Iceland - Part 3: Parenting

While in Reykjavik, we spent a lot of time lounging in parks and people watching. That's the way to savour a city's culture. Being a teacher and a parent, I have always had an interest in how kids are raised in different countries

Here are my observations.
-Many young parents (mid 20's)
-Lots of old-fashioned prams (the unpractical, clunky ones). Baby carriers are not used at all.
-Many fathers alone with their infants/ toddlers,/preschoolers, pushing prams or holding hands.
-Young children (elementary schools), biking by themselves by a major road, without an adult present. As our walking guide told us : "that is a common site in Reykjavik. Every one looks out for one another."
-Children playing in the streets until 10pm is common (the sun never sets in the summer) Our rental apartment was in a residential neighbourhood and we heard and saw children singing, kicking the soccer ball around and drawing on the sidewalks.
-Very child friendly society: spacious baby diaper rooms in small bistros, cafés, chic restaurants. High chairs (with blankets) were found everywhere. Most bookstores, info centres, cafés had an Ikea-style child-friendly area.

schoolyard

Here are some facts I found out:
-Paternity leave is compulsory in Iceland. The 9-month parental leave is divided as such: 3 months for mothers, 3 months for fathers and 3 months to be split anyway they wish. It is more equalitarian than Quebec's parental leave (the most parent-friendly leave in North America) as it obliges the father to take  those months caring for his child. They receive 80% of their salary.
-Birth rate is high: 2.14 child per woman  (in 2009).
-University is free (except for books and registration fees). Not only to Icelanders, but to any foreigner who wishes to study at an Icelandic university (as long as they can speak/read/understand Icelandic).
-Common for babies to sleep outside in their strollers. Check it out.

 random mural we stumbled upon:

For another view of European parenting, I encourage you to check out my lovely Bex's blog
In one of her most recent posts, she observes the following:
French parenting
As we all ate, drank and were merry, the kids (6 minibeasts in total) roamed around us. Every now and again there were tears and kisses were required, but generally apart from a background of happy giggling, we were in essence two separate parties. My impression, and I know you'll correct me if I'm wrong, is that in Britain and perhaps elsewhere, children are sent to bed early (by my standards...) and the evening is adult time. The French don't seem to separate adult time and kid time in quite the same way. The French are much more into family time. The kids are there. Just around. I like this approach. It suits me. We stayed until gone midnight (hooray, how I miss late nights), and the kids happily entertained themselves until then. All except Owen, who crawled into my lap at about 11pm, snuggled up and fell asleep. Good parenting? Bad parenting? The kids had a whale of a time and I had a lovely cuddle. My kind of parenting.