Published in the WOW! supplement of the Evening Echo 07/03/2007

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“Dad, am I dancing on ice yet?”

I looked over to see the little one bent double, her mitten-clad hands flat on the the surface of the ice, one leg held high in the air as she attempted to spin on the spot in a comical parody of the professional skaters she’d seen on the telly the night before.

While their little sister approached ice skating with the fearless abandon typical of a three-year-old, the twins exhibited more caution. They picked their way gingerly around the perimeter of the small outdoor ice rink, exploring their balance with baby-steps before plucking up the courage for a short glide.

We’d picked up skates for the girls at a second hand shop down town about a week into our Swedish trip for a ludicrously cheap €3 a pair. The nearest ice-rink was in the local park. It was ideal for the children: small, bordered by a four foot high wall of snow that offered a yielding barrier to fall into, and best of all it was completely free.

Practically every time we went there we had the rink to ourselves,and by our third visit the girls were growing in confidence, working their way slowly around the ice unassisted. The little one, who’s always trying to up the ante, was even trying to skate backwards like the people on the telly.

The park itself was wonderful. It was crammed with plenty of free activities for the children and had seating areas around specially designed fire-pits. Families lit fires to warm up around after fun in the snow and cooked up hot snacks over the open flames.

One of the things that always strikes me when we take the children abroad is how far behind some of our European neighbours Ireland is when it comes to catering for families. Sweden, for example, is light years ahead of us.

One example is the family ticket system. You can buy family tickets for practically any attraction in Sweden – and a family ticket means a family ticket. It doesn’t matter how many children you have you pay one fixed price for the whole family, and that price is way lower than the sum of the individual tickets.

We took the girls swimming while we were away. At the local pool the price of an adult ticket was 40 Swedish Krona (about €4), a family ticket for one adult and any number of children was just 45 Krona (c. €4.50) and for two adults and any number of children it was 80 Krona (c. €8). That means that one parent can take all the kids swimming for 50c more than the price of an adult ticket, and if both parents go the kids get in for free.

Contrast that with the system here in Ireland, where a “Family” ticket tends to offer only a token reduction on the sum of the individual ticket price, and is usually restricted to 2 adults and 2 children. Each additional child has to pay full-whack. For parents with larger families that soon makes doing things together on anything more than an occasional basis prohibitively expensive.

Surely the Swedes have it right. A “family ticket” by definition should admit one family, no matter how many children there are. It’s yet another example of rip-off Ireland in action!

Another area where the Swedes impressed me was on the public transport system. For the three-and-a-half hour train journey from Sundsvall to Stockholm we only had to pay a nominal 5 Krona (50c) each for the girls, and on local buses, trains and the Stockholm underground children under twelve travel for free.

While Sweden could never be considered a cheap destination, when it comes to doing things together as a family it is infinitely more affordable than Ireland… and that’s a shame.

But no matter how much better other countries may be in some areas, there really is no place like home. Ireland is a wonderful country to live in, and a fantastic place to bring up children. It’s just that with a little bit of fine tuning it could be so much better.

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