The Family Scholars’ blog, which carries a range of stories and opinion items on contemporary family issues recently carried a post by an author calling himself Rnewman and bemoaning the attitude of his fellow countryfolk to marriage and the family.

He points out the irony of a country where state supports for the family are strong, but where social attitudes towards family stability are lax.

“When you travel as a Swede you meet a lot of people explaining how impressed they are with our welfare system and our generous family policies in particular. Of course, I can understand why that is. In Sweden all parents get 480 days of paid leave per child during which time they get to keep about 80 percent of their salary and when your child gets sick, you have 60 days per year to be at home taking care of him/her – with a big portion of your salary. You get allowances every month from the government to offset the cost of everyday costs of raising him/her. Families with children are eligible to receive a housing allowance. There are large tax subsidies for daycare and college education is almost entirely tax funded – just to mention some of our offerings.

So why leave Sweden to found a family? He responds: “In this case, following the money won’t lead you to the truth – you find insights when you examine Sweden’s cultural views. First of all, women wait a long time to have children. Traveling, making money, building a career, and buying a house are all first priorities. The average age for women having their first child is over 32 years in my old neighborhood. And last year in Stockholm, more women in the age group 39-42 had a child than in the age group 23-26.

“Secondly, as this survey shows, marriage is not seen as an important institution. Swedish adults believe divorce is almost always justifiable. And in stark contrast to nearly every country examined for this question, Swedes do not agree that children need a mother and father to grow up happily. Other research also shows that the majority of those who file for divorce are women, and that in custody cases that end up in court, the woman basically always wins.”

He concludes: “It’s true that I will miss out on some great financial perks by not building a family in Sweden, but ironically enough, perhaps that’s the price you have to pay for building a family.”