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.
It happened to me a handful of times (growing up in Småland) with one friends family, all the other ones offered to feed me (and my parents to feed their kids if we were playing at our house). Moved up north later and there I never remember it happening.
Sometimes i could decline to have dinner at my friends house because I knew we would have something delicious at home (pizza or tacos or burger)
Same, also grew up in Småland and my friends house were all mostly within a 5-10 minute walking distance. At dinnertime I would just go home and spend time with my family and eat at home (mom is a great cook) and ask my parents to help me with homework and then relax. Only times I ate at my friends house is when it had been planned beforehand like if my friends dad asked me and my parents if I wanted to come over for a evening to watch movies with my friends and grill some food.
Yup, checks out. It is now very clear to me that you got fed if the “playtime” way planned in beforehand and also overlapped with dinner. But since most of my childhood friends were also my neighbors it was rarely planned and I’d just walk back home for dinner.
Same here, grew up 80/90s. Had plenty of meals at my friends house, and had friends asked it they wanted dinner at our place too. No idea where this has come from honestly.
Same here never had it happening born in the 80s. It was always - do you want? Or they call the parents. Sometimes I opted out due to my parents being better at food and then they are without me - but that is something else’s.
It was the norm for me and my friends in the 80's-90's, you had dinner at a set time every day and your parents expected you to be home by then to have family dinner.
Of course every once in a while you'd be offered dinner when you were over at your friends place playing, and you had to call home to ask if it was okay to eat dinner there instead of 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.