Wow, talk about wanting to misunderstand. To me it seems obvious that she meant that she’s referring to the kids, even in English. And if you’re to say in Swedish that your kids wake you up in the morning, that’s exactly what you’d say: “they wake me up”.

There are plenty of super touristy places in Sardinia. I’m sure no locals were even near that beach.

Heja Danmark!

We got this quite recently in Swedish actually! When it first came, a lot people were extremely skeptical, making the usual argument that “feminists want men and women to be the same” but nowadays a lot of people are using it, along with a some of our biggest newspapers.

Is “yuge” an actual word?

Oh, but it’s standard here on Jezebel. I read about how people here claimed Europeans (Swedes, Germans etc) to be very racist and having problems with the refugees coming. This despite the fact that for example studies from Sweden show that a vast majority of Swedes believes immigration to be solely a positive thing…

And I read about a man in the US who claimed that he had not raped a woman but that he might have slipped and accidentally penetrated her. The court let him go.

Yeah, this thread was really an eye opener for me, now I understand that 16 weeks paid maternity leave is actually great - compared to how it is in the States. Thing is, as we here in Sweden can be home for a year - year and half (depending on how you choose to use your parental leave days) everything less than at…

Appalling.

Thanks for taking the time to explain all this to me btw. I really appreciate it :).

Jesus, that is completely crazy. I’m baffled.

Ok, I just googled and JESUS!

But what happens if you get sick? Sorry for my stupid question but I just don’t understand that system.

Well yes of course, that also happens! I’ve never heard of anyone wanting to get back to work that early here in Sweden, but I have a friend who wanted to be back at work when the child was 5 months. Obviously this was not a problem, as the dad was able (and happy!) to stay home for another year or so with the kid.

Oh come off it, “grownup countries”? Are you serious?

Yes exactly, not everyone will have kids but everyone who grows up here benefits from our system. Also, as you say, people do move here for our social benefits. We’re a small country, 9,5 million people, and last year we had about 150 000 asylum seekers. I work with immigrants who have arrived recently to our country…

Not having paid maternity leave leads to inequality though.

Eh, you know we’re not a country, right? Europe consists of many different countries, all with their own policies and decisions. Just so you know. It is terribly American to always want to talk about Europe in general instead of the specific country. It comes across as a little bit ignorant actually.

No, that’s not it.

Yes, that’s how we choose to prioritise.