I grew up in the US about 1000 years ago, or at least before Reagan and Clinton took the country on the neoliberal-late-stage-capitalism death spiral it has been on since then.

Back in the 70s and early 80s, the US was more like the Scandinavia you describe, just with fewer blonds and none of those cool looking letters with slashes and dots. Since that time, the US has become an ever more dog-eat-dog world. That of course trickles down to kids sports through their overly stressed parents.

Sadly the wonderful environmenet I grew up in (recognizing that I was a middle-class, hetero, white, male and all the privileges that come with that) is long gone. I was happy to raise my son in Europe where it still exists.

Actually better here, as the puritanical US ideas about sex and alchohol are in far in the minority.