My experience in Berlin, having lived there for years while I did my Ph.D. work and had my first child, is that lots of mothers don’t work. But because daycare is subsidized, even some stay-at-home mothers use a Tagesmutter or Kita. In my neighborhood (the Tiergarten section of Mitte), the common time for mothers to be on the playground with their kids is after they pick them up from the Kita, around 4 in the afternoon. So you might have better luck in the late afternoon?

One reason to go back to paid work earlier than three years is that after six months, maternity leave pay drops dramatically, especially if you have a partner who makes decent money. Many parts of western Germany have a strong ideal of stay-at-home mothers, as I’m sure you’re aware from your German friends, and the schools are generally still on a schedule that presumes a stay-at-home mom. There’s also the notion of the “Rabenmutter” – the neglectful mother – which shames women who work for pay. But many German mothers need to work, and plenty of them want to work, too.

I’m actually surprised that most of the kids in your neighborhood seem to be in Kitas, because there are lots of Kitas that don’t take kids under 3, and so a lot of the really young ones go to a Tagesmutter (which is also state-subsidized). A Tagesmutter wouldn’t normally have six kids, though, and those kids in the six-seater stroller are small indeed.

I’m not in Berlin permanently anymore (may visit this summer) but I still run an email list for English-speaking expat academics, artists, and similar folks in Berlin. Email me if you like at sungold85 (at) gmail (dot) com if you think you might find it helpful. People use it for housing requests, doctor recommendations, and sometimes parenting-related questions, too.