There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom's Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids (from Friluftsliv to Hygge)

by Linda Åkeson McGurk

if we want children to care about nature, they need to spend time in it first.

In Sweden, friluftsliv is generally defined as “physical activity outdoors to get a change of scenery and experience nature, with no pressure to achieve or compete.”

“Sometimes I think that it’s better for the adults to take a step back, observe, and not interfere,”

Don’t you just love it when the kids want to stay outside and play in the fresh air?”

“all children and young people need to play. The impulse to play is innate. Play is a biological, psychological and social necessity, and is fundamental to the healthy development and well-being of individuals and communities.”

researchers have found that children play even more creatively when they don’t have ready-made toys at hand.

“We see childhood as an important part of a human’s life and not as a race to adulthood. We believe and respect the fact that children have the right to a happy childhood.”

As a parent, a great way to support them is simply to spend a lot of time outside, ask open-ended questions, and encourage your child’s innate curiosity and willingness to investigate.

A study by the University of Copenhagen showed that children actually got more exercise while playing freely outdoors than when they participated in organized sports.

“If you can help children love nature, they will take care of nature, because you cherish things you love.”

“Dirty kids are happy kids,”

“too much order and cleanliness hampers play. Children must be allowed to get muddy, get in the water with their clothes on, make a mess and be rowdy; they should be spontaneous, improvise and do things that are not thought-through.”

“Even if I think it sucks that it’s raining, I don’t want to convey that feeling to my children,

We deprive children of free, risky play, ostensibly to protect them from danger, but in the process we set them up for mental breakdowns,” he writes in Psychology Today. “In the long run, we endanger them far more by preventing such play than by allowing it. And, we deprive them of fun.”

I think we need to let them try things; we can’t protect them against everything that’s dangerous.”