Childcare policy: Who Does It Best?
The Europeans | European news, politics and culture
Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer
4.8 • 162 Ratings
🗓️ 31 October 2025
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Childcare policy affects all of us at some point in our lives. And depending on where you live, your country’s parental leave and early-education policies can determine everything from what you do for a living to how you divide household labor to how you plan for your future. Reporters Maja Stepančič and Uršula Zaletelj took a whirlwind trip across Europe to find out which country does childcare policy best. And even if you don’t have kids of your own, we’re pretty sure you’ll enjoy taking the journey with them.
Maja and Uršula are the hosts of the Slovenian-language parenting podcast Šala za starše, or ‘A Joke for Parents’. You can find their show here.
This series was fully funded by you, our listeners. Our generous crowdfunders hit our goal within two months, making it possible for us to do extensive reporting fully independently. We couldn’t be more grateful. If you’re feeling inspired to support The Europeans’ ongoing work, please go to patreon.com/europeanspodcast.
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Additional resources for this episode:
- The Day Iceland Stood Still
- UNICEF report on parental leave and family-friendly policies
- Zoe Williams’ Guardian piece “‘These are not numbers – they are people’: what ex-communist Slovenia can teach the world about child poverty”
00:00:43 Introducing Uršula Zaletelj and Maja Stepančič
00:05:52 How childcare made this episode about childcare possible
00:13:55 How Icelandic women went on strike and brought the entire country to a halt
00:17:25 A Swedish toddler trouble
00:21:52 Is it best to raise your child in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower?
00:28:26 The longest parental leave in Europe
00:34:54 Italy: La Famiglia Mulino Bianco
00:42:39 No place like home!
Written, reported and produced by: Uršula Zaletelj and Maja Stepančič
Additional production: Katz Laszlo
Editors: Jasmin Baoumy, Katz Laszlo
Editorial support: Dominic Kraemer, Katy Lee, Morgan Childs
Sound design: Jesse Lou Lawson
Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak
Music and SFX: Jim Barne, Epidemic, FreeSound.org
Artwork: RTiiiKA
With thanks to everyone that talked to us for this episode: Mathieu Lefèvre, Ana Marija Sikirić Simčic, Martina Pezer, Petra Klasić, Ivona Ivić Lovrenović, Mojca Dominikovič, Katarina Hovfing, Katy Lee, Stephanie Scherer, Dana Thompson, Richard Thompson, Madalina Ion, Corina Parvu, Alenka Švab, Katarina Bogataj, Carlotta Giordano, Giulia Milan, Letizia Mencarini, Maria Rosaria Gualano and Anne Wiebke Peters.
And a final, heartfelt thanks to the wonderful professionals who looked after Uršula and Maja’s children so they could work on this episode ❤️
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of the Europeans exists thanks to you, our amazing listeners. |
| 0:06.1 | Every bit of it was funded by your support. |
| 0:08.9 | Thank you all so, so much. |
| 0:10.8 | If you aren't donating yet, please consider supporting our independent journalism |
| 0:15.1 | by heading to patreon.com forward slash Europeans podcast. |
| 0:46.3 | Thank you.com forward slash Europeans Podcast Podcast I'm going to be. Hello and welcome back to the Europeans. My name is Dominic Kramer and today we've got another special episode of our mini-series |
| 0:53.3 | in which we're looking at policies in a few key areas |
| 0:57.3 | and asking, who does it best in Europe? We're making this series because honestly, now feels like the moment for it. |
| 1:06.5 | A lot of people are tuning out of politics, and who can blame them it's not exactly the most |
| 1:12.4 | hopeful or optimistic moment we're living through right now politics can easily feel like a power |
| 1:18.7 | game between people in suits who live in a different world entirely from the rest of us but that's |
| 1:24.9 | obviously not the full picture this series is all about uncovering policies |
| 1:30.0 | in Europe that genuinely make life better. Policies that you might not even notice exist, |
| 1:36.4 | but do really influence your day-to-day life. In last week's episode, we looked at housing, |
| 1:44.1 | and cats found some places where things are being... In last week's episode, we looked at housing. |
| 1:50.4 | And cats found some places where things are being organized a bit better. |
| 1:56.3 | But she also found some pretty big structural problems with how we look at the housing crisis. |
| 1:59.7 | Go back and listen to that two-parter if you haven't heard it yet. |
| 2:01.5 | I found it very eye-opening. |
| 2:14.4 | In this episode, we're looking at childcare policy, something that's affected all of us at one point in our lives, either as parents or when we were children. |
| 2:19.3 | I don't actually have kids myself. For a long time I did think I would have kids in a kind of rainbow family setup, |
| 2:24.3 | co-parenting with some friends, |
... |
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