Strange

Tan Tam Mei

In his spare time, Mr ViktorWallstrom, 29, grabs his hik-ing boots, windbreaker andhunting gear and sets off forhis cabin in the woods north

of Stockholm for a week. He alsopacks lots of diapers for his14-month-old son Henry.

Bundled in warm clothing, thetoddler gets a ride on dad’s back,snug in a modified baby seat. MrWallstrom packs light for these fa-ther-and-son trips: no baby bottles,no baby toys, and no prams.

Though this might seem like ascene out of Survivor: Baby Edition,he is doing what many Swedish fa-thers do – he is on long parentalleave to look after his child whilehis wife is at work.

“I’m the outdoorsy one, and mywife is the musical one. I like goinginto the woods, hiking and pluck-ing mushrooms. So I usually takeHenry on these expeditions sinceI’m the one on parental leavenow,” he says.

He is part of a growing tribeknown in Sweden as “latte papas” –men who go on state-funded leaveto be their children’s primary car-egivers, a role still associated main-ly with mothers. While their wivesor partners are at their jobs, themen do everything for their babiesand toddlers, mostly still bottle-fedand in diapers.

Latte papas can be seen every-where in public, one hand on astroller and the other holding amug of coffee. You see them inparks, or chilling with fellow dadsand kids in cafes.

Mr Wallstrom, into his fourthmonth of parental leave, took timeoff from his public relations job ina telecommunications firm to stayhome, look after Henry and handlethe cooking, washing and cleaningup.

He plans to stay at home for six

months until Christmas. His wifeLinnea, 31, stayed home for almosta year after Henry’s birth before re-turning to her job as an internation-al coordinator with the Stockholmpolice.

“Taking parental leave is goodfor everyone. My wife gets to go towork, it’s a good thing for her ca-reer. Henry gets to spend time withtwo parents who are active in hislife. I get to bond with him duringthis stage of his life, so I think beingon parental leave is fantastic,” saysMr Wallstrom.

Experts in Sweden say thatwhen fathers take more parentalleave, it benefits not only their ownfamilies but can also enrich the la-bour market and reduce gender dis-crimination.

Forty years ago, Sweden was thefirst country in the world to intro-duce parental leave, giving bothparents an equal chance to stay athome with the child.

The state grants couples 480days of paid benefits, with 60 daysfor each parent that cannot betransferred between them. If eitherdoes not take the 60 days ofnon-transferable leave, it is forfeit-ed. The remaining 360 days can beshared equally or transferred be-tween parents.

Like the Wallstroms, many cou-ples combine their parental leaveentitlement with leave benefitsfrom their jobs to extend their com-bined time off to a total of about 18months.

Parents on paid leave are enti-tled to 80 per cent of their monthlysalary for the first 390 days, with anearnings cap of 37,083 Swedish kro-na (about S$6,500). The remaining90 days are paid out at a flat rate.Those who are unemployed are al-so given paid parental leave.

The generous benefits given toSwedish parents appear to be work-ing, as more couples are having ba-bies now. According to the WorldBank, Sweden’s total fertility rate(TFR) edged closer to replacementlevels in 2012 to reach 1.91, upfrom 1.65 in 2002.

In comparison, Singapore’s TFRhas declined steadily over the yearsto 1.19 last year, well below the re-placement rate of 2.1.

According to Statistics Sweden,mothers take an average of 75 percent of parental leave, while fatherstake just 25 per cent. But more fa-thers are taking more time off, split-ting the parental leave more equal-ly with their wives.

As a result, Sweden – a countryalready well known for its gen-der-egalitarian policies – is seeingrising expectations that fathersshould bear some of the burden ofunpaid work at home.

“Nowadays, people find itstrange if fathers don’t stay athome with the child,” says doctoralstudent Ida Viklund, 30, of Stock-holm University, who is specialis-ing in parental leave.

Ten years ago, fewer than 5 percent of couples shared parentalleave equally. This has risen toabout 15 per cent, according to theSwedish Social Insurance Agency,the government body that manag-es parental leave.

That is a welcome increase, butM s V i k l u n d , w h o h a s atwo-month-old daughter and is onparental leave, says that “from amother’s perspective, it isn’t asmuch as we would hope for”.

She and her management con-

sultant husband will share the pa-rental leave equally, but she notesthat Swedish mothers continue totake the main responsibility forchildcare.

To encourage parents to shareleave more equally, the Swedishgovernment introduced a GenderEquality Bonus in 2008. The moreequally parental leave is divided,the more payouts a couple receiveover and above their basic parentalleave payouts.

But Ms Viklund says the bonusis less of a factor encouraging dadsto take parental leave than thechanging attitudes to parental rolesin younger families.

She believes that when men stayhome, they make the “painful” dis-covery of just how tiring it is to be afull-time caregiver to a baby andmanage the housework as well.That awareness helps men main-tain a harmonious relationshipwith their wives and children even

in the event that the couple breakup in future.

What latte papas say they learnto appreciate most though is the op-portunity to establish deeper bondswith their children.

Mr Johanochcissi Kristensson,34, who took nine months of paren-tal leave last year to care for his sonAlgot, now two years old, says: “I fi-nally understand what it means tobe a parent. It’s tough work, trustme, and I’ve been in the military.

“Before, I didn’t understand theimportance of making sure that Al-got was fed or rested at exact times.I thought my wife was being inflexi-ble and unreasonable. Now I knowif you don’t follow these details, allhell breaks loose.”

He has returned to his job as ananalyst at a public managementagency. “If you want to comparework and taking care of a child, I’dsay that work is easier. But al-though caring for a child is muchmore taxing and demanding, Ihave no regrets.”

Dr Sebastian Lantz, 30, stoppedpractising medicine to go on eightmonths’ parental leave and care forson Ebbe, now 13 months old.

“I didn’t need to learn to cookand clean because I’d been sharingthose responsibilities with my wifesince I first got married. But I hadto learn how to change diapers orfeed him, that was more challeng-ing,” he says.

Four months into being a lattepapa, he says: “You feel so muchcloser to the child and are part ofhis life. My time now with Ebbewill hopefully translate into a bet-ter relationship when he grows old-er and enters the rebellious teenage

stage. I’m also secretly proud thathe says ‘Daddy’ a lot more than‘Mama’ now.”

Research in Sweden has shownthat when the father is more in-volved in childcare, it can enhancethe cognitive and social develop-ment of the child. It can also influ-ence the child’s future in terms ofincreased chances of higher educa-tion attainment and lower chancesof criminal behaviour and delin-quency.

Ms Viklund says: “In Sweden,we want to focus on the child’s per-spective, so one thing we stress ischildren’s right to have both par-ents around them. They should begiven the opportunity to be closeto both parents and not just the tra-ditional caregiver, usually themother.”

While more Swedish fathers arediscovering the upside of caring fortheir children, the parental leave ar-rangements also allow women togo back to work after having babiesand focus on advancing their ca-reers.

Sociologist Marie Evertsson, 45,of Stockholm University, says: “InSwedish cities, it is uncommon forwomen to stay at home to be house-wives and most families are dual-in-come households. Fathers on pa-rental leave means that motherscan return to work earlier. This willhelp to minimise discriminationagainst mothers in the workplace.It’s not just beneficial for mothers,but for all women.”

Having spent almost a decadeconducting research in genderequality and parental leave, shesays parental leave enables bothparents to achieve work-life bal-ance, with equal opportunities toadvance their careers and care fortheir child and home.

Having mothers and fathersspend roughly equal periods on pa-rental leave means the labour mar-ket and employers will be less likelyto discriminate based on gender,she believes.

Sweden is one of the top fourcountries in Europe with the nar-rowest gender gap, as reported inthe Global Gender Index 2013. Thereport, which is published by theWorld Economic Forum, measuresgender equality in areas of econom-

ics, politics, education and health.Still, a gender wage gap persists

in Sweden, with the average wom-an receiving 86 per cent of a malecounterpart’s total pay, accordingto official data.

Said Associate Professor Everts-son: “If men increase their share ofparental leave, this changing socialnorm will make it difficult for em-ployers to single out the ‘riskier’gender. Right now, the assumptionmade is that women are the‘riskier’ gender because they wouldstay at home much longer thanmen on parental leave.

“Once these assumptions arechanged, gender equality in the la-bour market will increase and thegender wage gap will decrease.”

Most Swedish employers havelearnt to deal with employees go-ing on parental leave by hiring tem-porary staff or moving employeesaround to step in for those who areaway.

Mr Niklas Lofgren, a spokesmanfor the Social Insurance Agency,says: “Companies know that in thelong run, parental leave is a goodthing. It keeps companies runningbecause in order to have a big la-bour force, you need more parentsto work and have more children.

“To attract the best talent, com-panies have to offer good work-lifebenefits too. The system works, socompanies benefit as well.”

He said some companies even of-fer to top up 10 per cent of theiremployees’ parental benefit pay-outs to attract top talent and retainvaluable employees.

The company Mr Wallstromworks for, Tele2, is one of the fewwith such incentives. But he andhis wife say they did not decide tosplit their parental leave for thebenefits. Rather, they chose to takeleave to spend time with Henry be-cause they see themselves as“equals in this relationship”.

Mr Wallstrom says: “Staying athome exceeds your expectations inboth ways – it’s tougher than youthink, but it’s also more satisfyingthan you would expect. But for myson, I would give up my work; infact, I would give up anything andeverything.”

suntimes@sph.com.sg

Toh Ee Ming

Principal ballerina Gina Tse remem-bers the nights when she woulddash from a performance to thechildcare centre to pick up her son,Jacy.

There was that memorable Satur-day when she danced her heart outin the biggest role of her career – asPrincess Odette in Tchaikovsky’sSwan Lake – and the thunderous ap-plause continued long after the fi-nal curtain call.

Backstage, people were pushingforward to offer congratulationsand press bouquets into her arms.

But the single mother had to gether four-year-old from the night da-gi – a pre-school providing af-ter-hours care.

It was almost midnight and freez-ing cold as she was pushing hispram. “I was still burning from theperformance. I’d just danced infront of thousands, but in that mo-ment, I felt most on my own. Itbrought me back to earth. This islife, this is the stuff that matters, try-ing to get him home before it’s toolate,” she says.

That was two years ago, and MsTse says she could not have pulledher life together after her marriagecollapsed if not for the flexiblechildcare available.

She is one of many parents jug-gling work and parenthood andneeding childcare at inconvenienthours.

In the last five years, the numberof children aged one to 12 in af-ter-hours care has increased by 50per cent, from 3,817 to 5,770, saysMs Erika Karlenius, political adviserto Education Minister Gustav Frido-lin.

Across Sweden, there are about170 municipal i t ies withpre-schools that stay open duringevenings, at night and on week-ends. Most childcare centres typical-ly open from 6am to 6pm, Mon-days to Fridays.

One place that opens 24/7 is Gal-axen Forskola (Galaxy Pre-school),where Ms Tse placed Jacy. It is oneof the largest branches of the pri-vate pre-school chain Halsans For-skola.

“Sweden is becoming a 24-hoursociety, with more people workinglater, so they need night dagis,”says Ms Lena Wernholm, 63, itsovernight care coordinator. Shiftworkers like restaurant employees,hospital and theatre staff and trans-port workers often need help withchildcare.

For Ms Tse, 35, being a singlemum has made it tougher. A whirl-wind romance brought her fromLondon to Sweden in 2004, but sheand her husband split up whenJacy was three months old.

To build a new life, she returnedto ballet and performing with theRoyal Swedish Ballet. The day afterher baby turned one, she enrolledhim in overnight care at GalaxenForskola. “The first three years ofJacy’s life were the hardest, but thedagi saved me,” she says.

Theatre hair and make-up artist

Catharina Lundin, 43, is raising hertwo-year-old daughter Juno mostlyby herself. Her musician boyfriendoften goes out of town for shows. “Ihave no extended family, andJuno’s grandparents don’t live inthe city,” she says.

It costs too much to get help athome. Parents pay about 800 Swed-ish kroner (S$140) a month at Gal-axen Forskola, compared with 180kroner an hour for a professional ba-bysitter.

“When I first started at the nightdagi a month back, I wanted to hugthe teachers for a long time. Itmade me so happy to know Junowas being taken care of,” recalls MsLundin.

Galaxen Forskola has a team ofeight teachers who take turns to su-pervise the night class. The chil-dren go to bed by 9pm, after which

the teacher-in-charge is expected tostay up to watch over them.

Veteran teacher Karin Schylberg,52, does not mind the hours. “It’snice and quiet at night. I get tospend more personal time with thechildren and know them better,”she says.

There are about 20 to 30 chil-dren enrolled for night care.

“This childcare centre is popularamong parents in the entertain-ment business and health-care sec-tor, as it’s the only school in centralStockholm with this service,” saysHalsans Forskola director Lena Re-bane, 54.

In Sweden, it is legal for childrenas young as one to be enrolled inchildcare.

The rising demand and trend to-wards 24-hour facilities mark anoth-er milestone in Swedish childcarearrangements, with the needs of mi-

nority groups like night shift work-ers and single parents being met.

There are about five of suchchildcare centres in Stockholmalone. Since last year, there hasbeen a state grant of 31 million kro-ner a year to support municipalitiesthat provide after-hours care. Thegrant will be raised to 80 millionkroner a year from next year.

This recognises the fact that thelabour market has changed and peo-ple are expected to work shifts.

Jacy is now six and no longer atthe night dagi, but last month, heattended a special reunion dinnerin his old classroom, with otherchildren he used to spend his eve-nings with.

Says Ms Tse: “It was very emo-tional for us, seeing Jacy’s old teach-ers, and meeting the other mothersagain.”

suntimes@sph.com.sg

for Swedish

Dadchild

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housewives

women to stay

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The Swedish find it

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The reports and photographs on these pages are by journalismstudents (from left) Tan Pei Lin, Tan Tam Mei, Toh Ee Ming andHariz Baharudin of Nanyang Technological University’s Wee KimWee School of Communication and Information.

They were part of a group selected to visit Sweden last monthfor Go-Far, the school’s overseas reporting programme.

outdoors with

home with thedon’t stay

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GOING THE DISTANCE

child

Night childcare a lifesaver for shift workers

PHOTO: HARIZ BAHARUDIN

Dr Sebastian Lantz stopped practising medicine to go on eight months’ parental leave and care for his son Ebbe, now 13 months old. He is secretly proudthat Ebbe says “Daddy” more than “Mama” now.

ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

PHOTOS: TAN PEI LIN

Mr Viktor Wallstrom, who is on six-month parental leave till Christmas, teaching his toddler Henry to walk. He says caring for a child is challenging but that the bonding time between father and son is valuable.

“I’m the outdoorsy one, and my wife is the musical one. Ilike going into the woods, hiking and pluckingmushrooms. So I usually take Henry on these expeditionssince I’m the one on parental leave now.”MR VIKTOR WALLSTROM, on his 14-month-old son (right)

[ special report: parenting the swedish way ] [ special report: parenting the swedish way ]

PHOTOS: TOH EE MING

It is nearly midnight when theatre hair and make-up artist Catharina Lundin (above) picks up her daughter Juno frompre-school. People who work late hours like her rely on overnight pre-schools to take care of their children. TeacherKarin Schylberg (below) says she does not mind the hours as she can spend more personal time with the children.

More couples aresplitting their 16months of parentalleave more equally

“In Swedish cities, it is uncommon forwomen to stay at home to behousewives and most families aredual-income households. Fathers onparental leave means that motherscan return to work earlier. This willhelp to minimise discriminationagainst mothers in the workplace. It’snot just beneficial for mothers, butfor all women.”SOCIOLOGIST MARIE EVERTSSONof Stockholm University

36 thinkthesundaytimes November 23, 2014

37thinkNovember 23, 2014 thesundaytimes