Category: Motherhood
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My 5-Year-Old Learned to Use an Axe at Kindergarten — And Why I’m Not Worried
I live in Norway and I have a child who is 5 years old. One day this Autumn I picked up my five-year-old son from kindergarten, he came running toward me shouting: “Mum, today I learned how to use an axe!” I laughed and replied automatically, “That’s great, sweetheart,” without believing it for a second.…
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The Ultimate Norwegian Daycare Challenge: Dressing Your Child Right
Many of us parents in Norway grew up in countries where there’s neither “bad weather” nor “bad clothing.” (In reference to the Norwegian saying “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing”). In France, for example, there are no 100% wool garments for children, and a winter suit might be rented once or twice in…
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The Joys and Miseries of Raising Children in Norway
Image credits: Shutterstock license When I had my baby in Norway, I thought “this country is the best to be a mother, and the best to raise kids”. At least that is what every single Norwegian person I met told me. (To read this article in French, see Elever des enfants en Norvège: à quoi…
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The 8 Rules of Raising a Kid in Norway
I will not explain here the technicalities of making babies in Norway. That stuff happens here just like everywhere else in the world. However, some other elements are taken into consideration when having babies in this country. 1- Barnehage (Kindergarten) Chinese people all try to have babies during a certain year (of the pig, of…
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The 10 Golden Rules of Being Pregnant in Norway
Illustration: Tori Lind Kjellstad, all rights reserved. Learn pregnant-Norwegian. You learned Norwegian, nynorsk or bokmål, but now that you are pregnant, words you’ve never heard before pop out of nowhere. In my case despite living and working here for 10 years and speaking fluent Norwegian, I had never heard the word bekkenløsning (pelvic pain in English,…
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How to be a Bad Mother in Norway
Now that I understand Norwegian I notice the unbelievable amount of articles coming out almost everyday on topics such as “How to design a happy child” or “Signs that you are a good mother”. Norwegian society seems completely obsessed with children, their well being, and what we, adults, do wrong. Was it like that in…