Our family consists of Linnéa 35, Olle 52, Bonny 7, two dogs Busan And Teddy. Also, Olle has two grown up kids, Hugo 21 and Paulina 20 that live in Uppsala. We live in Malmö since 2016, we live in a detached villa that we own. It is 93 kvm2 that consists of 5 rooms, 1 kitchen, 1 bath and 1 extra toilet. We also have a shed in where we have a joinery (carpenter space?). And also a summer guestroom. The plot is about 700 kvm2 that is quite big here in Malmö.
The area we live in is called Videdal, it is located in the east of town, about 4 km from the central station. It mostly consists of houses, both detached, semidetached and terraced. Mostly families and older couples live here, many with Swedish background but also from east of Europe, Middle East, so it’s quite mixed. I think it has been many workers living here earlier because it used to be a airport here until the 70´s, now its a recreation area instead (much better), and now the area is getting more and more popular.
Linnéa works as a veterinary nurse, in spare time her hobbies is carpentry, grow everything you can eat in the garden. Olle works with solar panels as a seller, he is a real environmentalist and always have a plan for saving the world in the back of his head, no matter the subject or context :).
What kind of toys does Bonny like to play with?
She plays with anything she can find, empty cardboard boxes is a favorite because they can turn out to be anything! She has some “regular” toys like barbies, Lego and so on but not so much. A lot of the things she chose herself is things from flea markets, that can originally be for decoration like a porcelain cat, a vase that looks like a bird, and so on.
She also loves to paint so its many color pens, scissors and papers lying everywhere.
Do you cook at home? Do you cook for Bonny?
Usually something quite simple like pasta and salmon, or rise and a stew. In school, they eat quite much, so they are not always that hungry in the evening, so quite often we just have some porridge or yogurt as well.
How does Bonny spend free time?
Our daughter Bonny is very creative, she uses everything she can find to create paintings, gifts for family and friends, house for her toys etc. She also loves to be out and cycling, jump the trampoline and go swimming.
We do hike with Bonny, the first time we slept in a tent she was probably around five years old. When we hike by our self we usually walk for about 15 km per day, taking short breaks and really enjoy getting tired and sleep at different places! But when we go hiking all together we usually travel to a nice location, then do shorter trips during the day and taking loooong stops with lot of nice meals 😉 always swimming a lot!
What are the roles of parents in your country? What duties do belong to mother and to father?
It is very different from family to family I guess, a lot of parents in Sweden both stay home with the babies when they are small. In Sweden, you have 480 days that are paid from the state to be home with your kid, you need to use those days before the kid is 8 years old, and of these days 3 months are marked for the father.
In our house hold I often do the cocking, Olle does the washing (of clothes), we both do the dishes. Cleaning the house we both do, fixing and car och taking care of the house we both do. Olle probably is playing for outside with Bonny, and I do more painting with here inside. It’s mostly me who is putting Bonny to bed.
Can you explain how maternity leave works? How long is it? Can you get back to work after it without any obstacles?
I answered this question above. You can apply to get 60 days free before birth if you have a heavy work. In most working places there is no problem to be home when you are having a kid. A lot of people work part-time when they get back from maternity leave, often shorter days (like 6 h/day) and some also are not working 5 days but 4 or 3 a week.
Does the country help families with kids? (for example contributes to the kindergarten…)
You have the right to have kindergarten from that the kid is 1 year old, it can be a que depending on with kindergarten you want your kid to go to, there are both municipal kindergarten and private alternatives. It is easy to get a place, but it does not have to be close to you, and in some parts of town that is considered to be fancier the que is probably longer.
Do you vaccinate your child? If so, against what? Is it mandatory to vaccinate kids?
Yes we do, we have a national vaccination program that contains of: diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, haemophilus influenzae, pneumococci, measles, mumps, rubella/roseolla, human pappiloma cirus (hpv)
Is it safe to travel with a child in Sweden? What to watch out for? Do you think your country is friendly for families with kids?
I think it’s very safe to travel with children in Sweden, nothing special to watch out for that I can think about, other than the obvious things like sea currents if you go swimming in the sea.
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