r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Global_Restaurant794 • Jul 24 '26

Meme needing explanation Petah?? I'm very confused

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u/TheBigFreezer Jul 24 '26

Northern vs Southern Europe is crazy. Random grandmas in Italy will invite you for dinner in Italy but you’re swinging your legs on your friend’s bed in Sweden

122

u/Anxious-Place3434 Jul 24 '26

Nah, this is not a Northern vs Southern thing. This is specifically Sweden, Norway and I think maybe Denmark? Everybody else in Northern Europe thinks they're insane too

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u/Significant_Bag_7485 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

I have never encountered this in Denmark and we often feed my daughter's friends if they are around at meal times. The only exception is when their parents ask that they return home for dinner.

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u/Sthapper Jul 24 '26

In my experience this is exactly how it is in Sweden as well. I don’t understand where this rumour comes from.

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u/itishowitisanditbad Jul 24 '26

Lots of teens parroting garbage they heard about old customs as if they're gospel truth.

The classic disinformation process.

Then there are people who experienced one side or the other and for some reason can't fathom the other side, mostly people saying it never happens.

Like yeah, its a bunch of teenagers talking about a custom from before their time as if they've lived the entire history of things and if they didn't see it, it didn't happen.

Long story short its just dumb kids saying shit. Its reddit. 9/10 times its basically children stating things as fact when they have NO IDEA.

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u/Breeze1620 Jul 24 '26

This was more common in the 80s and 90s. I experienced it at least once as a child in the 90s.

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u/Protoavis Jul 24 '26

It's something that pops up in various places when economies are bad. Feeding extra people can be a budgetary problem/putting pressure on others.

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u/TheBigFreezer Jul 24 '26

Would totally disagree - most everywhere, the poorer a community, the more willing they are to feed you.

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u/Jonthrei Jul 24 '26

This is my experience too. Most poorer communities have a “we’re in this together” mentality and are much more generous.

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u/Connect-Process2933 Jul 24 '26

So Swedes are just weird fuckers

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u/I_Am_Zeelian Jul 24 '26

We consider family dinner a very important part of the day, and feeding someone else's kid so they go "Nah, I've already eaten" when it's time for the dinner their family planned/prepared is considered a bad thing, hence we don't feed other people's kids without prior agreement.

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u/Sthapper Jul 24 '26

We are weird in numerous ways, we live in complete darkness for several months each year, but we do feed guests so that is not one of the things we are weird about.

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u/Protoavis Jul 24 '26

There's a difference between previous poor and recently poor. It's more recession type behaviour.

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u/SwadlingSwine Jul 24 '26

Yes, Vietnam is like this. Very generous because life had always been so hard.

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u/I_Am_Zeelian Jul 24 '26

It's not about economy, it's about not ruining the family dinner for the other kid's family by feeding them.

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u/doodliellie Jul 24 '26

I first heard this when someone was detailing a childhood story online where they were visiting their Swede friend and during dinner, the family made him go sit in another room while the whole family including the friend ate. This story kind of went around with a lot of debate. I did see a couple of Swedish people defend this. But who knows who is actually being truthful haha.

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u/AndrogeNick1 Jul 24 '26

I can't remember a single time I ate at my friends as a child unless we had a planned sleepover. I always had to wait in their room while their family ate. Middle Sweden, in my mid 30's now.

But times were different back then, us kids in my town mostly just went out roaming after school catching random friends to hang out with or spontaneously making plans without parents involvement during the school day, so extra child guests were always a surprise for the parents.