<story><title>Why Finnish babies sleep in cardboard boxes</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22751415</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jan_g</author><text>It is worth noting that all this is not free, but paid for by the tax payer. Many European countries have similar arrangements.&lt;p&gt;Personally, I think all this is money well spent by the governments as it gives nice financial boost to young parents and a sense that someone/something cares about them and their baby.</text></item><item><author>ProcessBlue</author><text>Lovely article. However, I must say that the box is only the tip of the iceberg. It&apos;s been almost four years since we went through the gauntlet so my memory may be a bit fuzzy but if I remember correctly the FREE tier of forming babby in Finland includes:&lt;p&gt;- Initially monthly (increaing to weekly) pre-natal checkups that include bloodwork, metabolism tests, ultrasounds and any treatments necessary to ensure the baby&apos;s and mother&apos;s health.&lt;p&gt;-  About 12 hours of parental training which I found surprisingly useful (containing none of the Lamaze class stereotypes I had been expecting). Also, our group of people contained an absolutely adorable teenage couple, everybody else was in their late twenties to mid thirties.&lt;p&gt;- The whole &quot;actual business&quot;. Now this bit we did have to pay for, about $80 per day that we stayed in one of the maternity ward&apos;s private rooms with full room service.&lt;p&gt;- First weekly and later monthly post natal checkups (also for the mom) including vaccinations. At two years the schedule switches to annual checkups and starts including dental chaeckups. At some point during the first months a doctor actually visits your home to check up on how you are dealing with the whole situation. If there are clear indicators of problems (e.g. alcoholism) the doc can point you in the direction for help.&lt;p&gt;- You start getting about $150/month from the state for the baby (until it is 18 years old), this is about half of the cost of municpal daycare. In addition to this you get financial support during (m|p)aternity leave (the amount is actually scaled based on your salary). Maternity leave is about 100 days, paternity leave is about 50 days and on top of that you are entitled to 160 days of parental leave (either mom or dad can take this). Your place of employment can get state compensation if they decide to pay you a full salaray during your leave. Then there is a general child care leave than can extend to three years, it gets nitty gritty with the bureaucracy of compensations but effectively it is possible to take care of your kid for the first three years and still have your old job back when you&apos;re done. In our circle of friends there are at least a couple of &quot;career women&quot; who have checked out for ~5 years to have two kids and successfully gotten back into the game.&lt;p&gt;So yeah, the box is nice but it is only the icing on the fabulous cake that is having a baby in Finland :-).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mikeash</author><text>Why exactly is this worth noting?&lt;p&gt;Nobody jumps to point out that there&apos;s still somebody paying for the &quot;free&quot; tiers of Dropbox or GitHub or whatever. Yet the moment somebody mentions a &quot;free&quot; social program, people suddenly have to hammer on the point that &lt;i&gt;somebody&lt;/i&gt; pays for it.&lt;p&gt;We&apos;re not a bunch of imbeciles who think that social programs just rain from the sky....</text></comment>
<story><title>Why Finnish babies sleep in cardboard boxes</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22751415</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jan_g</author><text>It is worth noting that all this is not free, but paid for by the tax payer. Many European countries have similar arrangements.&lt;p&gt;Personally, I think all this is money well spent by the governments as it gives nice financial boost to young parents and a sense that someone/something cares about them and their baby.</text></item><item><author>ProcessBlue</author><text>Lovely article. However, I must say that the box is only the tip of the iceberg. It&apos;s been almost four years since we went through the gauntlet so my memory may be a bit fuzzy but if I remember correctly the FREE tier of forming babby in Finland includes:&lt;p&gt;- Initially monthly (increaing to weekly) pre-natal checkups that include bloodwork, metabolism tests, ultrasounds and any treatments necessary to ensure the baby&apos;s and mother&apos;s health.&lt;p&gt;-  About 12 hours of parental training which I found surprisingly useful (containing none of the Lamaze class stereotypes I had been expecting). Also, our group of people contained an absolutely adorable teenage couple, everybody else was in their late twenties to mid thirties.&lt;p&gt;- The whole &quot;actual business&quot;. Now this bit we did have to pay for, about $80 per day that we stayed in one of the maternity ward&apos;s private rooms with full room service.&lt;p&gt;- First weekly and later monthly post natal checkups (also for the mom) including vaccinations. At two years the schedule switches to annual checkups and starts including dental chaeckups. At some point during the first months a doctor actually visits your home to check up on how you are dealing with the whole situation. If there are clear indicators of problems (e.g. alcoholism) the doc can point you in the direction for help.&lt;p&gt;- You start getting about $150/month from the state for the baby (until it is 18 years old), this is about half of the cost of municpal daycare. In addition to this you get financial support during (m|p)aternity leave (the amount is actually scaled based on your salary). Maternity leave is about 100 days, paternity leave is about 50 days and on top of that you are entitled to 160 days of parental leave (either mom or dad can take this). Your place of employment can get state compensation if they decide to pay you a full salaray during your leave. Then there is a general child care leave than can extend to three years, it gets nitty gritty with the bureaucracy of compensations but effectively it is possible to take care of your kid for the first three years and still have your old job back when you&apos;re done. In our circle of friends there are at least a couple of &quot;career women&quot; who have checked out for ~5 years to have two kids and successfully gotten back into the game.&lt;p&gt;So yeah, the box is nice but it is only the icing on the fabulous cake that is having a baby in Finland :-).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>naradaellis</author><text>Also there is more bang for the buck making sure babies are raised well and healthy, over trying to fix maladjusted and unhealthy teenagers and adults years later.</text></comment>