Finnish lawmakers mull love, leave and being human

HELSINKI (Reuters Life!) - Finnish lawmakers will consider granting working adults annual "love leave" and how to teach school children about being human as part of efforts to improve the nation's emotional quality of life.

Finnish MP Tommy Tabermann has submitted both ideas as formal proposals to parliament in the wake of a school shooting tragedy that shook the Nordic nation last year.

The two proposals are aimed at helping to reduce the number of divorces, the high number of people suffering from depression and to stop bullying in schools and at work, the first term Social Democrat (SDP) MP said.

"Next week we are making history talking about love in the parliament," Tabermann told Reuters on Friday.

He said research has shown that working Finns want more time with loved ones rather than higher wages, and that families with small children are under particularly high pressure.

"There is quite a large societal vision behind this. But it is fully based on facts, it is not humbug. It is not a sex leave, but in much wider sense gives people a chance to maintain their relationships," Tabermann said.

The week-long "relationship leave" would be given to all employees each year, enabling Finns to spend time with loved ones, see relatives and visit the sick in hospital, he said.

Depression treatment costs Finnish taxpayers 500 million euros ($770.4 million) a year and half of all marriages end in divorce.

Tabermann said his proposal for teaching children how to "be human" at school stemmed from a bullying problem and that a quarter of school kids suffer from depression in a nation whose education system is ranked as one of the best by world bodies like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations.

The normally peaceful Nordic nation shook in November last year when 18-year-old student Pekka-Eric Auvinen shot dead eight people at his school in Jokela, southern Finland before shooting himself in the head. It later surfaced that Auvinen had been bullied at school.

Tabermann, who is also a poet and author, said the parliament is due to take his proposals to the social and health committee for consideration after next week's session.

(Reporting by Sami Torma, editing by Paul Casciato)