Swedish researcher and family man Jonas Himmelstrand talks in this video about how he began to examine the myth that Sweden is a family-friendly society. A subject of special interest for him was the Scandinavian country's sick leave stats, which were the highest in Europe. Why? Because, basically, women workers were stressed out from going against the grain, leaving their little children in daycare to go to work and missing out on the intimate relationship that is natural between a mother and her young child.

"So it seemed we had a big relationship problem in Sweden, building on separating small children from parents, separating parents also from their bigger children." The result was five years research and a book whose title translates, Following Your Heart in the Social Utopia of Sweden. You can read more in this article we published recently on MercatorNet. It's important to get an alternative view about this family "utopia"because so many countries are trying to emulate it.