in sweden, a generous shared parental leave policy exists. parents receive 480 days of leave for each child - they receive about 90% of their salary for 390 of those days. 60 days are reserved exclusively for each parent and the remaining 360 shared however the couple chooses. and, the leave can be taken whenever the couple chooses (up until the child turns 8 years old) so one can take the whole thing at once or a few months here and few months there! and, if the leave is equally shared, the couple gets bonus money from the government! men take about 25% of all parental leave.
the photos below belong to johan bävman, "i started this project when i was home with my own son. i had a hard time finding anything that was written for me as a father. so i got the idea that i wanted to document fathers during their parent leave, to hear why they wanted to be home with their children and what they hoped to learn from it.” the dads report that they hope being the stay-at-home caregiver provides them with a stronger bond with their child(ren). they report they have a better understanding of what childcare involves since they are also responsible for the cooking and housework. see all photographs and quotes here.
some other parent-friendly facts: if you have a pram, you ride the bus for free. swedes can arrange their working hours however it suits them to accommodate their family life. daycare is subsidized at about $250 a month. employers are entitled to allow parents to reduce their working day by 25% even after the parental leave has been used up. prams can go anywhere because ramps are built everywhere to accommodate them.
on a related note, we even benefit from living here. the government provides an additional monthly child allowance - to help with the costs of caring for their children - until the child reaches the age of 16!
i say if you have little kiddos move to sweden to raise them!
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