In a recent New Yorker article, How to Eat Candy Like a Swedish Person, the general public learned about Sweden’s (limited) obsession with lördagsgodis or “Saturday candy.” Messages about this article flooded my inbox with questions like, “Is this true?” and “Do you really only eat candy once a week?” I’ll admit that this has […]
Beautiful chaos.That’s what this is.Motherhood.Fatherhood.Parenting.Messy and exhausting it’s notSupposed to be orderly.It’s not supposed to make sense. We establish routines for normalcySo the children know what to expect But in the endAnd we all follow the routines like a religion.Bath, books, bed, breakfast, drop off, work, pick up, dinner.Bath, books, bed and so on untilYears […]
Kids recreate the world how they see it through dramatic play. Shouting is emanating from behind the closed door of my daughter’s room. “No, Mama, don’t go!” “I have to go to work. You have to stay here.” My three-year-old is playing in her room by herself. I slowly open the door. Her back is […]
I’ve been there for every moment. Every smile, every laugh, every wobbly step—every everything—and yet it feels like I am still missing out on so much. How is it not enough? I look back at baby pictures taken years ago, and I see that squishy face. I can see hints of who you will […]
The notification from my children’s preschool app lit up the front screen of my phone. “You have an important message,” the text said in Swedish. I logged in with my email and password and opened up the “important message” that contained photos of my five-year-old son’s preschool field trip. From the photos, it looked like […]
Maybe I’m just a simple gal who enjoys the simpler things in life but in all of our travels, my favorite vacations have been the ones in which I can let go of all of my stress. I’m a casual jeans and T-shirt, comfort over style, laid back type of person and my most […]
When we first moved to Sweden (five years ago, ahh!), the newness of everything was overwhelming. Every day we jumped into the unknown with glee. It was thrilling to have a clean slate. We could be whoever we wanted to be in this new place. I spent the first few weeks converting everything into measurements that […]
My mom used to tell me, “Always leave the world a little better than how you found it.” That meant everything from picking up litter on the street to being a kind and generous person in daily life. Positive contributions were the measure of a good life. I gaze at the two tiny blonde heads […]
One of the negatives of not understanding 100% of the local language is that I often miss exchanges on the playground between the parents and their children. However, depending on the age of the children, my basic Swedish language skills are enough to help me limp along and follow most conversations. Yesterday, while at the […]
This article originally appeared at Motherly’s, “5 Tips For Raising A Viking Child“ that has other great articles for helping parents venture outdoors with their children. I just returned from an exhilarating dragon expedition. After picking up my children from their Swedish preschool, my son frantically dragged me to the woods they had explored earlier in […]