I’m for this (with caution). I worked in a Swedish pre-school in a fairly multi-cultural area of Stockholm, and we once had a minor issue when a Dad from a patriarchal society kicked off when he saw his son running around school in a princess dress. (Swedish gender neutrality means not that we don’t have princess…

But it’s not any more his name than it is yours. He was born with it, so were you. It’s your name - if you like it, keep it!

Ha just coming here to say this! I'm a big John Gilbert fan and the original was allegedly based on his career/downfall.

It’s always a bit extra shocking to me when this kind of thing happens in the UK. Outside of the tiny minds of people who write for the Daily Mail, we generally have to put up with less fuckwittery than you do over the pond, for which I and my blood pressure are thankful.

That’s right - I thought I’d heard something about it changing but couldn’t remember the details!

Slight correction from a Swedish resident: it’s 480 days off per child, to be split however the couple sees fit (a single parent can take it all themselves). I think there’s maybe 60 days reserved for each which are lost if one parent chooses not to take it (i.e. if the father doesn’t take any, the mother would get…

Abhorrent? Shooting children is abhorren behaviour. Drowning puppies is abhorrent behaviour. Pronouncing the letter H “haitch” is abhorrent behaviour. Taking lots of photos of yourself is mildly daft.

Hi from Europe! No.

It would be just as funny. Unless you actually know of any Swedish man ever in existence who failed to get into university due to gender quotas? That's not a thing.

There’s a British remake that was on recently - no idea how it compares, but I’d be interested to find out how much I caught with my intermediate (ish) Swedish!

Ingen fara ;-)

Greetings from Stockholm! I’d second most of the recommendations here (except Welcome to Sweden, it’s utter bollocks) and add Patrik Age 1.5, Darling, Puss, Hundtricket, Behind Blue Skies, Simon & the Oaks, and Real Humans (the TV series). Some of them are patchy as films, but for great for learning Swedish purposes…

Sadly history isn’t something for which a “cursory” study will suffice, as your total lack of understanding of it demonstrates.

I loved hearing my name over the intercom so much that I would look for opportunities to escape, then race my mum (who quickly cottoned on) to security in hopes of them announcing my name before she caught me. I was four.

Worryingly, I once used an argument along those lines in a Facebook spat, which triggered a terrifying/entertaining rant about how the government has no right to force people to wear seatbelts...

I’m British, but I know what you mean. It’s one of the (many) aspects of anti-immigration rhetoric that makes me really uncomfortable. I didn’t personally do anything to create or maintain the National Health System, for example, so why should an accident of birth mean that it’s fine for me to benefit from it but…

Exactly, and further to that I'm pretty sure that there is a minimum time allotted to the mother too - I think it's always been three months, so in fact this is simply evening it up. Three months for one parent, three for the other, then they divide the remaining year as they choose.

Cosy with candles and snow, and the days now (rain notwithstanding) do make up for it!

Fair enough. Will send Alex over by express post ;-)

This sentence doesn’t make sense. There is nothing to stop the man taking more than three months (many couples split the time in half), or from taking less than the three months. It’s just that if he does take less than three months, the woman won’t be able to take that time, it’s reserved for him.