Such an interesting collection of data, thank you! I’m an American and have lived in Norway for 11 years. I currently have two kids, ages 1 and 6, in “barnehage,” the universal daycare/preschool.
A couple of comments (about Norway specifically):
1. the reason that “no Nordic country had more than half of their infants and 1 year-olds enrolled in formal care” is because of paid parental leave. In Norway we have the option of taking 61 weeks of combined paid leave, with both parents earning 80% of their income (which is paid by the government) or 49 weeks of leave at 100% of your normal pay. I should also note that in Norway, paternity leave is “use it or lose it” as a way to force men to take their allotted portion. Here every child has a right to a “barnehage” spot starting from August in the year they turn one, but they must turn one by November of that year. Meaning that the vast majority of children aren’t starting barnehage until they are close to one. In our case, both our daughters were born in early spring, meaning that by the time my leave and then my husband’s was over (we took the 80%/61 weeks option), we had a short gap between when paternity leave ended in May and barnehage started in August. Both of my kids therefore didn’t start formal care until they were nearly 1.5 years old because of our long paid parental leaves and the time of year they were born.
2. During this gap period both times I stayed home; the first time I was laid off at that time from the pandemic and the second time I took unpaid leave. Both times I qualified for the “cash for care” monthly payment, which works out to about $700 a month with the current exchange rate. This option is often used for a short period of time, in situations like mine where a parent must stay home and is therefore losing income. In other cases families use the money to pay a nanny until barnehage starts. This option is only available from when the child is 13-19 months. Part of the reason for the restriction on it is actually to encourage barnehage enrollment, despite it being more expensive for the state. Norway places a strong emphasis on the importance of barnehage for social development, and for Norwegian language development for children of immigrants and refugees. About 98% of children in Norway attend barnehage, and there is a strong social pressure to use it. Even parents here who don’t work send their kids to barnehage because it’s such an integral part of the culture and Norwegian childhood.
3 I would argue that the workers benefits we get also provide a lot of (paid) “informal care”. By law, in additional to the long paid parental leave, which accounts for a lot of informal care, every worker has the right to 20 paid vacation days, though most employers offer more (I get 25, which is common). Most parents use all of these during summer and school holidays. We also get 10 paid “sick kid” days per year, which is 20 if you’re a two parent household. We also have shorter workdays and a lot of workplace flexibility as parents of small kids. It is totally normal and expected to leave work between 3:00 and 4:00pm to pick up your kids from barnehage. All of this contributes to your point about Nordic working moms spending more time caring for their kids than Americans (this was interesting!)
3. One other thing to note on the topic of paying a fair wage to care workers is that all care workers here - formal and informal - also have universal healthcare and other rights such as vacation, sick days, paid leave, etc that in the U.S. would be considered add-on employer-sponsored “benefits” that here are paid for by the state and employee subsidies
Thanks again for this super interesting read! It’s not really my experience here that there’s more informal care than formal (would say it’s the opposite, especially compared with other parts of the world) but the data reveals some really interesting points about the value of care work, who is paying for it, and how much.
“Even parents here who don’t work send their kids to barnehage because it’s such an integral part of the culture and Norwegian childhood.” I think this is also really interesting in the context of Norwegian child care cost (both of money and time). I would broadly categorize justifications for universal early formal care as a distinct policy from general family financial support as:
1. More economically efficient by moving kids from “inefficient” home/relative care to “efficient” group care
2. More egalitarian because most SAHPs are women so moving kids into formal care disrupts traditional gender norms of women-as-caretakers
3. Better for child development/education
1 can work, but I don’t think it produces the type of child care I want for society broadly - our kids are worth time and money! 2 doesn’t happen even in Nordic countries, Quebec, etc - women are still the primary caregivers. But 3 can stand on it’s own without 1 and 2, even if people disagree about the age at when formal group care should be normative etc
1. One could definitely argue that "efficient" is not best when it comes to care, and there are some people here who push back on the social pressure to put toddlers in barnehage. Though to be honest most of the criticism comes from non-Norwegians living here who see this as heavy-handed cultural homogeny and indoctrination into Norwegian society. Some people want the cash-for-care option extended longer.
I could see these criticisms if the care being provided felt "institutional" or was sub-par, but it isn't at all. It's similar to Montessori-style early childhood education, there is a low adult to kid ratio, and it's extremely affordable (we pay about $300 a month for two kids). So for me it's a no-brainer, though since I'm married to a Norwegian and have lived here for over a decade I probably have also drunk the barnehage Kool-Aid. Many Norwegians (including me, a dual citizen now) feel that you're doing your child a disservice by not sending them because of the developmental and social learning, strong focus on play and outdoors, and preparedness for elementary school, which starts at age 6 here.
2. I 100% believe that it helps create a more egalitarian society. I don't know a single stay at home mom, and that's not just because of my demographic, it's a known fact that workforce participation here is very high among women. Some will say that this is the whole point of barnehage; to keep parents in the workforce, since our taxes help pay for the welfare system.
It actually carries a stigma here to be a SAHM, though I don't think that's a good thing, since people should do whatever they want as parents. The thing I experienced is that since I had 10 months at home with both of my kids, I got the feeling that I was a SAHM for awhile, and was grateful to have had that experience, and then felt it was best for everyone for me to work outside the home and them to go to bhg. But if I lived in the U.S. and had to put them into formal care at 3 months or even earlier, I would likely have a VERY different take on all of this. I forgot to mention that we also get paid days off for the adjustment period when they start barnehage, where we spend parts of the day there with them, who are walking, probably talking toddlers at this point. Again, would very different story if I had to hand off an infant who I was still nursing.
But yes, women here absolutely do more care work than fathers, as everywhere, we have a longer maternity leave, and there's the classic plague of barnehages and schools calling the mom first when someone is sick and the mom being the one to stay home, carry more of the mental load, etc. But the total normalcy of barnehage is a great equalizer in my home and in society.
One other interesting thing to note is there is a public debate going here now about whether we are starting kids in barnehage too early (age 10-18 months is the norm), and that it's too traumatic for the kids at such an early age (I know how this sounds to Americans). The problem is that that takes us back to the debate of, ok who is staying home longer then? And it would probably still be the women.
I love on-the-ground insight! I think in American media/policy talk, paid parental leave is often talked about as medical recovery, which it is, but I think the Nordic model of parental leave (and extended leave like they have in the UK and Canada) also shows that parental leave is a form of child care.
I think the sick care and flexibility is also so important - in the US I've seen discussions about how we need daycare for sick kids, but another option is giving the parents child-specific sick leave. I'd also have to imagine trying to get staffing for sick-kid-daycare would be quite difficult, in addition to the contagious issues and also who really wants to leave the house when they're sick?
What is the yearly schedule like in barnehage? I know in the US summer child care during school breaks is a difficult spot for many parents - do the barnehages have long breaks?
I agree, a "sick kid" daycare sounds like a terrible option (right, who would work there?) plus when your child is sick they want to be at home and with a parent. I agree, the kid-specific sick days are such a relief to have, especially during the winter virus season.
Public barnehages like the one my kids attend are open year round, except for three weeks in July, and also closed on all public holidays. Pretty similar to public schools in that way. During the three weeks in July, most parents take their vacation then so it's usually not a problem. Some private barnehages have different hours and are closed a bit more for holidays, etc.
There are also special barnehages with "after hours" care in evenings and on holidays for people who work in healthcare, etc and work irregular hours.
Such an interesting collection of data, thank you! I’m an American and have lived in Norway for 11 years. I currently have two kids, ages 1 and 6, in “barnehage,” the universal daycare/preschool.
A couple of comments (about Norway specifically):
1. the reason that “no Nordic country had more than half of their infants and 1 year-olds enrolled in formal care” is because of paid parental leave. In Norway we have the option of taking 61 weeks of combined paid leave, with both parents earning 80% of their income (which is paid by the government) or 49 weeks of leave at 100% of your normal pay. I should also note that in Norway, paternity leave is “use it or lose it” as a way to force men to take their allotted portion. Here every child has a right to a “barnehage” spot starting from August in the year they turn one, but they must turn one by November of that year. Meaning that the vast majority of children aren’t starting barnehage until they are close to one. In our case, both our daughters were born in early spring, meaning that by the time my leave and then my husband’s was over (we took the 80%/61 weeks option), we had a short gap between when paternity leave ended in May and barnehage started in August. Both of my kids therefore didn’t start formal care until they were nearly 1.5 years old because of our long paid parental leaves and the time of year they were born.
2. During this gap period both times I stayed home; the first time I was laid off at that time from the pandemic and the second time I took unpaid leave. Both times I qualified for the “cash for care” monthly payment, which works out to about $700 a month with the current exchange rate. This option is often used for a short period of time, in situations like mine where a parent must stay home and is therefore losing income. In other cases families use the money to pay a nanny until barnehage starts. This option is only available from when the child is 13-19 months. Part of the reason for the restriction on it is actually to encourage barnehage enrollment, despite it being more expensive for the state. Norway places a strong emphasis on the importance of barnehage for social development, and for Norwegian language development for children of immigrants and refugees. About 98% of children in Norway attend barnehage, and there is a strong social pressure to use it. Even parents here who don’t work send their kids to barnehage because it’s such an integral part of the culture and Norwegian childhood.
3 I would argue that the workers benefits we get also provide a lot of (paid) “informal care”. By law, in additional to the long paid parental leave, which accounts for a lot of informal care, every worker has the right to 20 paid vacation days, though most employers offer more (I get 25, which is common). Most parents use all of these during summer and school holidays. We also get 10 paid “sick kid” days per year, which is 20 if you’re a two parent household. We also have shorter workdays and a lot of workplace flexibility as parents of small kids. It is totally normal and expected to leave work between 3:00 and 4:00pm to pick up your kids from barnehage. All of this contributes to your point about Nordic working moms spending more time caring for their kids than Americans (this was interesting!)
3. One other thing to note on the topic of paying a fair wage to care workers is that all care workers here - formal and informal - also have universal healthcare and other rights such as vacation, sick days, paid leave, etc that in the U.S. would be considered add-on employer-sponsored “benefits” that here are paid for by the state and employee subsidies
Thanks again for this super interesting read! It’s not really my experience here that there’s more informal care than formal (would say it’s the opposite, especially compared with other parts of the world) but the data reveals some really interesting points about the value of care work, who is paying for it, and how much.
“Even parents here who don’t work send their kids to barnehage because it’s such an integral part of the culture and Norwegian childhood.” I think this is also really interesting in the context of Norwegian child care cost (both of money and time). I would broadly categorize justifications for universal early formal care as a distinct policy from general family financial support as:
1. More economically efficient by moving kids from “inefficient” home/relative care to “efficient” group care
2. More egalitarian because most SAHPs are women so moving kids into formal care disrupts traditional gender norms of women-as-caretakers
3. Better for child development/education
1 can work, but I don’t think it produces the type of child care I want for society broadly - our kids are worth time and money! 2 doesn’t happen even in Nordic countries, Quebec, etc - women are still the primary caregivers. But 3 can stand on it’s own without 1 and 2, even if people disagree about the age at when formal group care should be normative etc
Yes to all points!
1. One could definitely argue that "efficient" is not best when it comes to care, and there are some people here who push back on the social pressure to put toddlers in barnehage. Though to be honest most of the criticism comes from non-Norwegians living here who see this as heavy-handed cultural homogeny and indoctrination into Norwegian society. Some people want the cash-for-care option extended longer.
I could see these criticisms if the care being provided felt "institutional" or was sub-par, but it isn't at all. It's similar to Montessori-style early childhood education, there is a low adult to kid ratio, and it's extremely affordable (we pay about $300 a month for two kids). So for me it's a no-brainer, though since I'm married to a Norwegian and have lived here for over a decade I probably have also drunk the barnehage Kool-Aid. Many Norwegians (including me, a dual citizen now) feel that you're doing your child a disservice by not sending them because of the developmental and social learning, strong focus on play and outdoors, and preparedness for elementary school, which starts at age 6 here.
2. I 100% believe that it helps create a more egalitarian society. I don't know a single stay at home mom, and that's not just because of my demographic, it's a known fact that workforce participation here is very high among women. Some will say that this is the whole point of barnehage; to keep parents in the workforce, since our taxes help pay for the welfare system.
It actually carries a stigma here to be a SAHM, though I don't think that's a good thing, since people should do whatever they want as parents. The thing I experienced is that since I had 10 months at home with both of my kids, I got the feeling that I was a SAHM for awhile, and was grateful to have had that experience, and then felt it was best for everyone for me to work outside the home and them to go to bhg. But if I lived in the U.S. and had to put them into formal care at 3 months or even earlier, I would likely have a VERY different take on all of this. I forgot to mention that we also get paid days off for the adjustment period when they start barnehage, where we spend parts of the day there with them, who are walking, probably talking toddlers at this point. Again, would very different story if I had to hand off an infant who I was still nursing.
But yes, women here absolutely do more care work than fathers, as everywhere, we have a longer maternity leave, and there's the classic plague of barnehages and schools calling the mom first when someone is sick and the mom being the one to stay home, carry more of the mental load, etc. But the total normalcy of barnehage is a great equalizer in my home and in society.
One other interesting thing to note is there is a public debate going here now about whether we are starting kids in barnehage too early (age 10-18 months is the norm), and that it's too traumatic for the kids at such an early age (I know how this sounds to Americans). The problem is that that takes us back to the debate of, ok who is staying home longer then? And it would probably still be the women.
I love on-the-ground insight! I think in American media/policy talk, paid parental leave is often talked about as medical recovery, which it is, but I think the Nordic model of parental leave (and extended leave like they have in the UK and Canada) also shows that parental leave is a form of child care.
I think the sick care and flexibility is also so important - in the US I've seen discussions about how we need daycare for sick kids, but another option is giving the parents child-specific sick leave. I'd also have to imagine trying to get staffing for sick-kid-daycare would be quite difficult, in addition to the contagious issues and also who really wants to leave the house when they're sick?
What is the yearly schedule like in barnehage? I know in the US summer child care during school breaks is a difficult spot for many parents - do the barnehages have long breaks?
I agree, a "sick kid" daycare sounds like a terrible option (right, who would work there?) plus when your child is sick they want to be at home and with a parent. I agree, the kid-specific sick days are such a relief to have, especially during the winter virus season.
Public barnehages like the one my kids attend are open year round, except for three weeks in July, and also closed on all public holidays. Pretty similar to public schools in that way. During the three weeks in July, most parents take their vacation then so it's usually not a problem. Some private barnehages have different hours and are closed a bit more for holidays, etc.
There are also special barnehages with "after hours" care in evenings and on holidays for people who work in healthcare, etc and work irregular hours.
And happy to provide on-the-ground insight! :)