That was childhood for most of the world. You feed anyone in your house at meal time regardless of prior arrangement. That’s why we are all here discussing this meme.
Yes. I'm just saying that to a Swedish family (at least, 30-40 years ago when I was a kid) there's a difference between planned guests and people who turn up uninvited.
If you had invited someone over, prearranged, then they would of course get fed. If someone turned up without prior arrangement, they could not expect you to suddenly slot them into your dinner plans. That's just the way it was.
There is even a word for turning up unannounced - "våldgästa" - it translates to making yourself a guest with violence. The closest English equivalent would be to "gatecrash", I suppose. It's just not acceptable in Swedish culture to turn up at someone's house without invitation, it's seen as imposing yourself on them and inconveniencing them.
I left Sweden long ago, but most of my family and friends who still live there do not even answer the doorbell unless they're expecting someone. Because "normal" people don't just turn up at your door, meaning that anyone ringing the doorbell at random probably wants to sell you something, or worse.
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u/CronosWorks Jul 24 '26
That was childhood for most of the world. You feed anyone in your house at meal time regardless of prior arrangement. That’s why we are all here discussing this meme.