The holiday as a poor person can be the very best, writes mother and educator Helene Birkeland on news Ytring. She is tired of a holiday rush that stresses both children and parents, where the calm days of the past have been replaced by the hustle and bustle of an overpriced family park. Not least, she is critical of the many of us who have advocated that the politicians must save the summer holidays for the very poorest. This applies not only to the undersigned, but also to the Red Cross, which reminds us that many children do not look forward to the holidays because they grow up in poverty. “Is there a danger that we are overdoing this?” asks Birkeland. The answer to that is no, no and again no. On the contrary, there is a great danger that we understate how serious the problems with poverty have become in Norway. Already last autumn, many interest rate hikes ago, 200,000 households in Norway could report to Sifo that they could not afford all meals without seeking help. The latest survey shows that 18 per cent of households have financial challenges. Schools with free school meals report that more and more children take food home with them, because they cannot be sure that there is anything in the fridge at home. The food centers sound the alarm about “a precarious situation”, where more and more families are lining up for food. This is the backdrop when Rødt has advocated a “summer holiday package” in the Storting, not a goal to send all the country’s children to Dyreparken. It is true that you do not need to go to the South or a water park to have a proper holiday. But it is an advantage if there is food in the fridge at home. It is not too much to expect that even those who are at the bottom and broke will get a few extra kroner to spend during the holidays. It’s easy to forget how expensive even quite ordinary, even cheap, things become for ordinary people. Buying regular popsicles for three children in the shop costs close to one hundred Swedish kroner. That is quickly the daily budget of a mother on unemployment benefits. When you have to make difficult choices between food and electricity every day, a bus trip for the whole family to the beach is probably not an option. We have therefore proposed a fixed holiday supplement in social assistance as an emergency solution. (in the long term, the lowest benefits will have to rise permanently, while the taxes for those with low incomes will have to fall), so that those with the worst means get a few extra kroner automatically before Christmas or the summer holidays. People in work have holiday money to be able to treat themselves a little extra when it’s summer. No one in the Nav system does that. They have to make do with the same low payout in June as in the eleven other months of the year. The chronicle writer is absolutely right that the most important thing for the children during the holidays is to have parents who have time for them. Finding peace with your family is far more important than standing in long queues at Tusenfryd. But what kind of peace do the parents find in a family that does not know if they will be able to afford food on the table next month? All the scientific research we have shows that poverty leads to stress. Contrary to what many people think, it is those at the bottom, not those with managerial jobs at the top, who are most stressed in everyday life. Stress is poison for the holiday mood, anyone who has been on a car trip with two small children in the back seat and a ferry to catch knows that. When what you have to catch is not the ferry, but to deliver the registration card to Nav, the stress may be even greater. Birkeland’s dream of a quiet summer with parents relaxing and taking time for their children remains an illusion for the many people in Norway who do not know how they will pay their bills next month. If the children who grow up in poverty are to have a quiet summer in the grass, their parents must be almost certain that the money will last through the summer. It is not difficult to see that Birkeland has some points. Children obviously don’t have to go to the South or to a water park to have a nice holiday. The pursuit of the perfect vacation, the one we can share on Instagram, is a thing created by cynical market forces that play all of our insecurities against each other. All of us who are parents have a responsibility to resist both the pressure to buy and the holiday rush. But we are no longer there in Norway when we talk about parents who cannot afford to go to Dyreparken this summer. We are talking about an ever-growing group that lacks money for food, electricity, fuel and housing. For them, more money is actually absolutely necessary to have a good holiday.
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Broke and at the bottom during the holidays – Statement
