I couldn’t bear to get out of bed this morning. The room was cold, I was snuggly warm and my body just needed more sleep. Kory got up and made Kaleb’s lunch and Kaleb got himself off to school. Tobias came over and they rode the city bus together as the roads are still like skating rinks. I was awake while he was going out the door at 8:10, but then I fell back to sleep until 10:45! That was incredibly late for me and I’m so glad I got some rest. I was up in time to see the sun rise above the mountains in front of our house at 11:30. (It was gone again by 2:00.) I hope I get good rest again tonight as I’m not feeling well enough to go to school tomorrow either. Too bad I don’t get “benefits” for staying home. In Norway, they have an incredible sick leave policy. Each person who works full time gets 12 sick days a year. If they are out more than three days, they go to some kind of disability pay, so they don’t use up those precious days. If they work part-time, they get a percentage of that, so a half time worker gets 6 days off a year. But here’s the kicker: on top of the regular sick days, they also have child sick days. When a child is sick, obviously one of the parents need to stay home with them so they give parents an extra ten sick days a year if they have one to two kids, but if they have three or more kids, those kid sick days go up to 15. Amazing. So it’s possible to have 27 sick days off every year if you have three kids – that’s more than a month! (And they all get at least four weeks vacation a year too, plus a few weeks for holidays). You can’t carry over any sick time from year to year so most people use them up each year. I read a newspaper article a few years back that said on any given day, 25% of Norway’s work force doesn’t show up to work due to “sickness.” And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
If a person is really sick, of course they get disability pay and free medical care. But we know someone that has rheumatism (who DOESN’T when you get to a certain age), and the government not only pays him extra sick leave for the month he must take off every fall for his “treatment,” but they also pay for all his expenses to get that treatment. Because the rheumatism is hard to treat in a cold climate, they send him to the Canary Islands to go to a health spa there! They pay his airfare, lodging and all his meals for one month every year! He gets massages every day, steams, hot packs, you name it. All because he’s a little stiff in his joints and that’s the kind of health care that Norway provides. (Kory is entitled to the same but with his joints as bad as they are, he’d just have to live permanently in the Canary Islands like some Norwegian residents who have health problems that are worsened by the cold – all paid for by Norwegian tax dollars.) The government here takes 7.5% of every kroner earned to pay for their health care system, and I must say, it’s a bargain. Our insurance premiums back home, plus deductibles and other out of pocket not-covered medical expenses way exceed that amount of our income and we’re not even sick. This system wouldn’t work in America though because we have too many lawsuits. They don’t have those here, so it keeps the prices down.
I guess Michael Moore was here in Norway when he was working on his “Sicko” movie that talked about the state of healthcare in America. When he found out about the incredibly generous health care system they have here in Norway, he was quoted in the paper as saying he just couldn’t include that in his movie because Americans would never believe it. He went to France instead and interviewed residents there. Too funny.
I mustered up the strength to be a little productive this afternoon and Kory helped me with some party preparations. Kaleb and Tobias helped after school also. Tonight when Kaleb was going to bed he said, “I think this party will go down in the history books of Norway!” He’s pretty excited. So is Tobias. Kaleb has read the entire Harry Potter series four times (one books he’s read eight times). He knows every piece of trivia in every book. I’m sure none of the other kids will even notice the details that Kaleb has worked into the party, but he does, and that’s all that matters. Well, it matters to me, too. I’m giving myself the parties I never had a kid because it’s never too late to have a happy childhood!
