Norwegian Blog

As one of you mentioned in a response to the last post on gender equality, Norway implements quite a nice parental leave policy.  The best part about the policy is how flexible it is.  Parents are allowed to take either 44 weeks (10 months) of full-paid leave or 54 weeks (12.5 months) of 80% paid leave.  Now, those months can be split up in several ways.  The mother must take 3 weeks off immediately before birth (key word MUST) and 6 weeks immediately following birth.  The father must take at least 6 weeks (key word MUST).  If the father does not take the leave, it is simply lost as paid leave.  The remainder of the time that they choose to take off from work can be split up however they choose.  Is that cool or what?

Each parent can also take one year of unpaid leave after the paid period ends.  Excellent job security.  Each parent must have worked for 6 of the previous 10 months before birth to qualify for paid leave.  If they do not meet this requirement, they still get a lump sum from the government.  So, in essence, the government pays Norwegians to have babies.  Keep in mind, new parents do not have hospital bills either.  Of course, Norwegians pay high taxes (for these very reasons…), so it makes sense that they are reimbursed for such expenses as taking care of children. 

An increasing number of Norwegian fathers are taking the maximum leave.  If you have the option, why not take it, right?  Everyone knows that the parent with whom a young child spends the most time will be the parent they are most attached to.  Fathers want to be a part of their young child’s life from the start.  In an article posted on the norway.org website (the Norwegian embassy in the U.S.), one father says “Paternity leave gives me the opportunity to be as involved in raising her as her mother. Now Ingrid can get to know her father just as well as her mother, and that is great both for her and for us.”  It seems so obvious that this is the way it should be, doesn’t it?

If only all parents had this option.  In the United States, neither mothers nor fathers are guaranteed paid leave.  Each can take 12 weeks if they meet the requirements, but they are unpaid.  Therefore, most fathers take a very minimal amount of time off, and working mothers typically do not take more than 2 months.  They simply throw the very young child in daycare and are not as involved as most would ideally like to be.  It is also common for women to want to go back to work earlier than planned because they are so used to working a lot.  As most of you know, the United States is full of workaholics.  Many people simply do not know what to do with themselves when they are off work for an extended period of time. 

We could definitely take a lesson from Norway’s generous parental leave policy. 

In all Scandinavian countries except for Denmark, alcohol monopolies control the sale and consumption of alcohol.  Sweden was the first of these countries to institute governmental control of alcohol in 1850, followed by Norway in 1922.  Norway’s alcohol monopoly is called Vinmonopolet or Polet for short      (literally “wine monolpoly,” which can be misleading because it carries hard liquor and strong beer as well).  One can purchase weaker beer at supermarkets.  Any alcohol with a higher alochol content than 4.7% must be purchased at Vinmonopolet.  Until 1999, alcohol purchases at Polet were required to be over the counter purchases, meaning that you had to tell the salesperon what you wanted and they would retrieve it for you.  Since 1999, customers can physically choose what they want to purchase and bring it up to the counter. 

There are very specific hours of business for Vinmonopolet and for beer purchases at supermarkets as well.  They open mid-morning and close at 6 pm on the weekdays and 3 pm on Saturdays, with no service on Sundays.  If you have read one of my earlier posts, you will recall that business in the whole country basically shuts down on Sundays.  The hours for buying beer in supermarkets follow the hours of sale of harder booze at Vinmonopolet. 

One must be 18 years or older to purchase beer, but cannot purchase any alcohol with more than 22 % alcohol content until they are 20 or older.  As in the U.S., some bars are stricter than others and everyone always knows someone that is of age, so of course teenagers often engage in alcohol consumption as well.  In the mid and northfern parts of the country, hjemmebrent or heimebrent (moonshine, the illegal product of distilling one’s own liquor) alcohol is popular.  A very popular drink is called karsk, which consists of strong coffee, home-made liquor (usually vodka) and a spoonfull of sugar.  It really tastes strange, but it can be enjoyable from time to time.  When I was up in northern Norway I had this a couple times and it was something fun and different to drink.  Sometimes people mix vodka with flavored hot tea, which I must say did not taste very good. 

While hard liquor is very heavily consumed in Norway, beer is the drink of choice for most people.  Wine is becoming more and more popular, but since the Norwegian climate does not accomodate vineyards, the sales have typically been lower than beer.  There are 18 breweries in Norway and the most popular kind of beer consumed in Norway is pilsner (probably because the alcohol content is lower and thus more available at supermarkets); the majority of beer produced in Norway is pilsner.  Norwegians do not drink a lot of imported beer.  It was interesting to me to see Norwegians get really excited about Budweiser.  It’s a classic American beer and that’s why they like it. 

I cannot forget the most well-known Norwegian liquor akevitt (aquavit) which I have mentioned several times now in previous posts.  I do not enjoy most hard liquors, but I do enjoy akevitt.  If you are of legal age and haven’t tried akevitt, I suggest you do.  It has a very unique flavor.  Tell me what you think!  Do not drink it on an empty stomach.  It is most enjoyable in small quanitites after a large meal (such as Christmas).  I just got my hands on some venison steaks, so I plan to follow a Norwegian recipe that calls for akevitt, geitost, lingonberries and juniper berries (Scandinavian berries) in the sauce.  I’ll let you know how it turns out!