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

Scandinavia’s nature-centric culture, embodied in the term friluftsliv (which loosely translates to “open-air life”), is not just the sum of all outdoor activities people take part in. It’s a way of life

that to this day is considered key to raising healthy, well-rounded, and eco-conscious children.

The wild is a voice that never stops whispering. —DANIEL CROCKETT

Had I lived in Sweden, my motherhood experience would have followed a predictable pattern at this point. The Scandinavian countries lead the world in terms of paid parental leave, and Swedish parents get a total of 480 days, with a certain quota reserved for the mother and father, respectively, plus unpaid leave for up to three years.

You can also walk through cattle pastures and other farm fields as long as you make sure to close all gates and don’t damage any crops. Unlike in the US, where private property rights are king, and land use tends to be ruled by the risk for potential lawsuits and the premise that if something can go wrong it probably will, allemansrätten relies on an honor system that can simply be summed up with the phrase “Do not disturb, do not destroy,” and trusts that people will use their common sense. What may sound like an impossible free-for-all works amazingly well, with little to no visible littering or destruction in natural areas.

Scandinavian Parenting Tip #1 Prioritize daily outdoor time from when

your child is a baby to make it a natural part of your routine from the get-go. Remember that not every nature experience must entail a grand adventure to a scenic national park—watching a caterpillar make its way across a sidewalk or simply lying in the grass and watching the clouds go by in the backyard can be a great adventure to a small child. Celebrate these everyday nature experiences together, and come back to the same places often to make sure your child forms a bond with your community and its natural areas.

Fresh air affects children’s constitutions, particularly in early years. It enters every pore of a soft and tender skin, it has a powerful effect on their young bodies. Its effects can never be destroyed. —JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

When you’ve grown up in a place but have been gone for a long time, it sometimes strikes you as strange and strangely familiar at the same time. The past is constantly present and will find you, whether you seek it out or not.

The Scandinavian practice of parking prams with young babies outside all year-round dates back at least a century. At the time, the infant mortality rate was high and indoor air quality poor, and many children suffered from rickets and other diseases. In Finland, a well-known pediatrician named Arvo Ylppö, who is sometimes referred to as that country’s Dr. Benjamin Spock, set out to change all that. In the 1920s, he started to distribute childcare guidelines to new mothers, to improve the health and survival rates among infants. Among his many recommendations was to expose children to sunlight as well as fresh and cold air regularly to create “sound blood” and prevent diseases. Specifically, cold air was believed to increase immunity against bacteria by improving blood circulation in the linings of the nose and mouth.

For example, all new parents receive an educational pamphlet titled “Having Children in Finland,” which explicitly recommends the practice: “Irrespective of the season, many children have their evening naps outside in prams. Many babies sleep better outdoors in the fresh air than in the bedroom. Sleeping outdoors is not dangerous for a baby.”

Just like generations of Swedes had done before me, I intuitively lined our stroller with lamb’s wool and a bunting bag, bundled the girls up in layers, and walked

them around until they fell asleep. Then I would park the stroller by the wall on our back porch, turn on the baby monitor, and go back inside. The Woman Who Walks with Dogs had become the Woman Who Leaves Her Napping Baby Outside. Since I couldn’t quite shake the fear that somebody would call Child Protective Services on me, I didn’t advertise this napping regimen to anybody but close friends and family.

According to the rules of survival, we can go about three weeks without food and three days without water, but only three minutes without breathing. Every single cell in our body needs oxygen to live and produce energy. Fresh air helps oxygenate our cells, which in turn makes us feel more energetic and alive. If that fresh air is combined with exercise, like sledding or climbing up a pile of snow, even better.

Most of what children need to learn during their early childhood years cannot be taught; it’s discovered through play. —RUTH WILSON

Play is a biological, psychological and social necessity, and is fundamental to the healthy development and well-being of individuals and communities.”

In Sweden all the supplies needed for activities and daily operations are provided by the school. They don’t need more markers—what they want is children who can play outside in all types of weather. Which prompts this list of recommended supplies for winter: • Thick mittens (two pairs) • Woolen socks • Winter coveralls • Thick sweater/fleece • Warm hat • Rain gear • Rain boots • Complete change of clothes for indoor use And, at the end, a cheery reminder: “We go outside rain or shine!”

The idea that children learn through play is far from new. Plato said that “the most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.” Much later, in the 1700s, Swiss-born Renaissance philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau championed the idea that all education of children should be based on play in his groundbreaking treatise Émile, or On Education. “Do I dare set forth here the most important, the most useful rule of all education? It is not to save time, but to squander it,” he famously wrote,

in support of children’s innate ability to learn through their own experiences. Then, in the 1830s, a German teacher and staunch nature lover named Friedrich Froebel picked up on the idea that play is key to children’s physical, moral, and spiritual development. He was so convinced of this idea that he decided to create an early childhood education program that revolved around singing, dancing, gardening, self-directed play, and experiencing nature with all senses. Froebel viewed children as plants who would flower if they were allowed to learn at their own pace, nourished and guided by a teacher. He called his concept “kindergarten”—literally, a child’s garden.

“I think parents become very nervous very early that their children will not become as successful as the next person if they can’t read or do addition and subtraction when they come to kindergarten,” she says. “In

Denmark, play is valued for its own sake, whereas for many American parents it’s more about building skills and how it will help us later. That’s just how we’re culturally oriented, unfortunately. There are probably some good things and bad things about all of this, but there are so many opportunities for children in Denmark that are different. More freedom to choose, less structure. You choose and we help you figure it out.”

“Play in and of itself has a therapeutic effect on children,” says environmental psychologist Fredrika Mårtensson at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences at Alnarp. “And they play differently outside. The games are more open and flexible, and it’s easier for them to organize the situation in a way that’s beneficial to them physically, socially, and psychologically.” Some of the cognitive skills that are honed through play are decision making, problem solving, and abstract thinking.

They can happen in any environment, but more so in nature, where children tend to engage in a lot of fantasy play. Researchers believe these critical thinking skills are crucial not just to early childhood, but for children to succeed academically later in life. 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.

There’s another reason why hands-on, meaningful play experiences in nature are so conducive to learning. Nature activates all the senses, but without being overwhelming. When children play in nature, they tend to be calm yet alert. “When their senses are engaged, they are strengthening their sensory skills. And strong sensory integration results in a higher incidence of learning,” says Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist and author of Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children. Conversely, Hanscom believes the rise in sensory issues in children is directly linked to the fact that children play less outside. Hanscom recommends as much as five to eight hours of active play every day, preferably outdoors, for toddlers and preschoolers, and four to five hours of physical activity and outdoor play for school-age children up to the age of thirteen.