Increasing diversity in patterns of responsibility for the raising of children in families has presented serious challenges for welfare states. More complex family ties raise questions about the types of responsibility and obligation that should follow from different forms of private relationship, and the role the welfare state should play in governing family life. In this article, we compare how family policies in Finland, Norway and Sweden define parental responsibilities for supporting a child when its parents do not live together. We are particularly interested in whether the principle of Nordic family policy, shared parenting, operates when parents do not live together but raise their child together. Do parents have an opportunity, for example, to share family policy benefits, and if they have, what are the conditions under which this can be realised? Comparative examination shows variation between the logistics of Nordic family policies. Norwegian and Swedish family policy systems are flexible, and family policy there enables parents to share benefits in a way that supports shared residential arrangements. In Finland, however, the situation of parents living apart but sharing the daily care of their child has been given insufficient attention and family policy has still not been developed.
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