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Comment by Rebelgecko | Hacker News Reader

Are those 400+ days per parent or divvied up between the parents? I imagine that can have a big impact on how the leave affects companies.

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480 days together. Of those, 90 days each are non-transferrable (between the parents).

Wow. I would almost never work. I'm having my 12th kid soon, and my wife doesn't work. At 390 days (roughly 13 months) per kid, I could pretty much just not work.

Why don't people do this in Sweden? There are so few kids!

People want to work, and do other things that work avails to them, including provide better experiences and lifestyle for the smaller number of children in their household.

Even in the 1960s in the US, when the working class had much more economic security, and it was easier to financially support children than today, the median number of children per family was still < 3.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/718084/average-number-of...

I think "better experiences" should include the value of siblings. There is always somebody to play with. You form a team against bullies. Being able to attend classes together or share dorm rooms is great. Even later in life, there will be family to share life with.

Most people won't have as many children as you though. Even among people for whom having a family is a priority, they probably won't have more than two or three.

3 kids would be able to provide each other plenty of sibling value.

Having kids is expensive (even when health care and education is free, they eat and wear clothes and play sports and stuff!). People also want to work and not just raise kids, I think. I don't know of anyone with half that many kids.

I think the Swedish culture is also very practically minded. (Romance is dead!) Which means the practical drawbacks from having a big family (car size, expensive vacations etc) will weigh a lot.

It’s per child, with a percentage ear marked for each parent and the rest is up to the parent to decide to gets them.

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