* The birth of our son cost us a total of $50. That was parking fees and a bed for me in the same room as my Partner. Who had a 30 hour labor and an emergancy C-Section.
* For the first couple of weeks we had a nurse coming over and checking up on the health of my partner and son. Organized and paid for by the goverment.
* Both myself and my Partner got 3 months maternaty/paternaty leave. Then another 3 months to split. And we could take that however we wanted. I ended up work 20hours a week for the first month.
* Once our son was a little older and was going to Daycare, he was sick, a lot! I wasn't at work for more than 3 days a week for the first 3 months. I went to my boss to appologize and offer to take holiday days or something, and he laughed at me and said "No! I knew this was going to happen, your a new parent, look after your child!".
* Kids as young as 5 and 6 would walk to school, in the snow, by themselves.
That contrasts with my experiance in Australia:
* Its illiegal for my son to walk to school by himself, before he's ~12
* It cost us as much per week for daycare in Australia, as it did per month in Iceland.
IMHO, this comes down to a sociatal prioritization and allocation of resources. When countries invest in their children, they are investing in their future.
This is just a nice boss, not a social policy. There are plenty of nice bosses anywhere; and plenty of shitty ones.
(edit: to be clear iceland sounds amazing and overall i think i agree with you but i'm genuinely curious about the walking alone being illegal part because that wasnt my experience growing up)
I see a lot of primary school kids walking to school without parents here in Sydney.
For the record the birth of our daughter which involved emergency c-section cost $0. We had multiple home visits in the first 3 months some purely focused on things like breast feeding techniques. Additionally all vaccines and checkups were $0.
My partner had 6 months paid maternity (albeit from her company). The daycare sickness is not country specific - if your boss has kids then they get it.
Where's the source for this? I don't believe that's true.
Also most of what you wrote is true for Australia too. Except it's 3 months to split from gov leave, and as long as your company offers in paid leave.
Kindy is free in QLD now. Not sure whether that equates to daycare?
Source showing I'm wrong and giving more context: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-09/how-long-is-too-long-...
Re: Kindy, that starts at 4yrs old. Daycare is prior to that. There is government assistance for sending your kid to daycare, the 1 week to 1 month cost I mentioned is the out of pocket expense.
The costs for the public system was basically just the parking. In addition, discussing the experience with every other mother in the mothers group, the public hospital we went to treated my wife better than any of the private hospitals treated the other half-dozen women.
We had a nurse visit occasionally to check up on our son. paid for by govt.
My wife got the standard 3mo paid by govt, but she took 12mo of leave. I got 4mo paid by my company(I know I was lucky in that regard).
I take sick leave whenever I want because I have about 10yrs of it banked up with my current employer. My wifes employer is also really chill about her taking leave and even going into a negative leave balance.
One thing I agree though, daycare is ridiculously expensive. So genuinely relieved when my son started school & we only have to pay daycare for 1 child now. Can't wait till my second child is in school and I can put all that money on the mortgage instead.