The most surprising Stockholm sight

As my time in Stockholm is coming to a close, I thought I might end with something of a more sociological observation about life in Stockholm. It doesn’t have much to do with education directly, but probably a good deal indirectly. It relates to with something I started to notice when I first arrived here, and which has continued to catch my attention. It isn’t a popular tourist site, a new building, or how public transportation runs (which, by the way, it does, beautifully).

It' s the picture of fathers pushing baby carriages all around Stockholm.You really can’t miss it. They are everywhere, every day. Take a look at Gallery 6 and you’ll see what I mean.

Sometimes paying attention to the little things teaches us something about the big things. This sight of fathers staying home and caring for children is something, I think, many people outside of Sweden may not be used to. There certainly aren’t any comparable sights like this in New York. When I was collecting photos for the Gallery, I placed myself strategically mostly in a downtown park near the Kungsträdgarden and Karl XII’s Torg, as well as across from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and Hortorget by the Concerthouse, and just waited for photo subjects. I did not have to wait for long. Fathers pushing baby carriages, sometimes with other children in tow, were a frequent sight.

So I did a little research.

It seems that in 1995, the government created generous incentives for fathers to take paternity leave. Sweden prides itself on having among the best (if not the best) gender- equal society in the EU (maybe among the Western economies) and works hard to preserve this distinction (although I don’t see this as only a gender issue). When paternity leave was instituted, it was incentivized so that families actually lost subsidies if they didn’t take paternity leave. At the time, the fate of “diaper dads,” or “latte dads,” as they were first called, was uncertain. But now, just looking around Stockholm every day, you see the policy has become quite successful and embedded into the culture.

According to statistics, about 85% of Swedish fathers avail themselves of paternity leave.Benefits are not paid out by employers. They are overseen by the Swedish Social Insurance Administration (Försäkringskassan). Parents are entitled to 480 (!) days for each child with an additional 180 tacked on if you happen to have twins. While parents are encouraged to split these days, one parent can arrange to take the bulk of them. In addition, during the first 3 months of the new baby’s life, the father is entitled to be home for 10 days. These days are in addition to the 480 parent days. Parental leave can be taken at any time until the child reaches the age of seven. There also is talk of expanding the time of leave and benefits as well.(Note: The amount of money to which parents are entitled normally depends on their individual circumstances. Generally, the Swedish government will pay 80% of a parent's salary—up to a cap of about $65,000—for 13 months. One parent can sign over all but two of these months to the other.)

Parental leave is a legal right for all parents in Sweden. This means a company cannot deny a parent’s request for leave for any reason. Companies, in addition to the 480 parent leave days per child, are also entitled to allow parents to reduce their working hours by an additional 25%. Parents can also work part time during parental leave and take parental leave for the remainder of the time.

Maybe some basic economic facts about Sweden (a country of about 9.5 million people) will help explain this tax- payer subsidized generosity. First, Sweden’s defense budget is much lower than the US’s and many other developed countries. However, their social welfare spending (e.g., health, education) is more costly. The tax burden for the average citizen is over 40% (more for some individuals), leaving them with smaller amounts of discretionary after-tax funds. That’s (approximately) double the tax rate of the US. Sweden has its own currency (the krona) and is not part of the Euro zone (and probably will not be for a while.) The krona has appreciated against the dollar, some say because the Swedish public debt to GDP ratio is approximately 39%. In the US it’s about 68%. In addition, Sweden weathered the 2009 financial crisis relatively well and continues to be in good economic shape.

Recently, I came across a study by Amy Shuffleton, of Loyola University in Chicago, in the current issue of the Journal of the Philosophy of Education. Her article is entitled “‘New Fatherhood’ and the Politics of Dependency.” In it, she argues for a paradigm of interdependency as a family dynamic where raising children is concerned. The Swedes seemed to have recognized the importance of this notion of interdependency within a family unit, and have made conscious attempts to ensure that the rearing of children is not a strictly one-sided affair. This type of family relationships has much better potential, I think, to serve both parental and child well-being, as well as Swedish society in general, in both long and short terms.

And then there’s attachment theory. Attachment is basically an emotional bond that connects one human being to another. When we talk about children and attachment, we usually have meant maternal attachment, the relationship between mother and child, to ensure the child feels a sense of security. But from what I’ve seen, evidence of paternal attachment proliferates in Stockholm. Fathers not only wheel baby carriages, but carry, hoist, spin, twirl, and run around with their children with great enthusiasm and a real sense of enjoyment. Why is this important? Studies have shown that children who attach securely develop higher levels of self-esteem, self-reliance, and independence and tend to have better social relationships as they grow.

So, maybe this ‘little thing’ can teach us something about a ‘big thing.’ The idea that a father staying home (for a short but significant time) to raise a child during the child’s particularly major years of emotional, physical, and intellectual development may be something to which we want to pay more than passing attention. Not only that, but accomplishing this with the government support, even encouragement, might be something that, at first, might be considered revolutionary (or, at best, odd) in the US (where government ‘intrusion’ is usually not seen as a good thing). But it just might catch on. And even flourish.

The famous developmental psychologist, Erik Erikson (of Scandinavian heritage, by the way), had an interesting theory known as ’mutuality.’ This concept has to do with the idea that, contrary to popular opinion, children do not only learn from their parents but parents (and other significant caregivers) learn from their children. That these influences are bi-directional and can start positively in early childhood is something, I think, we might remember the next time we see a father pushing a baby carriage at any given time, on any given weekday, in any given country.