
| This German town may be setting an example for Germany, but Scandinavia is far ahead |
My country has close to 100% childcare coverage at fixed, affordable prices, along with parental leave of 12 months at close to 100% of the mother's (or father's) salary. This has boosted our fertility rates to above 1.80 children per woman.
This German town may be setting an example for Germany, but Scandinavia is far ahead.
Trond Stroemme, Norway
The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide.
One-Minute World News 
News services
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
