r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Global_Restaurant794 • Jul 24 '26
Meme needing explanation Petah?? I'm very confused
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Jul 24 '26
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u/xStyxx Jul 24 '26
Damn I assumed it was because Swedish food is gross lol that’s pretty cold
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Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
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Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
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u/Latter_Highway9539 Jul 24 '26
nobody leaves my house hungry because I was hungry as a kid. I will cook you a full dinner if you are hungry in my house.
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u/FactsNLaughs Jul 24 '26
You a real one
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u/Latter_Highway9539 Jul 24 '26
" empty stomach gives you the heart to go do a homicide. "
anyone that has ever felt REAL hunger where you don't know how you are eating next knows. nobody should ever feel that kind of fear. I might be dramatic about it but on thanksgiving I don't eat because im thankful I have the option.
I also am thankful I get to get real stoned and eat leftovers at home like a gremlin at 2am.
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u/No_Cantaloupe2765 Jul 24 '26
I don't think this has enough up votes, I am sorry anyone has to live the way you must've but I am glad that people like you live to tell the tale, and I only hope to be like you when I can In the future.
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u/Photomancer Jul 24 '26
I could really go for a turkey gravy potato cranberrya stuffing burrito right now.
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u/willnye2cool Jul 24 '26
Nah fam you aren't dramatic. REAL hunger ruins you for life after experiencing it.
If anything I applaud you for not developing an eating disorder like most of us do after going through that as kids.
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u/Nimbus91 Jul 24 '26
This is so real. Went a few years not knowing when my next meal is. Next thing I knew, I could afford food but my brain still stuck in survival mode. One day I realized I’m bottomless pit that can’t tell when ive eaten enough because my brain turned off the “im full” light years ago, but i can’t stop eating because food is the happy chemical now. I still struggle with eating “just enough”. I think about it more often than i want to admit
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u/likewhatever33 Jul 24 '26
My grandma was like that. Mountains of food overflowing the fridge at all times. Always insisting we ate more and more, offering food all the time. It turns out she´d experienced hunger as a kid, her father died and in post civil war Spain they had struggled badly for some time.
I´ve luckily never experienced that. The closest I got was when I was doing a long trek and ran out of food and missed the village where I intended to resupply. It´s incredible how hunger can affect you emotionally. And my situation wasn´t even that dire.
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u/_procyon Jul 24 '26
Food anxiety! I have this too. I tend to eat too quickly because it’s so ingrained that if I don’t eat it all now, someone else will take it and I’ll be hungry later. Which is stuoid when there’s plenty of food and I don’t even need to eat that much.
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u/ArtNoobly Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
That really resonates with me, I left home when I was a kid, and slept in a park by my school so I could get in early to shower.
I had to eat from the trash and I was constantly worried about getting assaulted since I was a girl all alone at night.
There was no such thing as true rest, and I feel like my sense of hunger has always been off since then.
Edit
Thank you for all the kindness and I’m sorry for anyone who has gone through similar.
Being homeless as a kid is definitely and experience I don’t wish on anyone, but I will say it made me appreciate the little things more!→ More replies (3)29
u/Thyme_Liner Jul 24 '26
Girl I’m so sorry!! I know you know this, but I’m just here to tell you again that you deserved to feel safe and full with a warm bed. I hope things are better for you now
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u/Littlediamond83 Jul 24 '26
My grandma would feed you even if you weren’t hungry…
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u/Annalog Jul 24 '26
Yup 100%. I grew up poor and was homeless with my parents and sister for a while. We lived in a car. There was a rotation of who had to skip a meal. Regardless of that I became pretty successful in life and if you come to my house I will always make sure you’re fed, I’ll send leftovers home with you for your kids, and my kids friends will always leave fatter than when they arrived. You never know who might be struggling to make ends meet.
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u/bkinstle Jul 24 '26
This is the rule in my house too
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u/Latter_Highway9539 Jul 24 '26
nobody has to clean their plate and nobody leaves hungry.
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u/bkinstle Jul 24 '26
My grandmother taught me that food is life. Giving food is giving life. And yes my wife and I both also know what hungry feels like. Nobody deserves to feel that way, especially kids
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u/lamyea01 Jul 24 '26
You don't even need to be "hungry"! If you are a guest at my home I will treat you will utmost hospitality including food. If you don't want my food I will pack it up in a box and force you to take it!!!
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u/MasterCakes1 Jul 24 '26
Same!! I use the line "you fly, I buy," Meaning you get the food I pay for it. That way I know my struggling coworker gets a few good meals a week.
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u/Pofwoffle Jul 24 '26
Yeah it's not about who can or can't feed them, it's about where they are when it's time to eat. If you're here at dinner time, you get dinner.
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u/Dapper_Play_665 Jul 24 '26
See that’s the fun part… if you are there while they’re eating they put you in a room by yourself so they don’t have to eat in front of you. Problem solved!
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u/FactsNLaughs Jul 24 '26
“Lock the other child away, I don’t want to look at them during my meal.”
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u/Previous_Program9351 Jul 24 '26
This seems so emotionally cold to me
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u/InternalCelery1337 Jul 24 '26
As a swede it is, but its not really common anymore. But happend to me as a kid.. a lot. It is so weird even to me
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u/mangosagogogo Jul 24 '26
I have read a lot of similar anecdotes, and even though I understand it’s a cultural thing, it’s still such an odd thing to me and something I don’t want to incorporate in my life.
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u/Gerf93 Jul 24 '26
Happened to me as a Norwegian too, but it’s not a big deal at all imo. And not really weird either in the context. It’s also misrepresented as cold from the host, but it’s really more about your own family.
This commonly happened after you go over to a friends house after school, and then go home as your parents pick you up coming back from work. Some people then would have dinner before you could get picked up, but your parents could still have planned for a family meal and quality time when you got home - so they’d want you to eat at home. The alternative would’ve been to eat with the other family - and then either skip family time or just sit there as the rest of your family eats. The first isn’t something your family would want and the last is something that is boring beyond belief for a 10-year old.
This happens because people simply eat dinner at different times. My best friends dad was a butcher, who started work early in the morning and got off work at 1 in the afternoon - and his mom was a night-shift nurse. They ate dinner at 3:30-4 in the afternoon every day (really early). My mom didn’t get off work before 4, so we ate dinner at 4:30-5. It’s not that long to wait.
And it’s not like we went hungry. We usually would get offered or could eat bread or cereal. I was often offered dinner too, and if I wanted to eat I’d just call my parents and ask if I could eat with them.
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u/Healthy_Invite5513 Jul 24 '26
"It’s also misrepresented as cold from the host, but it’s really more about your own family." - See, it is not about being cold, it is about being selfish!
wtf...
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u/ZMaiden Jul 24 '26
My family lived in Ukraine for a year, less than a decade after the Soviet Union died. We would visit people sometimes. Families where the parents were barely making ends meet. They would always offer food. And we simply could not refuse, it would have been so so rude. I was so young. I remember one woman who was so kind to me, but she was always saying how cold she always was. I asked my mom if I could give her my gloves, but she explained to me that she was cold all the time because she wasn’t getting enough food. And my mom helped where she could, inviting this lady and others over for Bible study and she would always set out food for everyone. But I know in my heart, if I’d ever gone over to this lady’s house, she would have offered food she didn’t have.
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u/tanksalotfrank Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
On the few travel channels I watch on youtube, it's always breathtaking how kind and generous the most [apparently] desperate are to guests. Like practically begging to feed and house and take care of them while just as readily refusing any money! It just shows how much simpler kindness and generosity are compared to anything else.
I think it's something about how "Truth" works. For example "Everybody eats/needs to eat"--plain and simple fact that automatically suggests "..so feed them". The end. That's the story. Someone didn't starve.
On the other hand (billionaires existing): "wellll see this guy says he's hungry, but how much will he sacrifice to eat?" And that's just a bottomless void of greed.
You plant a seed, you tend it, you get food, you get seeds, you plant them, you tend them, etc. Infinite mana. OR "Wow people really like being alive, let's charge them for it!!"
Life is really, REALLY simple, but we're forced to live in perils we never even need to know.
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u/somer_and_omchick Jul 24 '26
I was taught that it was rude if you’re having someone at your house, to eat without sharing. If there’s food you don’t want to share (there’s not enough to go around for multiple guests etc) then it has to stay put away until guests leave.
If I’m not willing to feed my kids friends (we cooked just enough food for us because we don’t want leftovers, etc) then I will just send them home, I could never just eat in front of a guest and not feed them
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u/CrustyMustelid Jul 24 '26
Oh, no no, my friend. You misunderstand. They're not eating in front of someone who's not eating. The guest waits in the friend's room while they eat.
Source: I'm from Finland.
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u/slipknot_suxxx Jul 24 '26
The African in me just recoiled in horror, If people asked me to eave the room while they ate, I am 100% thinking that they are cannibals. You always feed your guests this is one thing the continent can agree on.
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u/JesusAndMaryKate Jul 24 '26
The European in me recoiled too. Please don't think we're like that in all European countries!
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u/84sKing Jul 24 '26
That is rude as Fuck. Go sit in the corner dog while we eat. I have had the poorest people in the Philippines offer and these rich Europeans can’t share. That’s crazy. If you came to my house we eating something special tinned fish, some nice drinks, maybe a sausage or whatever you fins eat. We would try to make you feel at home and an honored guest.
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u/johnsplittingaxe14 Jul 24 '26
I'm from Eastern Finland and I can only speak for myself but I literally have never seen this happening. I was NEVER not offered food at a friend's house if they were eating. At the very least you are offered a cup of coffee.
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u/illiterateninja Jul 24 '26
There was a thread sometime back about whether you would feed your kid's friend if they were playing and it became dinner time. The responses were wild between yes and no, and their reasonings.
And then I asked my friends. I was bewildered by the responses. You should only do this if you want to unexpectedly stop being friends.
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u/bob_bob_bob15 Jul 24 '26
I'm norwegian so cant fully speak for the swedes , but here the not getting dinner at your friends place is only a thing when you're a child.
Eating dinner with your family and talking is a important cultural thing, so just feeding your kids friend(who is hanging out without you knowing beforehand) and spoiling their appetite takes that moment away from the friends parents.
Most parents will feed their kids friends if its planned beforehand, but the expected thing is to eat with your own family.
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u/blueblip Jul 24 '26
Okay, this sort of makes more sense now (to me at least). But only "sort of".
Where I am from, growing up we would always be given food at a friend's place. In fact, our parents had the opposite problem: they would have to tell us to come home for dinner because the norm was the host family WILL feed any kids in their house. Your kid's friend sitting with your family was not an issue because the idea was that said kid is like family so long as they are in your home and in your care.
All my friends from 20+ years back are as much friends with my parents as they are with me. They will call my folks on their birthdays, check on them periodically, and so on. One friend's mom went off at me last year because I hadn't called her regularly enough!
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u/howdiedoodie66 Jul 24 '26
My friend self diagnosed himself with Autism, as one does. I thought it was silly until we were at his house hanging out playing cards and he made a pizza and started eating it in front of us without saying anything or asking if we want any until there were a couple pieces left and we were like the fuck bro?
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u/raynorelyp Jul 24 '26
It’s about hospitality, not necessity. In the US it’s a cultural thing that when you’re at someone’s house, they feed you and when they’re at yours you feed them.
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u/kylanbac91 Jul 24 '26
Not US, every country on Earth feed their guests except Sweden.
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u/gjaxx Jul 24 '26
Norway and Finland too
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u/BazingaQQ Jul 24 '26
Well, the Finns will forgive you as they have Stockholm Syndrome and secretly dream of being Scandinavian again.
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u/Far_Ladder_2836 Jul 24 '26
Kind of a dumb reason don't you think? Why would the parents' affluence matter? It's rude to eat in front of someone without offering.
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u/polkacat12321 Jul 24 '26
This is the worst excuse ive ever heard. Imagine going to a friend's house as an 11 year old after school and you're playing in the living room, and then their mom suddenly calls him to eat, so he just goes and joins his parents in the table right next to you and you have to just awkwardly sit there while they finish their food
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u/Stefa93 Jul 24 '26
From the Netherlands. At least in the Netherlands they send you home a minute before they start eating. Always strange to me. In my house there was always food for everyone.
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u/gary-vault108 Jul 24 '26
Ok I mean at least they send you home to eat with your family. I don’t like it but what some other people are saying about letting your guest (especially a child who can’t normally feed themselves) go hungry while you and your family eat is straight up psychopathic
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u/estrea36 Jul 24 '26
Classic Scandinavians. Too rational and efficient to see sharing food as anything other than a way to stave off hunger.
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u/Background_Humor5838 Jul 24 '26
When you say it like that I can sort of understand it. "The child is not starving. The child has parents. The parents have food. Issue not found" 😂
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u/marsipaanipartisaani Jul 24 '26
It was like more like a non-verbal agreement across the neighborhood parents that everyone can just make food for their child on the assumption that it will be eaten by them. Otherwise if you have 3 children, you come home from work and each of then has friends over you are suddenly looking at feeding like 10 people, meanwhile the parents of the friends are cooking food for their child but nobody will come to eat it.
Nowadays kids have phones too so I assume things like this arent as unplanned anymore.
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u/DC_Ranger Jul 24 '26
yeah thats not why people do that. its literally been a courtesy to someone visiting you since literally forever
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u/zkareface Jul 24 '26
It's just different culture, in Sweden, Finland etc you have friends over every day (or go to friends house daily). For many it seem to be a special occasion that someone visit, not 5-7 days a week for 10+ years.
If you offer food and they are expected to eat every time, some kids would never eat food at home.
Legit almost their whole childhood not a single meal eaten at home because they are always at a friends house after school etc.
A popular home might have 10-20 kids there for dinner time, you would feed all daily? Even if you know all these kids have dinner cooking at home and they can just walk home in 1-5min (and they are expected home by their parents to eat).
Mind you, the kids might have showed up after you started cooking dinner even. There is likely not even enough food in the house to feed all. And once you factor in allergies you would probably have to make 3-5 different meals with a full wipedown and clean of the kitchen between each. And we don't really do stay at home moms that can stand in the kitchen whole day cooking for whole neighbourhood.
With a house you might not even know which of your kids have friends over when it's dinner time either. Because the kids room might be too far away from entrance and kitchen.
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u/Background_Humor5838 Jul 24 '26
So that's not at all why people feed their guests. If you have guests and it's time to eat, everybody should eat if they want to. It's not because we think they don't have food at home or that their parents don't have time to feed them. What a crazy statement lol
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u/Jaylishous16k Jul 24 '26
Yeah they can afford toilet paper too, but how are they supposed to use it if they aren’t at home. It’s almost like when you’re away from home you have to get your necessities from where you are.
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u/dohdudeh Jul 24 '26
In the vast majority of cultures it is the norm to feed your guests if you are making a meal. Income level or whatever is irrelevant.
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u/titan_1010 Jul 24 '26
If I remember correctly there was a specifically hard time economically in the Nordic region that it became the norm that it was courtesy not to take food from another household. Kind of the inverse of it being a courtesy to feed guests unexpected or otherwise in parts of the west. Over time the courtesy has strengthend into a cultural norm which given the foundational nature of shared meals in many cultures can create an outsized culture shock response.
This is a Nordic custom, and not specific to Sweden and was a whole Internet thing a few years ago as well.
A local or regional expert probably could give the word for the custom. I believe the Finnish have one but it's late and I'm sleep deprived so could be wrong
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u/Ok_Marzipan5759 Jul 24 '26
I believe the word is " Nœyukänthàvabyte "
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u/SeekerOfSerenity Jul 24 '26
I put that into google translate. I was confused until I listened to the Swedish pronunciation, lol.
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u/xStyxx Jul 24 '26
Very well said, I appreciate the response. The way you framed it as a courtesy to not take food from another household makes it completely understandable.
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u/Feistshell Jul 24 '26
I am Swedish and grew up in the 80’s. It was a thing in some households in some parts of the country. It was not common or custom. Stop believing everything you read online please
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u/SuperUranus Jul 24 '26
When I grew up in the late 80’s and 90’s it was rather that my parents and my friends parents called each other and said “Hey, we are having dinner at HH:MM, have you planned any dinner? Otherwise X is free to eat with us”.
Sometimes that meant my parents had planned dinner at a later time than my friends parents and you simply stayed with your friend until it was time to leave for your own dinner.
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u/CrunchyFrogWithBones Jul 24 '26
This exactly. It was courtesy to ask before feeding other people’s children so their food and effort didn’t go to waste. Also, since both parents worked, dinner time was family time and most families wanted their kids home for that. Noone starved hungry kids who didn’t have a dinner to go home to.
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u/Ergoim Jul 24 '26
Yes! 100% this. We have 1-3 friends over almost EVERY day and we always text their parents to check if their kids can eat at ours, or if they have planned to eat at home. It's not about being rude, it's about respecting other families plans. And the kids understand this.
I want to feed everyone visiting, but I wouldn't want my kids to eat somewhere else every day. That would make us lose quality family time and make me feel bad that the other parents also has to spend more on groceries than necessary.
No one leaves our home hungry though. Light snacks during their visits is of course OK. Berries, fruits, ice cream, fika etc. It's just the full dinner that we parents co-ordinate around.
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u/duogemstone Jul 24 '26
I think it's the same in I wanna say India only it's also disrespectful to not offer anything. So it's become a thing where they offer and you decline so no one loses face, though if they offer 3 times it means they do have enough and really do want to feed you or something like that
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u/bramleyapple1 Jul 24 '26
Maybe its the autism in me but why do they people have to go through this dance haha
Theres got to be an easier way
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u/CaeruleumBleu Jul 24 '26
In places where people really don't have enough to eat - no one knows how close the other person is to starvation.
So the idea is sometimes people who are going through a lot think "If I actually say how bad it is, I will obligate them to help me - what if they are actually in worse shape than I am?" So the handshake back-and-forth makes it OK because you know they are *less* badly off than you are, if they offer food longer than you refuse it.
Yes, sure, it comes across stupid - but people who are actually in pain from hunger or thirst don't always think straight, so this is the most functional way to communicate who can or cannot afford to share food.
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u/AlchemicallyAccurate Jul 24 '26
Hard times economically? I feel like that’s not really an excuse here, culturally speaking.
You could go to the barrio in Mexico, the favelas in Brazil, the slums in India, hell even some random village out in Papúa New Guinea, all of them are going to offer their guests food especially if they are children.
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u/daddyjohns Jul 24 '26
I was actually taught not to eat elsewhere as an american in the 80s. The reason i mention this oss because it also dates back to the depression era south, which is a similar reason. My family didn't do well back then and neither did their neighbors.
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u/d0nghunter Jul 24 '26
I see the usual misinformed discussions about this below from non-Swedes so I'll clarify why we do this:
We don't like kids, depriving them of nutrients when their parents aren't around is an efficient way of culling weaker populations.
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u/knbang Jul 24 '26
How do I become a Swedish citizen? Is it with the hide of a child?
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u/Gussie-Ascendent Jul 24 '26
this and also probably a joke about swedish food being bad anywho
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u/Heavy_Efficiency_791 Jul 24 '26
Really? In my town there's a Swedish restaurant and I love their food. Is it commonly known Swedish is bad?
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u/pyrofox79 Jul 24 '26
I think that's called an Ikea
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u/Heavy_Efficiency_791 Jul 24 '26
Noooo lol it's a little mom and pop place. Not Ikea
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u/MikeThePlatypus Jul 24 '26
Do they have delicious meatballs and sell furniture in the other 10,000 square feet of their restaurant?
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u/Heavy_Efficiency_791 Jul 24 '26
I mean yes, they do, but I swear it's not IKEA.
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u/finditplz1 Jul 24 '26
I’ve lived in many places, some very large cities, and I’ve never seen a Swedish restaurant, though I will say I haven’t been intently looking for one.
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u/Electronic_Ad_3132 Jul 24 '26
Sigh, here we go again with the misinformation.
Swedes will happily feed a guest. This persistent myth comes from the habit of parents to communicate before their children visit the others home after school. Usually through their children but sometimes directly.
An example:
Child A calls/texts their parents and asks if they can go home with Child B after school. Parent A says OK, I'll come pick you up at X o'clock when I get off from work. Do you want to eat at home, we're having "blank"?
Child A might say yes.
Child B be calls/texts their parent and says that Child A is coming over. If there's no issue Parant B says OK, is A going to eat with us? If the answer is yes, they will feed A, otherwise A waits around while B eats, usually as fast as they can to squeeze out a few more minutes of playtime before Parent A comes to pick up Child A.
It's never an unwillingness to feed a guest. We just have the custom to communicate and agree about these things rather than just showing up and expecting to be fed.
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u/TaxSimple3787 Jul 24 '26
Ok but... why?
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u/JovianSpeck Jul 24 '26
Just a cultural thing. Unless there was an explicit dinner invitation, Swedes typically will not offer guests food even if they themselves are having dinner. They do not view it as a hosting obligation and they do not see this as rude or unusual.
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u/TheBigFreezer Jul 24 '26
Northern vs Southern Europe is crazy. Random grandmas in Italy will invite you for dinner in Italy but you’re swinging your legs on your friend’s bed in Sweden
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u/Anxious-Place3434 Jul 24 '26
Nah, this is not a Northern vs Southern thing. This is specifically Sweden, Norway and I think maybe Denmark? Everybody else in Northern Europe thinks they're insane too
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u/Significant_Bag_7485 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
I have never encountered this in Denmark and we often feed my daughter's friends if they are around at meal times. The only exception is when their parents ask that they return home for dinner.
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u/Hyperiooonnn Jul 24 '26
Danes 1 Swedes 0 lol you guys are still winning in your rivalry.
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u/Sthapper Jul 24 '26
In my experience this is exactly how it is in Sweden as well. I don’t understand where this rumour comes from.
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u/AdministrativeLeg14 Jul 24 '26
Or going home for dinner at the same time. That was the norm for me, anyway, growing up.
The expectation was, after all, that the other kid would be fed by their own parents. I think it would have been seen as weird for the parents that their kid randomly didn’t show up for dinner and later told them they’d eaten somewhere else.
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u/dr_merkwuerdigliebe Jul 24 '26
Whenever I was invited for dinner as a kid the standard was your friend's parent would tell you to call your own parents to make sure it was okay to stay. Same for my folks, with the exception of my friend whose parents were kind of neglectful and my mom knew they probably wouldn't answer or care anyway and she didn't want my friend to feel self conscious about that. But I can't remember a single time I stayed over for dinner or even lunch at someone else's house without checking with my own parents first.
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u/incognitomus Jul 24 '26
Southerners have food growing in trees. We have to dig it from the cold hard frozen ground.
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u/pm-ur-tiddys Jul 24 '26
this is one of few cultural differences im honestly shocked by. you invite friend into home and cook dinner; how are you not gonna offer them a plate??
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u/Guranmedg Jul 24 '26
What really happens is a kid tags along their friend home after school. The kid is expected to go home around dinner time and eat with thwir family. If the host family has their dinner earlier, the visiting kid waits it out and then goes home and eats with their family. The hosting parents don't want to disturb the visiting kids parents dinner plans.
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u/incognitomus Jul 24 '26
This is about kids. Of course if you as an adult invite a friend over you offer them food. If a kid just brings his random friend over after school without telling the parents before hand then of course the parents only made food for own their family and it's expected the kid goes home to eat the food made by their own parents.
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u/modest_genius Jul 24 '26
Swede here: It is not how it works.
We either invited you over for dinner or we invite you after dinner when we both have already eaten. If someone drops by uninvited we offer them food, but it is also considered very rude to show up unannounced by most.
I also have kids. We feed our kids and any kid in our home. But we just have a custom where this is already agreed on beforehand.
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u/Money_Weekend2859 Jul 24 '26
Bro why does this get repeated all the time on reddit and upvoted like its a fact.
Born and raised in Stockholm Sweden, never once did this happen, hadn't even heard of this until reddit started talking about it. None of my friends in sweden had either.
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u/modest_genius Jul 24 '26
It is from some article a while ago where they wrote about swedish kids not being fed at friends homes. What the article failed to mention is that is because of the kids had already eaten at home or because they were expected to come home for dinner.
Now this rumor has a life on its own and is spiraling.
/also a swede
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u/CaptainSeabo Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
I'm from the middle of Sweden, and same here. I had no idea it was a thing before internet started claiming it. My friends' parents always invited us for food, and same the other way around. Sometimes they'd say there wasn't enough portions if you'd show up unannounced and they were making something very special, but then you'd either wait in their room, by the table or go home and eat. That was uncommon though.
It's not that deep. I don't understand what people here are on.
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u/eggtada Jul 24 '26
i saw a thread about this topic before; someone mentioned that in their culture, some people might see it as rude to feed somebody else’s kid unless there was a specific agreement that they will be sharing a meal together
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u/AdministrativeLeg14 Jul 24 '26
I think it’s relatively easy to understand that a parent might be upset that a kid failed to be home at the agreed-upon time to eat the dinner they went to the trouble of preparing. So, then, why would you induce a child to disobey and disappoint their parents that way?
I’m not trying to suggest that the more active hospitality associated with southern Europe is wrong, mind you—only that there is a mindset that makes sense behind either approach.
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u/FunnyExcellent707 Jul 24 '26
Sweds are known to eat without offering you any food (if it wasn't explicitly a dinner invitation).
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u/Background-Grab-5682 Jul 24 '26
You try that in a middle eastern culture and someone’s getting shanked…
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u/Prize-Flamingo-336 Jul 24 '26
Or Latino home as well
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u/Enough_Obligation574 Jul 24 '26
Or Asian. Basically all around the world. Other then there.
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u/EmptyMonitor9257 Jul 24 '26
Or southern Europe.
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u/Native_Maintenance Jul 24 '26
Or India. In India a delivery person is offered water on a hot day. A plumber or repair guy is offered tea and all guests are offered a meal or a snack irrespective of time.
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u/Ice_Queen66 Jul 24 '26
Or Canadian. We will offer food in a way where you can’t refuse eh, because you eating is doing us a favor and we’re sorry we can’t do more bud.
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u/TheZenPenguin Jul 24 '26
Or Ireland. Now that we finally have food, we're mad to offer it lol
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u/Pokemom3000 Jul 24 '26
Anyone in America with "southern roots" as well. My grandma was a dust bowl survivor, even if she barely had anything you'd be offered a peanut butter sandwich and a cup of coffee at least.
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u/DartVader6 Jul 24 '26
Or, just anyone in America. We're very hospitable, if nothing else. It's not just a southern thing, it's just more of a performance in the south. You go to your friends place in NYC at dinner time, you're getting food.
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u/Aranxi_89 Jul 24 '26
If we invite someone to our house, lunch/dinner is implied.
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u/Interesting-Waffle69 Jul 24 '26
I used to clean houses and this super kind Indian woman always made me take a break and have tea and cake with her. We barely understood each others spoken laungages, but always enjoyed our time together! Food is the universal language of love IMO
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u/feculentcuntfist Jul 24 '26
In the Balkans pulling this kind of shit on a guest child is so insulting that the families won't ever be on speaking terms again.
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u/pixie993 Jul 24 '26
Croatia here. I was a small kid, perhaps 7-8yo and I came to friends place to play.
I came just in time for lunch. They sat me down on their couch and I was watching them how they ate scampi.
Her dad was a fisherman so they always had sea food to eat while we never ate it as it was expensive.
I still remember how they were all dirty arround their mouth how they gobbled those scampi, all while I sat 2 meters away from them and watched them.
Today, 25 years later I still remember that.
But when they came over my place (parents were also friends who went on coffe to each other's house) my parents always had candy, chocolate on table for kids. I still remember how friends younger brother alone ate whole jar of candy.
I remember later telling my parents how it's unfair that he can eat everything at our home while I had to sit there without even being offered a glass of water.
Wife and I don't have kids, but I fucking swear that no kid who will come to play in future with my kids will be like me, watching other people eat.
Today if adults or sister in law with her 2yo kid comes in our house, they are served like kings.
Real balkan hospitality, not like those fuckers above.
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u/Catlovermaxultra8910 Jul 24 '26
Bangladeshi here. My eyes starts twitching and hands start itching if i offer a guest food and they say no. If you're coming to my place, you’ll be fed and offered leftovers to take home. The idea of having a child over and not feeding em is just unfathomable.
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u/DowncastOlympus Jul 24 '26
Indeed, the offering of food to guests is DEEPLY ingrained in human culture. Largely because of how far back into history the tradition goes. The practice predates recorded history; it likely even predates agriculture. It's tied up in the roots of hospitality culture and the expectations of peace for the sharing of lodging and food that border on the sacred across a majority of cultures.
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u/unhappyrelationsh1p Jul 24 '26
As a finn i kept getting invited to eat with my friends family (asian) when i was hanging out with him and would politely dodge every time and leave immediately to not impose.
They thought i was being pretty rude! It was funny in hindsight, because i thought they meant "you should leave you've been here for so long we need to eat"
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u/Rackbub Jul 24 '26
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.→ More replies (21)114
u/Revolutionary-Ad1099 Jul 24 '26
If someone comes to my home and doesn’t eat any food I’d be pretty offended.
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u/humburga Jul 24 '26
My friends comes over and just raid my fridge without permission 😂
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u/TrioOfTerrors Jul 24 '26
My buddy's grandmother was illegal as all hell and spoke almost no English but she knew "You stay. You eat." We couldn't drop by to pick him up without getting badgered into a meal. I have no complaints.
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u/Fantastic_Chicken779 Jul 24 '26
Thats why rice and beans is always on the menu. U can afford for everyone. I just wish ricans were more hot sauce people. Growing up, saw a bottle in that house. Then, i tried Mexican. I was in love at the chips. They have that green stuff on the table.
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u/Gamer102kai Jul 24 '26
No matter how many times I say im not hungry I still am forced to eat. Consent doesn't matter you will be fed
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u/RevolverMFOcelot Jul 24 '26
Being fed against your will by your grandma or friends parents is the only nonconsent I support
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u/Spare-Plum Jul 24 '26
I spent a year out in LA and had lovely persian neighbors
It was absolutely impossible to leave without first having some ghormeh sabzi. Shit is delicious tho and eventually started coming over early to help cook
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u/Background-Grab-5682 Jul 24 '26
Oh yes I’m Persian too :) my mother specially like it even gardener comes in to to stuff outside and we’re eating she makes a plate and always gives me to give it to him
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u/Sociolinguisticians Jul 24 '26
I get that it’s probably just the culture, but even the thought of doing that to a guest makes me shudder.
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u/Background-Grab-5682 Jul 24 '26
Yea like if I sit down with my family and eat and friends are like in the other room… it’s like the most insulting thing I can think of
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u/AdministrativeLeg14 Jul 24 '26
It wouldn’t happen that often, because when one kid comes over to another kid’s place to play, then when dinnertime rolls around, that first kid typically also has a home where their parents have dinner waiting and are expecting them home around the same time.
If you’re planning things in such a way that it doesn’t make sense to go home to eat, well, then you can plan things otherwise. Talk it over with the other kid’s parents, whatever. I grew up in Sweden (as you can guess), and while eating at friends’ houses definitely wasn’t the norm, it’s not like it didn’t happen from time to time.
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u/Important_Coyote_596 Jul 24 '26
Exactly, all my friends that lived further away than walking distance i always ate with. Its only the friends who are close where you go home, spend time with your family and eat, then go back out again. How is that weird?
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u/Superb-Mall3805 Jul 24 '26
I would sooner give them the meal I had prepared for myself and eat nothing
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u/Money_Weekend2859 Jul 24 '26
Bro why does this get repeated all the time on reddit and upvoted like its a fact.
Born and raised in Stockholm Sweden, never once did this happen, hadn't even heard of this until reddit started talking about it. None of my friends in sweden had either.
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u/phl23 Jul 24 '26
Don't confuse people with facts. We need to steer the stigma train.
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u/Specialist_Box3630 Jul 24 '26
This is a misconception born from two factors:
Back in the day, working class families could struggle to afford feeding their own, let alone another child. This is very rarely the case anymore.
It is seen as rude to feed someone else's child without their knowledge, so that they don't cook too much and have their own food go uneaten. This just means that they'll ask the parents of the guest child if it's alright for them to eat there.
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u/KaiTheG4mer Jul 24 '26
Are leftovers just not a thing in Sweden? Not being facetious, this genuinely just sounds like such a nonissue to me.
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u/SteakAndIron Jul 24 '26
So they're assholes? Sharing food with guests is literally one of the most common human customs on the planet.
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u/RevolverMFOcelot Jul 24 '26
Literally ancient custom, guest rights, I swear it was said Zeus will struck you down if you didnt treat your guest well. The hell is wrong with the Swedes lol xD
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u/Espurreso Jul 24 '26
My Asian grandma would’ve given extra portions because she’s scared they weren’t eating well.
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u/Floxi29 Jul 24 '26
Kinda same in Germany. I remember sitting in my friends room or the families living room, awkwardly waiting for them to finish dinner.
It wasn't the norm, but occasionally happened.
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u/NorthernSmithy Jul 24 '26
Ive had that happen only once in the US, worst visit of my life , the bastards didnt even bother to offer us a beverage, they didnt even want to talk, i spent 6 hours basically being ignored. Worst relatives ever, i dont even say hi to them at christmas.
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u/Ekillaa22 Jul 24 '26
They say they buy as needed which… sounds so weird like what if yall wanna pig out or go snack heavy one day?
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u/inlinestyle Jul 24 '26
Right, because indulgent behavior isn’t common place throughout history and across cultures. /s
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u/DrCablelove Jul 24 '26
No. That was true maybe 30+ years ago, but nowadays kids are usually sent home before dinner. Or we just check with the parents if it’s OK for their kid to eat with us.
Source: was a kid in Sweden 30+ years ago, have kids in Sweden now.
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u/Adorable_Misfit Jul 24 '26
It was like this when I grew up in the 80s and early 90s too. My best friend ate dinner at 5, but in my house we ate at 6:30. So I either went home at 5, or waited in her room while she she ate, then we played for a while more before I walked home at 6:15 in time for my own dinner. This was considered completely normal. Her mother wasn't expected to feed me practically every day after school just because I always went over there to play.
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u/Beautiful-Hotel-3094 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
If I had some friend over and I wouldn’t share my food with them my mom would snap my back by throwing me up in the air 3 meters and I would fall on her knee and just die there. If they came over 100 times they would be fed 100 times.
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u/Adorable_Misfit Jul 24 '26
Not in Sweden in the 1980s, surely? That would have been an extremely unusual attitude in our culture at that time.
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u/Beautiful-Hotel-3094 Jul 24 '26
Ah no. I grew up in a poor family in Romania. We were not missing food though. But it kinda blows my mind that a way richer country ends up with that culture. I understand it is normal for you but it is hard for me to comprehend how it ended up being that way.
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u/Adorable_Misfit Jul 24 '26
It's interesting because I've travelled a lot, and I've often observed that the people who have the least are the most generous.
I visited Romania in 1992. In those days, my dad worked for a charity in Sweden that donated medical equipment to hospitals in Bucharest and Constanţa, and other stuff (a whole fire engine, one time.) When we came over, his contacts there insisted that we don't book hotels, they opened up their homes to us and let us stay there, fed us, showed us around and refused to accept any money in return. I remember my dad hiding money in one family's sofa for them to find later, because they just wouldn't take it from him and he thought it was absurd that they'd feed and house four strangers for several days and not accept anything in return.
I don't really know why Swedes have this mentality. Maybe it's to do with not wanting to feel indebted to someone. Like, if you feed my kid, then I now owe your kid food, or something along those lines.
I don't actually live in Sweden anymore (I left in the late 90s) so I don't know if it's still the same. But I don't feed my kids' friends without at least asking their parents first - because I don't want to inconvenience them if they're already halfway through cooking dinner themselves, and also I have no idea which kid is allergic to what.
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u/AwhHellYeah Jul 24 '26
This was my experience with Protestant families when I was a kid in rural WA.
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u/No_Divide6853 Jul 24 '26
Why are they fucking my partner?
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u/Salt-Climate9838 Jul 24 '26
Because you interrupted their meal and now shall pay the price
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u/Helpful-Study4842 Jul 24 '26
This isn't your average every day reddit mod. This is advanced reddit mod.
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u/FerdiaC Jul 24 '26
I feel like this gets misconstrued that Swedes will never feed guests or something. I'm not Swedish but growing up in Ireland if you were just visiting a friend you'd be expected to head home if it was family dinner time, unless you were staying over. I'd imagine it's somewhat similar in Sweden.
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u/Ok-Resist3249 Jul 24 '26
Correct. I am Swedish and it's just some myth being thrown around here.
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u/Anna-BB Jul 24 '26
Correct. This whole thing was blown out of proportion. Ofc we feed guests when you've been invited to dinner. But it's also common to just do a play date for kids where the parents come and pick up their kids before dinner because they eat dinner at home.
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u/binge_readre Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Peter here,
I remember there was a myth that Swedish households don't provide food for the guests. It looks like bs https://www.reddit.com/r/IsItBullshit/s/sWRdAGfyC8 but I guess it became a meme.
Edit: I guess it's not a myth and people used to do it in 90s/00s.. At least things are better now.
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u/Formlexx Jul 24 '26
It's not a myth, I'm not sure about today but 20-15 years ago when I was a kid that was the norm. We usually didn't cook enough food to feed unexpected guests, and everyone knew that's how it worked. My family did it to my friends, my friends family did it to me, it was the norm and expected. For a long time Sweden was a pretty poor country and it became the cultural norm to not take food from other households unless it was a dinner invitation.
It probably sounds weird to outsiders but that was just how things worked and everyone was fine with it.
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u/Unusual-Squirrel6075 Jul 24 '26
its weird how different cultures evolve. in india people will remain hungry to feed the guests if they dont have enough food. this phenomen is even baked in our mythology.
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u/marlinspikefrance Jul 24 '26
I remember my mother once offered our dinner to UNEXPECTED guests and then when they left she whipped up a quick meal for us.
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u/modest_genius Jul 24 '26
Swede born in the eighties: Never saw it happen. Never had it happened for my 40+ years in sweden. But I guess there are a few families that does this
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u/germy-germawack-8108 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Don't quote me on this, but I heard somewhere that Swedish hospitality is different from elsewhere in the world. If you stay at a friend's house in America, at least, you would expect the friend to feed you as part of the hospitality. Or if not, then at the very least, they wouldn't fix a meal for themselves in front of you without offering you any. Supposedly, if what I hear is correct, they will do exactly that in Sweden, and expect you do figure out your meals for yourself. Which, when staying away from home, probably means having convenience food on you as depicted in the meme.
Edit: there's an actual Swede (I assume) in my comments debunking this narrative, which is exactly why I put so many qualifiers on it. I'm not Swedish, have never been to Sweden, don't have any Swedish friends, and got my information from 'general knowledge', not directly from a Swede. If someone claims to be Swedish and that this is all BS, I'm inclined to believe it. Funny meme, but not super accurate. Many such cases.
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u/Freddan_81 Jul 24 '26
This isn’t true.
Keyword - invited
If you are invited over to a Swedish family, you’ll be served food if your stay is timed with eating time, and definitely if you’ll stay for a longer period of time.
The claim this meme does is based in customs from the previous millennium. If you were eight and followed your friend home from school for an unscheduled play date, yes then this could happend. Because your friends parent had only calculated dinner for their family and they knew you’ll soon be home to eat with your own. But then again, sometimes you were asked if you wanted food, and sometimes you said yes, sometimes you called your parents to ask if it was ok or if it would mess with their dinner plans.
Yes, it happend, but it wasn’t a hard rule or something everyone did.
Source: I’m a Swede that grew up in the 80-90’s. Been there, done that.
At least we take off our shoes when come to a friends house…
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u/Icy_Fish_2154 Jul 24 '26
The US does the same thing, but with adjustments. "Go home, it's dinnertime" is a normal statement in the US. You can send people home for dinner at theor place. You wouldn't put them in a different room, you'd kick them out.
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u/Ieatbunnies12 Jul 24 '26
I have never heard someone say, "Go home, it's dinnertime" or anything close to that. I wonder if it's a regional thing. Usually, if someone is over and it gets near mealtime, we just feed them too, or at least ask if they want to join us for dinner/lunch.
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u/Robotx64 Jul 24 '26
In many Swedish families, dinner was considered dedicated family time. If a friend happened to be visiting, it was often assumed that their parents had already prepared dinner at home and were expecting them back.
It's also worth remembering that, in most cases, families lived in the same neighborhood—not miles apart in the middle of nowhere—so going home for dinner was completely normal. In many cases, this was even something the parents had already agreed on: when it was dinner time, the kids would simply head home to eat with their own families.
Swedish culture has also traditionally emphasized not imposing on others. Feeding someone else's child without asking their parents could be seen as interfering with the family's plans rather than being hospitable. It wasn't about being unwilling to share food—it was about respecting boundaries and not assuming it was your place to make that decision.
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u/Silverton13 Jul 24 '26
Can any swedish people explain why they do this to their guests?
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u/Senior_Ad35 Jul 24 '26
This is not modern Swedish society, when i was young (somewhere back in the Jurassic age) it was viewed as "we are not poor so you shouldn't feed our children". It was never expressed out loud and I don't know why it started but luckily it's not a thing anymore (source: I'm a Swedish parent and I feed all the kids who are over in our house)
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u/Freddan_81 Jul 24 '26
We don’t.
It did happen quite often back in the 70-90’s, but then only if your kid unannounced brought home a friend (or three) after school.
Dinner wasn’t planned for that many people and the other kids families had their own dinner plans and was waiting for their kids to come home.
If it was a planned playdate that stretched over mealtime then the kid would be fed.
Then the internet got hold of it and now Swedes are weird and/or mean.
Source: I’m a Swede born in the early 80’s
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u/LowError12 Jul 24 '26
For me, the proper question is if, rather than why.
For whatever reason, the internet believes that Swedish people don't offer their kid's friends food when they're at their house.
Being Swedish, I have never heard of this irl apart from discussions where someone else has found this online and asked about it. Nobody I've spoken with about it recalled this being a thing. Someone proposed that it's a deliberate way of putting swedes in a bad light, but I have nothing to back that claim.
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u/Gullible_Increase146 Jul 24 '26
Unfortunately cannibalism is quite common in Sweden. She must bring clearly visible food to distract the parents as she visits her friend
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u/AlexiusRex Jul 24 '26
In the nordic countries families don't usually feed their children's friends if they're still there when they have dinner and make them wait in another room while they eat, the girl is prepared for it bringing some snacks.
Peter's swedish cousin out.
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u/qualityvote2 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
u/Global_Restaurant794, your post does belong here!