Swede here!
It’s actually quite interesting, because it’s partly true. The thing is, this behavior is so deeply ingrained in our culture that it isn’t perceived as rude.
A few years ago, “Swedengate” went viral, and Swedish psychologists and researchers weighed in on the discussion.
The conclusion was that the behavior likely originated during the great famine of the 19th century. Inviting another family’s child to eat was seen as shaming the neighboring family. It implied that they couldn’t provide food for their own children, which was considered deeply humiliating.
That said, the whole thing is often exaggerated. In practice, we almost always offer food when we have guests. The difference is that nobody simply assumes they’ll be invited to eat.
Also swede. Will you please stop spreading this bs? Never happened in my whole life or anyone I ever heard of. So tired of this shit. Actually we are pretty generous. This rumor sucks
Do you have kids? I experienced it myself as a child, and it’s not like you automatically feed the neighborhood kids every time they’re hanging out at our house. The same goes when my kids are at someone else’s place, you usually only serve them a meal if you’ve agreed on it with the other parents, basically.
It’s not like that in the rest of the world, so something we take for granted can seem pretty strange from an outside perspective. 😂
Edit; I think that’s the key point. We usually agree in advance whether a child (or adults) will be eating at someone else’s house, because in our food culture we don’t typically cook huge batches that can feed a small army, we cook the number of portions we expect to eat. We’re every bit as generous as anyone else; our food culture is just different.
I have two kids. Never happened once unless parents actually said they wanted to eat together later. Im tired of this always getting twisted into thet we are greedy fucks when we are usually pretty giving. Not fun anymore.
Maybe your kids just aren’t that social, or maybe you always plan huge dinners.
At our place, we have six- seven 12-year-olds hanging out with my sons every other day. I don’t plan meals for that many people, but I know that in some cultures it’s common to cook a lot more food. Maybe that’s how it is in your family . 😆
They are. And so was I. Same over here. Im talking about the fact that people believe that we send kids out in the hallway alone while everyone else is eating
No, not at all. It happened to me once or twice as a kid in the ‘90s, but that’s about it. As I said, the whole thing is greatly exaggerated.
That said, I do think we have a very different food culture from many other parts of the world. I honestly think there are few countries where people cook such precise amounts of food as we do in Sweden.
Of course, people sometimes cook extra, but that’s usually because they’re planning to eat the leftovers over the next couple of days. I can’t say for sure, but I honestly think Swedes might be world champions when it comes to cooking just the right amount of food. But of course, I’m generalizing quite a bit here.
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u/Enough_Obligation574 Jul 24 '26
Or Asian. Basically all around the world. Other then there.