(edit title) How to starve a Swede? Take away their knife Options

[Flappytango]

Well today at work we had cake during afternoon fika, served with spoons.
I feel it’s a bit contradictory to the general knife and fork obsession with most other foods.
I’m used to it now it just feels strange, chasing around cake with a baby spoons (smaller than a teaspoon).

[Bender B Rodriquez]

I may know why that is. I have 2 small kids (ages 4 and 6) and I think I'd just be scared to give my kid a knife. I think this may be an american thing. You don't give ... (show full quote)

I may know why that is. I have 2 small kids (ages 4 and 6) and I think I'd just be scared to give my kid a knife. I think this may be an american thing. You don't give your kid sharp things. I'm thinking about it now and kind of laughing to myself. It's kind of this mentality of "It's dangerous, don't give it to them." Really I guess we should be giving them the knives and showing them the right way to use it. (Whatever the right way is... as the very existanceof this thread points out.) There are stay-at-home moms who send their kids to kindergarten (American kindergarten = age 5) without letting them ever touch sizzors. I gave my kids sizzors as soon as they were old enough to chant back to me, "Only haircutters cut hair" just as I only gave them markers and crayons when they could articulate, "We only draw on paper." ... (hide full quote)

You don't have to give them steak knifes...

[Snood]

I may know why that is. I have 2 small kids (ages 4 and 6) and I think I'd just be scared to give my kid a knife. I think this may be an american thing. You don't give ... (show full quote)

I may know why that is. I have 2 small kids (ages 4 and 6) and I think I'd just be scared to give my kid a knife. I think this may be an american thing. You don't give your kid sharp things. I'm thinking about it now and kind of laughing to myself. It's kind of this mentality of "It's dangerous, don't give it to them." Really I guess we should be giving them the knives and showing them the right way to use it. (Whatever the right way is... as the very existanceof this thread points out.) There are stay-at-home moms who send their kids to kindergarten (American kindergarten = age 5) without letting them ever touch sizzors. I gave my kids sizzors as soon as they were old enough to chant back to me, "Only haircutters cut hair" just as I only gave them markers and crayons when they could articulate, "We only draw on paper." ... (hide full quote)

um, most normal knives and forks I've come across, the fork is more "dangerous" than the knives. As Bender said, you don't need to give them steak knives.

If you make any article in a child's life forbidden, you'll only add to their curiousity.

This is EXACTLY what i think is wrong with the Swedish attitude towards introducing kids to alcohol, the "you can't even try a sip until you're 18" approach... but i digress.

[VargasGray]

This is EXACTLY what i think is wrong with the Swedish attitude towards introducing kids to alcohol, the "you can't even try a sip until you're 18" approach... but i digress.

The reason why we, as I see it, don't wish to introduce alcohol to our children is because we can't handle alcohol. We Swedes are terrible at handling alcohol and drinks too much. We almost drank ourselves to death in scores not that long ago, which did force our state to push down social rules and views about drinking. Of course back then we Swedes where fiercely religious so the church did the condemning of alcohol and tried to make us clean from it.

Perhaps that's the reason behind it all and because we really don't want our children to get in trouble, also think of the social stigma that you can't handle alcohol.

[JuJuBeeLyn]

I absolutly agree with all points made. That is why I was laughing at myself. It's kind of rediculous not to give a kid a butter knife if you teach him how to use it.

[gplusa]

Wow, you really think that Sweden has a greater alcohol problem than other countries ? You really need to travel more, or update yourself. I was getting served in pubs at 15 in New Zealand, when the legal drinking age was 20. My own boss hauled me down to the pub at 16 at the end of my first week of work. The prematch team talk by my football coach in high school consisted of downing a full bottle of beer (proper bottles, not the stupid little bottles they have today) in the changing sheds. Sweden is playing in the shallow end when it comes to sustained and condoned alcohol abuse within a society.

[Gamla Hälsingebock]

In general I think all Northern Europeans, no matter where they are, believe that:

"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

[Hamsterdam]

The reason why we, as I see it, don't wish to introduce alcohol to our children is because we can't handle alcohol. We Swedes are terrible at handling alcohol and drin ... (show full quote)

The reason why we, as I see it, don't wish to introduce alcohol to our children is because we can't handle alcohol. We Swedes are terrible at handling alcohol and drinks too much. We almost drank ourselves to death in scores not that long ago, which did force our state to push down social rules and views about drinking. Of course back then we Swedes where fiercely religious so the church did the condemning of alcohol and tried to make us clean from it.

Perhaps that's the reason behind it all and because we really don't want our children to get in trouble, also think of the social stigma that you can't handle alcohol. ... (hide full quote)

When you write as "We". Does that mean that you are perpetuating the non-myth that all Swedes are identical in behaviour and personality?