# Feeding your kid with hand is a crime in Norway?!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [January 19, 2012, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986 "2012-01-19T07:47:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norse)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2012, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/61 "2012-01-27T07:24:38Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> They’re not allowed to.
Which, of course, is A Good Thing™. These cases are usually quite sensitive, and it’d really break the last confidence the child protective services still have if the employees were allowed to talk about their cases to media.
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### Author:  [@Tom\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_P)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2012, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/62 "2012-01-27T11:20:19Z")
Quick update: The local government here in Stavanger is quoted in today’s [newpaper (Google translated)](http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=no&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aftenbladet.no%2Fnyheter%2Flokalt%2F--Foreldrene-er-veldig-fornoyd-2923148.html%23.TyKG4mVOjNs&act=url) as being “positive that the two Indian children will grow up with his uncle in India.” Since the uncle lives in the same city as the parents this might be a solution which returns the kids to their parents while saving face for the CPS here.
As the article mentions, our foreign minister (who is visiting Asian countries at the moment) is also involved, so there might have been some pressure from above leading to this solution.
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### Author:  [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2012, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/63 "2012-01-27T11:41:16Z")
I am curious.
Did the Turkey kidnapping incident spoil relationship with Turkey? It seems too major an incident.
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### Author:  [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2012, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/64 "2012-01-27T12:45:45Z")
> [@Mighty\_Girl](#):
>
> She was Danish.
>
> While I have never been to Norway to say if they do, I was also very surprised when I started traveling to DK over a decade ago and saw all these buggies with kids outside. My husband’s explanation (he is Danish) is that they “sleep better in the fresh”.
I’ve seen it in Sweden too.
My ex’s sister used to leave her baby daughter in her pram in the courtyard outside her flat.
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### Author:  [@Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norse)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/65 "2012-01-27T15:48:10Z")
It’s quite common in Norway as well, so that covers the last of the Scandinavian countries
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### Author:  [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/66 "2012-01-27T17:40:22Z")
That story about the Danish woman in NY (although far worse than the above makes her sound) always makes me think of this old A&P ad: [Supermarket Ad A&P 1950 | More family cars parked here. Its … | Flickr](http://www.flickr.com/photos/retroarama/6272314859/)
I’d be interested to know what conerns the kindergarten had put forward. Was the kindergartener unable to feed himself? Was he unkempt? Unusually small? Hand shy? (I’m betting this had a lot to do with it. the Mother trying to slap him couldn’t have helped.)
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### Author:  [@Grim\_Render](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grim_Render)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/67 "2012-02-04T01:21:55Z")
Although the agency isn’t allowed to publish their side of it or any confidential information the case was reviewed by an the outside agency for such (Fylkesmannen) who came down quite heavily on the agencys side.
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### Author:  [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2012, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/68 "2012-02-04T14:49:47Z")
> [@Grim\_Render](#):
>
> Although the agency isn’t allowed to publish their side of it or any confidential information the case was reviewed by an the outside agency for such (Fylkesmannen) who came down quite heavily on the agencys side.
GR,
What is this outside agency? A government arm? Or a non-governmental agency?
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### Author:  [@Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norse)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2012, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/69 "2012-02-04T18:45:23Z")
Fylkesmann = [County governor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_governor_(Norway))
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### Author:  [@Grim\_Render](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grim_Render)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2012, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/70 "2012-03-22T22:04:32Z")
Apparently, the father of the kids has released some of the information…it appears he asked the Child Services to take the kids…
[http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-03-21/india/31219386\_1\_custody-hearing-sagarika-cws](http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-03-21/india/31219386_1_custody-hearing-sagarika-cws)
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### Author:  [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2012, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/71 "2012-12-01T10:03:50Z")
_An Indian couple arrested in Norway for alleged abuse of their seven-year-old son faces a grim future. They have been charged with “gross repeated maltreatment” of their child for which the prosecution has proposed a minimum sentence of one year and three months for the parents.
Mr Chandrasekhar works with software giant TCS, which deputed him to Oslo 18 months ago to handle a project. He took his wife and two sons with him. His older son, Sai Sriram, allegedly told his teachers that his parents had reprimanded him harshly for wetting his pants and threatened to send him back to India._
The first couple referred to in OP separated, and is in a nasty custody battle. Why don’t well educated IT guys learn from well-publicized incidents?☹
While in Rome, be a Roman.
Or
Don’t go to Rome.
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### Author:  [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/72 "2012-12-01T19:06:27Z")
What was there to learn? The first couple’s problems fundamentally had nothing to do with Norway’s child protection services, if post #70 is any indication.
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/73 "2012-12-01T19:19:02Z")
> [@Indian](#):
>
> While in Rome, be a Roman.
>
> Or
>
> Don’t go to Rome.
Or don’t have your kids be “subjected to violence or had witnessed severe violence at home”. Not sure if there’s really a pithy, Roman related cliche to summarize that, but I think its good advice.
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### Author:  [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/74 "2012-12-01T19:49:48Z")
> [@Walther\_Ego](#):
>
> This might well be a case of cultural differences, but typically, in Finland, in these kinds of cases, the the governement agencies are mandated to shut up, while the parents are free to spew whatever they want to the press. I wonder if it’s the same in Norway.
Quite possibly.
I know some fundamentalist homeschoolers here in the US. They aren’t getting any unwanted government interference right now (the state is VERY permissive), but I could easily see them crying “religious persecution” if a government inspection turns up something irregular, even something not really religious in nature such as an electrical safety issue or an unsafe vehicle.
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### Author:  [@Stendhal\_Syndrome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stendhal_Syndrome)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2012, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/75 "2012-12-01T19:58:40Z")
I just hand fed my 11 month old in public in a restaurant, like I normally do, after washing my hands, because it is just easier to pull the meat apart and pick things out that she likes to eat. I was born and raised in India where feeding children with your hands is a common cultural practice.
Sometimes I also pass food into my 10 year old’s mouth with my hand if she wants to try something new, especially, when we dine at a Indian restaurant. I really don’t see myself cutting roti (bread) with a knife and a fork and dipping it in curry.
Glad we live in California.
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### Author:  [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2012, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/76 "2012-12-01T20:20:04Z")
Embarrassing international incidents regarding child protection even happen [between the UK and US](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-510107/British-girls-holiday-New-York-orphanage-mother-falls-ill.html). This wasn’t related to bad parental behavior per se - mom took her kids on a trip to the US and then fell seriously ill and the (British) kids were immediately swallowed into the very fine New York City orphanage system.
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/77 "2012-12-01T20:26:56Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#):
>
> Embarrassing international incidents regarding child protection even happen [between the UK and US](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-510107/British-girls-holiday-New-York-orphanage-mother-falls-ill.html). This wasn’t related to bad parental behavior per se - mom took her kids on a trip to the US and then fell seriously ill and the (British) kids were immediately swallowed into the very fine New York City orphanage system.
Eh, the mother was too sick to take care of the kids, so NYC put them up for the night in the institution they have set up to take care of kids. I don’t really see how that was embarassing, other then the writer of that article seems to go to bizarre lengths to make downtown Manhatten seem like some sort of post-apocalyptic hell-hole.
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### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/78 "2012-12-01T20:49:53Z")
> [@Stendhal\_Syndrome](#):
>
> I just hand fed my 11 month old in public in a restaurant, like I normally do, after washing my hands, because it is just easier to pull the meat apart and pick things out that she likes to eat. I was born and raised in India where feeding children with your hands is a common cultural practice.
>
> Sometimes I also pass food into my 10 year old’s mouth with my hand if she wants to try something new, especially, when we dine at a Indian restaurant. I really don’t see myself cutting roti (bread) with a knife and a fork and dipping it in curry.
>
> Glad we live in California.
read post 70. The father has admitted publicly that there was severe abuse in the home, that their explanation that the removal was based on trivial cultural differences was bullshit, and requested that the children remain with their foster parents in Norway (who are Indian).
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### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2012, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/79 "2012-12-01T21:03:47Z")
> [@Simplicio](#):
>
> Eh, the mother was too sick to take care of the kids, so NYC put them up for the night in the institution they have set up to take care of kids. I don’t really see how that was embarassing, other then the writer of that article seems to go to bizarre lengths to make downtown Manhatten seem like some sort of post-apocalyptic hell-hole.
Not to mention name-dropping Harlem (oooh scary) despite the fact that the mother was in Queens Hospital Center, which is in (wait for it) Queens! In a perfectly ordinary, working-to-middle class neighborhood. Which is logical, as she fell deathly sick in a hotel near Laguardia Airport which is in (wait for it) Queens.
So the embarassing incident is that the NYC government took temporary responsibility for an unconscious woman’s minor, unsupervised children?
And oh what a nightmare it turned out to be for the girls: “everyone turned out to be friendly. It was a good experience - just not really what we had gone on holiday for.”
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### Author:  [@Stendhal\_Syndrome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stendhal_Syndrome)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-your-kid-with-hand-is-a-crime-in-norway/609986/80 "2012-12-01T21:18:33Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#):
>
> read post 70. The father has admitted publicly that there was severe abuse in the home, that their explanation that the removal was based on trivial cultural differences was bullshit, and requested that the children remain with their foster parents in Norway (who are Indian).
Ah. Thank you. I was quick to post and quick to react.
It is a terrible situation. I am glad the children are in a safe environment for now.
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