Swedish Families
Today Sweden consists of families of all kinds. Some have a lot of children and some very few or none. Here you will find different cultures, homosexual couples, single parents and many couples have kids without being married. All these sorts of families are possible YFU host families, so when coming to Sweden it is good to be open minded and ready to be a part of any kind of family.
The traditional Swedish family is small and only include the nuclear family. While one to three children is the norm, it often depends on where in Sweden you look. In the bigger cities, like Stockholm and Göteborg, the living cost is higher and families lives in smaller houses or apartments and therefore families does not tend to be big. In smaller towns families are usually bigger.
In Sweden young people are in general brought up to be independent and able to take care of themselves at an early age. Most teenagers are very trusted by their parents and do usually not have very strict rules at home. This comes from being brought up showing your parents you can be trusted. With this freedom, young people in Sweden are also expected to take their own responsibility when it comes to doing homework, helping out at home and letting parents know when and where they are and also when they will be home.
The most common thing in Sweden is that both parents in a family work and therefore every one in the household help out at home with cooking, cleaning and washing cloths. As an exchange student you are also expected to be a part of this and help out at home. Doing this is also a very good way of becoming a family member.
Since both parents usually are working most families meet up around the dinner table in the evening. Eating together gives you the chance to talk about the day and spend some nice time as a family.
Most children and young people in Sweden are practicing some kind of sport, participating in clubs or playing some instrument on their free time. Parents usually take big part of their children’s activities and on weekends they go to their games or concerts. As an exchange student you have a lot of possibility to do sport or be part of other clubs. These activities are always outside school.
