“Still not over the American woman who was super surprised to see so many men walking around with strollers and generally looking after their children alone during her travels through the Nordic countries.”
Bolognese sauce: https://satwcomic.com/the-implication-of-that
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A friend of a friend of mine visited Stockholm from the US. She loved it, but was really puzzled by “all the gay nannies” until she was told they were the fathers.
why are they giving the babies knifes???
It’s a Finnish baby, knives are mandatory.
Jokes aside, I’m a Swedish speaking Finn who happened to move to Sweden for the last year of school and my teacher made a point of reminding me it’s not okay to wear a knife to school.
She made quite the face when my mother told her we stopped that particular tradition about a century ago.
But still, it’s something of a national joke, lol.
That funny as fuck!
I was also wondering about the knives. They are too small to prepare food and that is the wrong kind of knife for stabbing
Wait, what’s with the knife ?!
there’s two men who walk a baby down my street every nice day.
they must be really good friends or roommates to be so close all the time.
it’s nice to see to men have such a strong unshakable bond together.
If I didn’t know any better I’d swear they were married or something.
In the United States even the most well meaning dads still act like their typical parental duties are ‘babysitting’ that deserve some kind of praise. Its… Something…
Do American men not look after their kids?
I can only speak from personal experience. my father
- never changed my diaper
- beat or screamed at me more than we ever “played ball” or “had fun”
- worked me like a dog
- only gave me approval two weeks before he died
- said he “loved me” five times in my entire life before he died
- never once cared for me while I was sick
as a father myself I
- change diapers when I need to
- never beat my kids
- screamed at them only when they were caught doing something incredibly stupid and dangerous
- let them play and pay them for their work
- play games or watch them play outside
- try to support them as best I can with positivity
- tell them I love them every single day and night
- have stayed up for days caring for them while they were sick
I’m not looking for a medal, or a thank you. All I’m looking for is a bit of appreciation when they grow up and look back when they become parents.
I want to break the cycle of shitty father figures, that’s all.
America is just like every other highly patriarchal society: No
Some men are wonderful dads and incredibly involved but culturally speaking American men still very much buy into the concept of “woman’s work” and included in that is women raising his kids for him
It doesn’t help that men looking after thier own kids is seen as “babysitting” or even worse a predator.
There’s plenty of YouTube reviews of men taking thier kids to the park and watching them play while being a parent. Then female parents call the damn cops on the clear dad being a dad.
so my doofus brother’s wife grew up one of those “i refuse to be one of those women who does ‘women’s work’” and just wants to stay home playing video games. and my doofus brother, well, he’s a doofus so neither of them gets their house cleaned. or their food cooked properly. or their clothes cleaned. or any of that shit. it’s embarrassing
The number of fathers that gave me shit for taking care of my kids is rediculous. We had our kids 15 months apart and I would routinely have both of them in a public restroom for changing. The pure vitriol directed at me for doing the womens job was immense beyond measure.
On the flip side, when I would take them to the park to play, I would be acosted by nearly every mother there. There were no fathers, just mothers that would have to comment that it was great to see a father participate. I also got a lot of phone numbers that I got very embarrased about and my wife found hilarious.TLDR:. Most american fathers do not put in much effort unless its sports related.
The joke is, a caring dad is more attractive to women.
Vitriol for changing a diaper and phone numbers for going to the park? If I was one of those giving out numbers I’d definitely give it to the guy changing the diapers
My kids dad (I am not bio-mom) told me straight up he only wants adult children. I pointed out to him kids ARE adults now and he has no relationship with them due to that attitude. So many fathers want to phone it in then are shocked when they have no meaningful relationship with their kids.
I always liked Ugly Kid Joe’s version of Cats In The Cradle.
am a dad, been told I’m ‘babysitting’ my kids a few times.
My wife has warned her friends “Never refer to my husband looking after his kids as “babysitting” unless you want a snarky, probably very rude response.”
Not sure I’ve ever been directly told that despite being just me with my daughter most days/weekends due to my wife’s work schedule. Thinking on it, it’s probably that I look way more intimidating than I am
Depends where on the political spectrum they are.
This is the real answer. The only men I know who act like it isn’t part of their job to be a dad are also super “Christian” and conservative.
In one instance I know of the wife has a college degree but the husband doesn’t. They are quite impoverished because he works and she doesn’t because “it isn’t a woman’s place to earn more than a man”. I’m not fucking kidding or editorializing.
“Yes, my self-image is worth $80,000 a year, why do you ask?”
Generally it’s considered suspicious for an adult man to be alone with a child so it’s safer and more convenient for men not to be involved with their children’s lives in any solo capacity. It stems from this idea of everyone-is-pedophile-except-for-pedophiles.
This is a BS justification imo
Being alone with your own child is not considered suspicious. Hanging out alone with out a child at a playground sure. Having your own kid in your cart at the grocery store? Absolutely not
But that’s the problem. People here see grown man + child, come to a conclusion, and only accept evidence that reinforces it. It doesn’t matter if it’s your kid, there’s enough idiots that refuse to believe that that your child and you are now in danger.
Don’t buy too much into all the ragebait on the internet. I take my kid to the park all the time and no one has ever so much as looked at me sideways. And no other fathers solo-parenting their kids at the park have ever been accosted during the many, many hours I’ve spent there.
Yes, some idiots foolishly assume man+kid=danger, but this is not a typical reaction at all. People who react negatively and make a scene are an extreme minority.
Are you an American? Because that’s pretty common here.
Hanging out alone with out a child at a playground sure
Here in Poland playgrounds are often extended with a public outdoor gym or something similar. That solves all problems, making them social centers for both child-free and parents.
E.g.
With fenced playground:
And no fence anywhere
Same thing in Australia. I love getting a quick workout whilst the kids play. The kids love the gym equipment as well.
Wait, I haven’t seen these outdoor gyms around in Sydney. Granted, I’m not paying close attention to playgrounds, in which cities have you seen them?
Except*
Thank you. Fixed.
Not in my experience. Men behave as if their contribution is either working a job to earn money for the family and/or drinking/physical violence.
Usually both, at least in my region.
In addition to broadly prevalent ‘traditional’ norms promoted and espoused by men in many, many parts of the US, that assert that caring for a child is innately feminine…
Tons of American women also actively promote patriarchy, they’d call these guys gay and not real men, for taking care of their kids, for being stay at home dads.
When American men look after their children people call the police and accuse them of being pedophiles for daring to be in public with a child.
I have two young daughters. I brought them everywhere by myself. This never happened. Adjust your assumptions.
No they don’t
yes of course they do.
Paternity leave?
I think it is also specifically racist, implying that the black character didn’t know her father.
Buddy, that’s a white chick with the Paris Hilton build. It’s that American men are shit or that we don’t get leave from work for either mother or father to have time to spend with their new family addition.
American workers period, don’t get enough pay or government support, such as free child care, to take time out to care for their families.
So the lowest paid adult, usually the mother, is stuck with childcare duties.
Not to normalize that both parents should be working full-time either in order to support the family, and be able to invest the time into raising children.
Hell, my partner and I run a cleaning business. We both have to take clients so thst we have a enough money to get by. Plus dragging a kid around with us.
Ouch. Running a business is more than a full-time job! I’m doing that.
It is, but I will say I love it for a lot of reasons. One. I’m by myself for most jobs. Other than my partner or my kid. Which I love enough to tolerate, just kidding, (they’re great, but I’m not a people person, so it can take a toll on me to be someone to someone all the time)
I get to listen to podcast like Legends of avantris and just zone out while doing work. Hell, sometimes the places are still so clean from last time, all I gotta do is dust and wash stuff. It has ups and downs
Guy, it’s a cartoon
Now apply that same statement to what you said before.
I wasn’t going to reply because I didn’t think it was productive but I’ve had three replies totally misunderstanding what I meant by “it’s a comic”.
The person I was replying to seemed to think it was clear the american was white. As it is a comic, it is very open to interpretation.
I understand I was wrong - I saw another comic with this character being referred to as white and doing something hella racist but all of these replies are totally misunderstanding me.
And? Lots of our greatest stories are cartoons. They still can have a meaning.
I mean stonetoss makes cartoons too.
That’s not to compare the two, this cartoon isn’t racist at all from what I can tell but the defense of being a cartoon is a poor one.
Bruh what, its referring to how American fathers often dont have time/arent culturally as used to looking after the kids compared to Scandinavia.
Wait what’s with the knives? That baby is holding one, his dad is giving one to the other baby… I don’t get this reference I’m a brute sorry
SATW always portrays Finland with a knife, so it’s more of an inside joke and not related to this specific comic strip.
All scandinavians has those (fjällkniv, morakniv,…) but the finnish are portrayed, in Scandinavia, as the most isolated/laconic people,the most “manly” ones, hence the knife. Swedes were portrayed as the gayest in the nineties at least (very “woke”), and so on. It’s just cultural stereotypes.
Thanks for these insights, TIL.
…I want a Scandinavian boyfriend now, these knives are really nice!
Swedes were portrayed as the gayest in the nineties at least (very “woke”), and so on.
Also because the way their version of the “Scandinavian language” is very flamboyant
And norwegian is like happy people joking friendly. Can’t imagine one of them actually being angry 😁
Except on their anchovies.
Yeah right.
