Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.
๐ Be Nice!
๐๏ธ Community Standards
๐งฌ Keep it Real
๐ฝ๏ธ Credit Where Credit is Due
๐ Post Formatting
๐ฌ Post Frequency/SPAM
๐ดโโ ๏ธ Internationalization (i18n)
Sรญ, por favor [Spanish/Espaรฑol]๐ฟ Moderation
Note: This is not a rule, but a helpful suggestion.
When posting images, you should strive to add alt-text for screen readers to use to describe the image you're posting:
Another helpful thing to do is to provide a transcription of the text in your images, as well as brief descriptions of what's going on. (example)
"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
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.
So what do American fathers do on mandatory parental leave, just sit at home?
Oh, wait, there is no mandatory parental leave for fathers in the US, is there?
Lol, federally we don't have paid parental leave for mothers either. If there are 50+ employees both parents can take up to 12 weeks unpaid, and states may force paid leave to be offered.
And yeah, I'm not a parent, but I've noticed that over the years there's been more and more of a move towards fathers taking part in the nurturing parenting (as opposed to mainly being involved via providing, instruction, and discipline)
really puzzled by "all the gay nannies"
Damn, thatโs some eastern europe type phrasing
As a Finn I am deeply insulted by yet strongly approve of the knife thing.
Do American men not look after their kids?
Depends where on the political spectrum they are.
This is the real answer. The only men I know who act like it isnโt part of their job to be a dad are also super โChristianโ and conservative.
In one instance I know of the wife has a college degree but the husband doesnโt. They are quite impoverished because he works and she doesnโt because โit isnโt a womanโs place to earn more than a manโ. Iโm not fucking kidding or editorializing.
"Yes, my self-image is worth $80,000 a year, why do you ask?"
I'll be honest, I've given real thought to the idea of trying to leverage toxic masculinity to get men to take on more domestic responsibilities.
"What kind of real man needs a woman to cook for him?!"
"Bro, are you telling me that a woman can change a diaper but you can't?!"
"Dude, if you can't braid your daughter's hair and get her to dance lessons on time, are you even a real man?!"
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.
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.
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 โwomanโs workโ 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.
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."
I can only speak from personal experience. my father
as a father myself I
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.
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.
Grew up in America. Father never raised me. It was 100% my mom. My only memories of my dad are him working in his office, him losing his shit if you talked to him during the day (even to say "it's lunch time, dad"). Him leading the conversation at dinner, him yelling and screaming at my mom and I, and him punishing me if my grades were more than. 5% away from perfect.
Here in the UK its getting more and more common, but we still have to put up with strangers asking "are you babysitting today?".
Like no mate I'm being a parent.
... why are the men drawn normally, but the women like that
Every character is a stereotype of a country.
And those are just the female stereotypes of those countries.
Sweden is the home of the women brought home by the vikings. Big breasted beautiful blondes.
The US is the home of the women who go tanning and get plastic surgery.
The artist of these comics is a woman as well.
Oh honey, I'm so sorry
For reference, here are the other countries:
England: 
France: 
Japan: 
Brazil: 
Yep I'm uncomfortable with it. They could have stereotyped in a way that didn't need overt sexualisation
If you see all the other comics of this series by the author (a woman, BTW) you realize it's part of the joke. It's all about calling out stereotypes and the point is that, all countries are weird in their own way and bringing to light subtleties, similarities and differences beyond the stereotypes.
As a single dad in the Bible belt of PA, I feel this. I always got weird looks. I just love being a Dad.
Not a single dad, but my wife was gone for a year when our daughter was two. I used to watch moms struggling with kids in the grocery store and no one batted an eye (GA, USA). I'd do grocery shopping with mine in the cart and keep her amused while shopping and checking out and on more than one occasion for compliments about what a great dad I was.
I love my girls and spend as much time with them as I can and do things with them all the time. Still, my wife gets nothing and I occasionally still get pats on the back and compliments on doing basic dad stuff from both men and women.
Always struck me as such a weird thing. Sometimes moms really need more recognition too, I think.
That's a weird one. On the one hand, men in many areas somehow still absurdly think of childrearing as women's work, and a positive feedback when they act like a parent can help things in a better direction... but it also seems absurd to praise an adult for doing what really should be the bare minimum, clapping for them like a child who remembered to use the potty.
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.
Is Finnish dad distributing knives to the kids?
The kids make their own knives in school, but not as babies. They ski as babies.
I'm from the US and I did the stroller thing often. My kids are out of strollers now, but when I go run I see dads often enough out pushing one or two kids. I take my kids to the park a lot and say hey to the other moms and dads I know. I volunteer for things at my kids school, in their classes. One time it was me and two other dads, although that does seem to lean more heavily toward moms. I think moms are still better at other peoples' kids, at least I know that's not a strength of mine.
I think my generation of parents, right now, is equal responsibility. I have had to correct some extended family members, when my family shows up to a gathering and we have food, they automatically assumey wife made it, and I'll dissuade them of that notion. But that's coming from a generation of people where that's how it was, and I take no offense, and it also doesn't happen anymore.
I would also not take offense to someone saying "Look at you doing dad stuff," because hey, it's not always easy, and encouragement is ... encouraging.
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.
There's a joke here in Sweden that goes like: (With finish accent) "Boys! Stop fighting with knives! We gave you chainsaws for Christmas!"
It's been a long while since I saw a SATW comic. I used to be obsessed with these...