Top 5 Facts About Being a Parent in Sweden

When we first moved to Sweden, I wasn't a parent. I was newly married and it was the first time we lived together. But living in Sweden with kids versus without kids is a very different experience. We enjoyed many years of traveling from Gothenburg to other countries all over Europe during our "Double Income No Kids" period of our lives.

After we became pregnant and had our first child, we started to understand why people kept telling us that Sweden is such a great place to raise a young family. This is actually one of the reasons why we are still living in Sweden today.

Here are 5 Interesting Facts about being a Parent in Sweden:

1. Generous amount of Parental Leave and you are allowed to work 75% if you choose, when you go back to work.
2. So many playgrounds (even rain playgrounds)!
3. Daycare widely available
4. Benefits for Kids
5. VAB days or days off to take care of a sick child.

Parental Leave

Maternity and Paternity leave (or Mammaledig and Pappaledig) is very generous in Sweden. You get 1.5 years to share. And the partner needs to take at least 3 months for you to get the full amount. Those days can also be saved until kids are older. Note: There are high pay and low pay days though. And navigating Försakringskassan (Swedish Social Insurance Agency) as new parents isn't easy but it is manageable! 

Playgrounds 

Nature and the outdoors is plentiful here in Sweden. The saying, "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing." is an old Scandinavian saying and something we have learned since being here. You can be sure to find a number of playgrounds around as well. Sweden also has many daycares and those daycares usually have outdoor play areas. During the weekends, we have visited different daycare playgrounds in our neighbourhood. 

Daycare or 'Förskola'

Usually, your child can start from when they turn 1, but some choose to keep kids home until later (our kids started at 16 months and the other, at 1 year).

As mentioned above, Sweden has plenty of daycares available. For example, in our little section of our neighbourhood, there are actually 4 different daycares all nearby each other. It's amazing how close your daycare can be to your home too. It makes it so convenient for drop-off and pickup. Our daycare is just a 5 minute walk from our house. 

With the monthly child benefit from the Government, the cost of daycare is practically free. 

Depending on the daycare, kids get a wide array of meals provided by the daycare. Some even use vegetables grown in the school's garden! Our daycare even has a daily alternative meal for my son who has allergies. 

In the summer, the daycare closes for 4 weeks, but if you need to work, there are Summer daycares as well. Most people take time off in the summer. Most companies give employees 6 weeks vacation per year and if you want to take 4 weeks in the summer, they are not allowed to refuse!!

Benefits for Kids 

There are a few different benefits for kids in Sweden. Dental care is free until Age 25 (check-ups and X-Rays). If they need prescibed medicine, like for example, my son has allergies and can have really bad ezcema, all the cortisone cream and anti-histamines for him are free. Parents also receive a monthly child benefit which is enough to cover the cost of the monthly daycare fee. 

VAB or "Vård av barn" 

These are basically Government paid days when you "take care of sick kids" or if the place that takes care of your kids is closed. During Covid, this happened to a few schools, but not our daycare (even though there were cases:/)

Parents are entitled to paid days off when a child gets sick (up to 120 days in a Calendar year) from when the child is 8 months to 12 years old. But for the last 60 days this is only if the child is sick and not the person (caregiver) who usually takes care of them. Unlike in Canada, where you use your own sick days if you need to be off with a sick kid. 

Sweden has been really great for our little family. Where else can you get 6 weeks vacation and actually get paid more when you take vacation days? We have found many benefits and advantages living here and we feel really lucky to have this opportunity. Of course, there are always things that we have found that haven't been good, but that's for another blog!

Thanks for reading, and remember don't forget your snacks!