13 ms·

Posted because we just received our 2016 box, and I thought it was fascinating to see the contents as a Scottish man: * http://imgur.com/a/I0NYI http://imgur.c

Posted because we just received our 2016 box, and I thought it was fascinating to see the contents as a Scottish man: * http://imgur.com/a/I0NYI http://imgur.com/a/I0NYI

dijit 10y ago
I think this idea is super cool and I have no qualms with my tax money going to stuff like this- it's incredibly welcoming and needed in one of the most uncertain and harshest times in an adult life. What's interesting to me is that half the book is Swedish and the other half Finnish, I had no idea that Finnish people learned Swedish so early- yet their English proficiency is so much higher.
- jib 10y ago
  Swedish is an official language in Finland and the native language of about 5% or so of all Finnish people (think like French in Canada). Especially Åland Islands is heavily Swedish speaking.
  - greenshackle 10y ago
    Eh, kind of, Canada is 20% native French; there are more French Canadians than Finnish people. Actually, if you look at Finland and Sweden as a whole, with Sweden having twice as many people, it's more like Finnish is French, and Swedish English. In this analogy, the Swedish speaking finns are more like anglos living in Quebec.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- fsloth 10y ago
  Finns don't really learn swedish, unless one lives in an area with a large swedish speaking population. In total swedish speaking population is only a few percent, but there are areas with a higher concentration. The reason it's bilingual is because swedish is the second official language in finland. Because history (sweden ruled finland up to 19th century, swedish speaking population retained considerable political power even after that).
  - maus42 10y ago
    >Finns don't really learn swedish Which is funny, considering how many years (6 I guess?) the Swedish language is a compulsory subject for Finnish-speaking Finns.
    - stevekemp 10y ago
      Just goes to show you can't learn a language unless you use it in real-life.
    - fsloth 10y ago
      To retain a language it requires active usage. Swedish has zero utility outside school environment unless someones life is such it includes interaction in swedish. Most people I know are more fluent in english than in swedish. While I personally retain some rudimentary basics, when I need to talk to my swedish colleague, I use english. To get MSc one must theoretically prove to be able to communicate in swedish but the minimum acceptable level - how to put it - is not very high.
- akavi 10y ago
  Since the sibling comments already explained the Finland-Swedes, I'll just add a bit of trivia relevant to this crowd: Linus Torvalds is one of them. His first language was Swedish, and apparently he's never spoken Finnish particularly well.
  - ane 10y ago
    He speaks Finnish fluently, I've videos of his lectures about Linux from the 90s at Helsinki University. Had I not known who he was, I would have not guessed he was of the Swedish-speaking minority (either that or I wasn't paying attention, I saw them ten years ago). You can find some videos on YouTube, no doubt.
    - akavi 10y ago
      Interesting! I'd read an interview where he claimed his proficiency was noticeably non-native[0], but maybe he was just being self-effacing. [0] http://www.linuxveda.com/2011/11/02/which-is-linus-torvalds-native-language-finnish-or-swedish/ http://www.linuxveda.com/2011/11/02/which-is-linus-torvalds-...
      - ptaipale 10y ago
        Linus has excellent proficiency in Finnish; his intonation is distinctly that of a Swedish-speaking native but that is just a matter of style. But then there are Finnish rock stars who lived a year in Stockholm and then pretended they've forgotten all about Finnish language. (Andy McCoy of Hanoi Rocks, I mean).
agentgt 10y ago
My wife and I our currently expecting and are about to have a baby shower. For those unfamiliar with the shower concept here in the US we have a party that is generally more expensive then if you were to just buy the baby stuff. We invite people over and they give us stuff off a list that is at a few big box stores. Registering for the baby shower was my eye opener of what we are getting ourselves into. I actually seriously wondered what we would do if we didn't have friends, family and/or money. I had no clue where to start. I wasn't even sure what car seat we needed (the baby store will tell you). I have to say though I'm amazed by the quality of the cardboard box stuff. Some of that stuff looks better than the stuff we registered for :).
- blowski 10y ago
  Congratulations! It's the most rewarding yet terrifying experience that can't be compared to anything else. Nobody is prepared enough to be a parent for the first time, yet somehow it (usually) just works out. A previously unused part of your brain just serms to become available.
- NoGravitas 10y ago
  If you have friends and/or family, but no money, you rely heavily on hand-me-downs. An example of ours -- although cloth diapers are cheaper in the long run than disposable diapers, the start-up costs are steep. But we've had to buy less than 1/5 of the cloth diapers we've used, because they pass through a loose network of friends. If you don't have friends or family, the only money saving option really available in the US (that I know of) is used/thrift shops and consignment sales.
  - hotsy_botsy 10y ago
    A legitimately good part of Facebook is the community driven support groups and swap groups. My wife and I also cloth diapered, we picked up almost all of them through local swap groups and some through ebay. When our son grew out of things we posted these things back to these support groups. My wife organized around 10-15 meetups at a nearby park and made back ~US$300. I think the largest item sold was his infant car seat and stroller combo that went for $65 or $75. So yea, both coming and going, these local groups were troves of good cheap items.
Normal_gaussian 10y ago
Wow. There are so many clothes! This is awesome. What other items have you bought? How large of a variety are the clothes they send - does everyone get the same stuff?
- stevekemp 10y ago
  So far we've bought zero items, but that's largely because we've been lucky to have some friends with children who could donate to us. Things we would have otherwise bought: * Pram. * Cot - for when the box is out of use. * More clothes. This video makes the contents more explicit, but yeah lots of stuff: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etKF_6MTN9I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etKF_6MTN9I
s_kilk 10y ago
Scotland will be doing something similar soon: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/scotland-nordic-style-baby-boxes-snp-tackle-infant-poverty-a6989136.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/...
- stevekemp 10y ago
  I saw that when it was announced, but I've not seen any update. Great news though. There are some commercial companies who sell boxes based on the ones here, but they look a little mixed. (Either too little "stuff", too expensive, or both.)
  - babilen 10y ago
    It's part of the current "A plan for Scotland" [0] which mentions: "deliver a baby box offering essential items for a child’s first weeks to the families of all newborn babies in Scotland, to promote the fair and equal start we want for every child regardless of circumstance. We will consult with key stakeholders and with parents in autumn 2016, with full roll-out in 2017" [0] http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00505210.pdf http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00505210.pdf
f4stjack 10y ago
No reason why but tears welled up in my eyes when I see the first toy. Congrats btw.
- stevekemp 10y ago
  I had the same reaction when I went through the things with my wife.
vlehto 10y ago
The fine print in the book is education to completely clueless parent. Basically how to bathe the baby, how to touch him/her and how to play with him/her. As a dude, I'd probably find that useful, as weird as it may sound. And it's probably important for the baby now that I think of it. Sensory deprivation could hinder development. And that could happen if parent is clueless enough.
- c22 10y ago
  > As a dude, I'd probably find that useful, as weird as it may sound. It only sounds weird because you prefaced it with "as a dude" implying what? That ladies have some sort of genetic knowledge of baby rearing techniques? That they receive special classes about it in highschool? I don't know, sounds weird though.
  - lexhaynes 10y ago
    To be fair, young girls are heavily socialized to play with dolls, to play "mommy and baby" games, to push around toy baby carriages... in essence the "average" girl has been trained for motherhood her whole life.
    - ekianjo 10y ago
      Thats a pretty big cliche.
      - grive 10y ago
        The cliché is girls that are socialized that way. It's still overwhelmingly true that girls will have dolls more often than boys and that it will format their behavior. Recognising that is not perpetuating or condoning it.
        infinite8s 10y ago
        That also doesn't mean they have a clue on how to deal with an actual baby
rplnt 10y ago
I can only imagine how corrupt would be the process of selecting contents for the box if they were to implement it in Slovakia. That's a lot of stuff - a lot of opportunities to steal something from taxpayers.
- atmosx 10y ago
  I was thinking the same about Greece. Young mothers would be desperate to have such a thing, but local crooked politicians and oligarchs would turn the procedure into a money-spent hole, using the worst materials while double-charging...
anexprogrammer 10y ago
I first heard about these reading "The Nordic Theory of Everything", which contrasts Finland with the US, last month. It was fascinating to read as a Brit as the UK sits half way between the two in approach to many things. Significantly more useful than the bag of freebies and coupons given to new mums in the UK.
- johan_larson 10y ago
  "The Nordic Theory of Everything" is indeed a very interesting book. A view of American society from the outside looking in.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
achikin 10y ago
I used to have the same owls on my sheets when I was a child in Russia. Fascinating to see it's international.

Posted because we just received our 2016 box, and I thought it was fascinating to see the contents as a Scottish man: * http://imgur.com/a/I0NYI http://imgur.com/a/I0NYI

dijit 10y ago

I think this idea is super cool and I have no qualms with my tax money going to stuff like this- it's incredibly welcoming and needed in one of the most uncertain and harshest times in an adult life. What's interesting to me is that half the book is Swedish and the other half Finnish, I had no idea that Finnish people learned Swedish so early- yet their English proficiency is so much higher.

jib 10y ago
Swedish is an official language in Finland and the native language of about 5% or so of all Finnish people (think like French in Canada). Especially Åland Islands is heavily Swedish speaking.
- greenshackle 10y ago
  Eh, kind of, Canada is 20% native French; there are more French Canadians than Finnish people. Actually, if you look at Finland and Sweden as a whole, with Sweden having twice as many people, it's more like Finnish is French, and Swedish English. In this analogy, the Swedish speaking finns are more like anglos living in Quebec.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
fsloth 10y ago
Finns don't really learn swedish, unless one lives in an area with a large swedish speaking population. In total swedish speaking population is only a few percent, but there are areas with a higher concentration. The reason it's bilingual is because swedish is the second official language in finland. Because history (sweden ruled finland up to 19th century, swedish speaking population retained considerable political power even after that).
- maus42 10y ago
  >Finns don't really learn swedish Which is funny, considering how many years (6 I guess?) the Swedish language is a compulsory subject for Finnish-speaking Finns.
  - stevekemp 10y ago
    Just goes to show you can't learn a language unless you use it in real-life.
  - fsloth 10y ago
    To retain a language it requires active usage. Swedish has zero utility outside school environment unless someones life is such it includes interaction in swedish. Most people I know are more fluent in english than in swedish. While I personally retain some rudimentary basics, when I need to talk to my swedish colleague, I use english. To get MSc one must theoretically prove to be able to communicate in swedish but the minimum acceptable level - how to put it - is not very high.
akavi 10y ago
Since the sibling comments already explained the Finland-Swedes, I'll just add a bit of trivia relevant to this crowd: Linus Torvalds is one of them. His first language was Swedish, and apparently he's never spoken Finnish particularly well.
- ane 10y ago
  He speaks Finnish fluently, I've videos of his lectures about Linux from the 90s at Helsinki University. Had I not known who he was, I would have not guessed he was of the Swedish-speaking minority (either that or I wasn't paying attention, I saw them ten years ago). You can find some videos on YouTube, no doubt.
  - akavi 10y ago
    Interesting! I'd read an interview where he claimed his proficiency was noticeably non-native[0], but maybe he was just being self-effacing. [0] http://www.linuxveda.com/2011/11/02/which-is-linus-torvalds-native-language-finnish-or-swedish/ http://www.linuxveda.com/2011/11/02/which-is-linus-torvalds-...
    - ptaipale 10y ago
      Linus has excellent proficiency in Finnish; his intonation is distinctly that of a Swedish-speaking native but that is just a matter of style. But then there are Finnish rock stars who lived a year in Stockholm and then pretended they've forgotten all about Finnish language. (Andy McCoy of Hanoi Rocks, I mean).

agentgt 10y ago

My wife and I our currently expecting and are about to have a baby shower. For those unfamiliar with the shower concept here in the US we have a party that is generally more expensive then if you were to just buy the baby stuff. We invite people over and they give us stuff off a list that is at a few big box stores. Registering for the baby shower was my eye opener of what we are getting ourselves into. I actually seriously wondered what we would do if we didn't have friends, family and/or money. I had no clue where to start. I wasn't even sure what car seat we needed (the baby store will tell you). I have to say though I'm amazed by the quality of the cardboard box stuff. Some of that stuff looks better than the stuff we registered for :).

blowski 10y ago
Congratulations! It's the most rewarding yet terrifying experience that can't be compared to anything else. Nobody is prepared enough to be a parent for the first time, yet somehow it (usually) just works out. A previously unused part of your brain just serms to become available.
NoGravitas 10y ago
If you have friends and/or family, but no money, you rely heavily on hand-me-downs. An example of ours -- although cloth diapers are cheaper in the long run than disposable diapers, the start-up costs are steep. But we've had to buy less than 1/5 of the cloth diapers we've used, because they pass through a loose network of friends. If you don't have friends or family, the only money saving option really available in the US (that I know of) is used/thrift shops and consignment sales.
- hotsy_botsy 10y ago
  A legitimately good part of Facebook is the community driven support groups and swap groups. My wife and I also cloth diapered, we picked up almost all of them through local swap groups and some through ebay. When our son grew out of things we posted these things back to these support groups. My wife organized around 10-15 meetups at a nearby park and made back ~US$300. I think the largest item sold was his infant car seat and stroller combo that went for $65 or $75. So yea, both coming and going, these local groups were troves of good cheap items.

Normal_gaussian 10y ago

Wow. There are so many clothes! This is awesome. What other items have you bought? How large of a variety are the clothes they send - does everyone get the same stuff?

stevekemp 10y ago
So far we've bought zero items, but that's largely because we've been lucky to have some friends with children who could donate to us. Things we would have otherwise bought: * Pram. * Cot - for when the box is out of use. * More clothes. This video makes the contents more explicit, but yeah lots of stuff: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etKF_6MTN9I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etKF_6MTN9I

s_kilk 10y ago

Scotland will be doing something similar soon: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/scotland-nordic-style-baby-boxes-snp-tackle-infant-poverty-a6989136.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/...

stevekemp 10y ago
I saw that when it was announced, but I've not seen any update. Great news though. There are some commercial companies who sell boxes based on the ones here, but they look a little mixed. (Either too little "stuff", too expensive, or both.)
- babilen 10y ago
  It's part of the current "A plan for Scotland" [0] which mentions: "deliver a baby box offering essential items for a child’s first weeks to the families of all newborn babies in Scotland, to promote the fair and equal start we want for every child regardless of circumstance. We will consult with key stakeholders and with parents in autumn 2016, with full roll-out in 2017" [0] http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00505210.pdf http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00505210.pdf

f4stjack 10y ago

No reason why but tears welled up in my eyes when I see the first toy. Congrats btw.

stevekemp 10y ago
I had the same reaction when I went through the things with my wife.

vlehto 10y ago

The fine print in the book is education to completely clueless parent. Basically how to bathe the baby, how to touch him/her and how to play with him/her. As a dude, I'd probably find that useful, as weird as it may sound. And it's probably important for the baby now that I think of it. Sensory deprivation could hinder development. And that could happen if parent is clueless enough.

c22 10y ago
> As a dude, I'd probably find that useful, as weird as it may sound. It only sounds weird because you prefaced it with "as a dude" implying what? That ladies have some sort of genetic knowledge of baby rearing techniques? That they receive special classes about it in highschool? I don't know, sounds weird though.
- lexhaynes 10y ago
  To be fair, young girls are heavily socialized to play with dolls, to play "mommy and baby" games, to push around toy baby carriages... in essence the "average" girl has been trained for motherhood her whole life.
  - ekianjo 10y ago
    Thats a pretty big cliche.
    - grive 10y ago
      The cliché is girls that are socialized that way. It's still overwhelmingly true that girls will have dolls more often than boys and that it will format their behavior. Recognising that is not perpetuating or condoning it.
      - infinite8s 10y ago
        That also doesn't mean they have a clue on how to deal with an actual baby

rplnt 10y ago

I can only imagine how corrupt would be the process of selecting contents for the box if they were to implement it in Slovakia. That's a lot of stuff - a lot of opportunities to steal something from taxpayers.

atmosx 10y ago
I was thinking the same about Greece. Young mothers would be desperate to have such a thing, but local crooked politicians and oligarchs would turn the procedure into a money-spent hole, using the worst materials while double-charging...

anexprogrammer 10y ago

I first heard about these reading "The Nordic Theory of Everything", which contrasts Finland with the US, last month. It was fascinating to read as a Brit as the UK sits half way between the two in approach to many things. Significantly more useful than the bag of freebies and coupons given to new mums in the UK.

johan_larson 10y ago
"The Nordic Theory of Everything" is indeed a very interesting book. A view of American society from the outside looking in.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

achikin 10y ago

I used to have the same owls on my sheets when I was a child in Russia. Fascinating to see it's international.