I knew I was in trouble the day my pre-schooler came home smelling of woodsmoke and told me he’d been practising “knife skills”. When his twin siblings requested a saw for their second birthday, I realised I’d crossed the Rubicon: I’d become an accidental mother of Vikings. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I relocated from London to Denmark, carefree and childless, but despite planning on staying just a year I’m still here a decade and three children later. So I have skin in the Viking game. And Nordic children do things differently. They eat differently, learn differently, play, dress, even sleep differently – with babies left to nap outside in their prams in sub-zero temperatures. They sing, fight, climb, fall and get up again. They are out in nature for hours a day – despite the fact that the weather’s terrible (we’re talking Mordor from October to March).
Nordics seldom come across as happy-go-lucky – preferring “scheduled fun” to anything approaching spontaneity. And yet… Nordic countries regularly top Unicef rankings in terms of happiness, education and equality with the highest rates of wellbeing, globally. Some aspects of their parenting can be applied wherever you are, while others can act as inspiration. So here are a few things I’ve learned about how to raise a Viking.
