Ekaterina Andersen, to schools and day-care in Denmark was closed down, she found a resolution she thought was only logical.
But after a week she got a call that made her absolutely irate.
Ekaterina Andersen is the mother of two children aged respectively two years and 13 years and live in Landskrona in Skåne. She has gone to school in Denmark and lived on this side of the Sound, in many years.
“Normally, I don’t think that we actually live in Sweden and not in Denmark. So when it closed down in Denmark, I thought it was logical that we also did it.”
“So my oldest daughter stopped in the school, as the schools in Denmark were closed. We expected that the same would happen in Sweden. But nothing happened,” says Catherine Andersen, who is studying theology at Lund University and is a feminist writer and debater.
Teaching at the university is shut down, so the studies going on at home, like her husband also works from home.
“After a week in hjemmekarantæne called the principal from my daughter’s school and said that I am now in a week had kept my daughter at home is illegal, and that she would report me to the authorities, where my parental rights would be discussed, if she not showed up at school again.”
“to start with I was really irate over not even being able to choose what was best for my child. But now – where I don’t have any choice – I have it good compared to my friends and colleagues in Denmark, who almost succumbs over both having to work, care for children and do homework,” explains Ekaterina Andersen.
As virtually the only country in Western europe, the Swedish children still go to school, and the swedes can basically continue their social life.
The Swedish government has chosen to prohibit gatherings of over 50 participants, while it is also only the sick and the vulnerable groups that need to go in quarantine.
the Swedes are however advised to work from home, if possible.
“You can still eat at the restaurants that have waiter service. At the schools, they must also sit and eat in groups. So on the way try to avoid massesmitte.”
“But I don’t think it makes a big difference. My daughter says that there really is someone who washes hands often or are careful not to touch the face.”
Ekaterina Andersen is originally from Russia, and here, she thinks, you have the right guidelines.
“Here you are encouraged to keep children at home if you have the opportunity. But those, who can not be home due to work, still get the law to send the children to school.”
But even she must not risk to get on the edge with the Swedish authorities.
“I have recently applied for Swedish citizenship, and then you have to comply with the law. So I don’t want to risk anything by being ‘the bad parent’, that prevents her daughter in to get her education.”
