Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Bucking the nanny state
An article showing the few (albeit American) who dare buck the Swedish nanny state.
No one sees the downside more clearly than Therese Murphy and her husband, Paul.
They are bringing up their four children in the picturesque Swedish city of Gothenberg.
The couple are due to have another baby before Christmas, a welcome addition for 39-year-old Therese to care for at their five-bedroom house near the waterfront.
The couple should have a perfect family life, but when the Murphys go out their neighbours look at them with curiosity.
If Therese takes her two youngest, Elise, nine, and William, five, to play in the park, it is nearly always empty.
For she and Paul, a medical salesman who was born in the U.S., are bucking the system.
Therese is a stay-at-home mother - one of a tiny number of women in Sweden who do not have a paid job.