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

“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes!”

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.

One cross-sectional study representing four million children in the US showed that roughly half of all preschoolers don’t have daily outdoor playtime, even though the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends encouraging “children to play outside as much as possible.”

Older children don’t fare much better, with digital entertainment on average now eating up nearly fifty-three hours of their time every week.

By the time they reach their teens, only 10 percent of American children report spending time outside every day, acc...

Meanwhile, many schools are cutting recess to cram more required instruction into a day that hardly had any free time to begin with...

Simultaneous with this development, obesity, diabetes, and ADHD and other behavioral problems have become rampant, with American children now being three times more likely to be medicated with stimulants and antidepressants than their European peers.

One of the first lessons I learned in my new homeland was that pretty much all the things I was used to doing either on foot or by using public transportation in Scandinavia could be done without ever exiting your car in Montana.

Since so many people just seemed to be moving from one climate-controlled indoor environment to another, there was no need to dress for the elements, and I found that people often dressed as if they didn’t expect to go outside at all, not even putting on a coat in the dead of winter.

But more than anything, Scandinavians get through the winter by maintaining a sense of normalcy. Snow happens. Sleet happens. Ice happens. Cold temperatures happen. Life goes on.

The children who once dressed in rain gear from head to toe to go out to recess or play in the woods after school turn into adults who feel a certain urgency about getting outside every day.

For example, the health care system in Sweden’s Skåne region encourages parents to get outside with their children from an early age as a way to prevent obesity and establish a healthy lifestyle from the get-go.

Kronans Apotek, one of the largest pharmacy chains in Sweden, offers the following advice for flu season on its website: “The first step toward fewer runny noses and less coughing is to let the child spend as much time outside as possible,” the company says.

Dr. Sean Sharma, puts it: “A generation ago, there were maybe one or two overweight or obese children in a class of twenty. Today, being overweight is so common that the normal kids sometimes are the ones that stand out. Our expectations have changed: Overweight is the new normal.”

Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that childhood obesity has almost tripled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past thirty years.

When you include figures for those who are simply overweight as well, more than one-third of American children are considered overweight or obese.

That means children in the US are nearly six times more likely to be obese and nearly twice as likely to be overweight as children in Sweden.

Similarly, approximately 11 percent of American children between the ages of four and seventeen have been diagnosed with ADHD, whereas only 3 to 6 percent of school-age children in Sweden a...

When combined with children on the autism spectrum, as many as one in six American children have a developmental disability, representing a 17 percent increase between 1997 and 2008, according to a 2011 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, a 2009 study showed that the prevalence of myopia, or nearsightedness, increased from 25 percent in 1971–72 to nearly 42 percent in 1999–2004. The fact that children spend more time indoors is believed to be the main culprit behind this increase.

Sensory issues are on the rise as well, with more young children than ever before needing occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physica...

Outdoor play can help combat childhood obesity as well as sensory issues and myopia, and many studies have shown that spending ti...

In fact, recess seems to be under attack across the US. In 1989, according to one survey, 96 percent of all elementary schools in the US offered recess every day, but this has changed drastically over the past twenty-five years as many school districts have cut it or eliminated it altogether.

Today only 40 percent of American school systems even have an explicit recess policy, and minorities and children living in poverty are less likely to have recess than white students and those living above the poverty line.

Games that involve balls, snow, or ice are even more likely to be restricted. Forget snowball fights, King of the Mountain, and sliding on frozen puddles of water—these activities have all been banned in the name of safety.

A comfortable child can play outside for hours, so high-quality outdoor gear and play clothes are well worth the money. If the clothes are durable, chances are they can also be handed down to younger siblings.

What to look for in outdoor gear and play clothes for children in general: • Protects against the elements (wind, sun, moisture, cold temperatures, etc.) • Stands up to wear and tear • Easy to put on and take off • Loose-fitting enough to allow for range of motion while playing

Layering clothes is key to keeping children warm in cold temperatures.

The first layer, or the base layer, regulates the child’s temperature and keeps him dry. This layer usually fits snugly.

Long underwear made from merino wool, synthetic fibers, or a blend of both works best closest to the body, since these materials ...

The mid-layer insulates the body by trapping body heat in pockets of air in the fabric.

This layer can be made of either natural or synthetic fibers and can, for example, consist of a fleece jacket and pants or a sweatshirt and sweatpants.

The outer layer should be waterproof, windproof,...

For the youngest children, one-piece coveralls are usually the best choice, since they are easy to put on and prevent snow from creeping in.

The same layering principles apply as for winter, but with lighter or fewer layers.

For rainy days, the Scandinavian-style heavy-duty rain gear sometimes seen at forest schools in the US is the ultimate outer layer.

Layer them with a fleece jacket in cooler temperatures and combine them with a pair of rugged rain boots for endless fun in puddles of mud.

For dry days, use regular, breathable shell pants and a windbreaker for the outer layer.

Make a mental breakdown of your child’s wardrobe into “playclothes” and “school clothes” to avoid stressing over damage wrought by messy outdoor play.

In cool, wet weather, layer with rain gear as needed.

In sunny weather, a sun hat with a strap under the chin and thin, long-sleeved UV clothing help protect the child from the sun.

“Asking [Swedes] why they like to be outdoors is like asking them why they want to have children; they are forced to find motivation for something that is so obvious to them that they have never given it a second thought,”

Here, they slowly evolved from babies and toddlers to pint-size hikers.

If the creek was full of agricultural waste, wouldn’t it be more productive for the state to track down and stop the source of the contamination instead of treating a hiking family like a weapon of mass environmental destruction?

Michael Lanza, author of Before They’re Gone: A Family’s Year-Long Quest to Explore America’s Most Endangered National Parks,

Richard Louv in his best-selling book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.

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.

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

There’s an old Danish proverb that claims that “fresh air impoverishes the doctor.”