from Hacker News

What living in Denmark taught me about raising 'Viking' children

by asix66 on 2/25/24, 11:28 PM with 8 comments

• by TrackerFF on 2/26/24, 12:01 PM

  I'm born and raised in Norway, but I have to say that I wince whenever someone refers to us as "Vikings" in any capacity - it is almost exclusively a thing that foreigners/outsiders do, sans a small subculture of people here that enjoy Viking LARPING.

  But, anyway:

  When I grew up (30+ years ago) we did spend most of our time outside. Playing soccer, biking around, exploring the hillsides, building tree huts/house, playing along the shoreline, and so on.

  If we were lucky, we would get an hour to play some NES/SNES/etc., but that was the exception. I especially remember our grandparents just sending us straight out, no mater what - they had a saying "Det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlige klær" which translates to "There's no bad weather, only bad clothing" - so we would be outside playing in all kinds of shitty weather. The "bad weather" excuse has always been a faux pas thing here, which gets hammered down from early on.

  Seeing strollers outside feels completely natural to me, that's just how things have always been.

  I also lived in Finland and Sweden a couple of year growing up - same same, but different. 90% of my childhood memories consists of playing outside in rain, sleet, sunshine or snow.

• by j7ake on 2/26/24, 9:54 AM

  Nordic countries seem to also be over-represented in Nobel prizes...

  Just quickly checked list of countries by Nobel prize laureates (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Nobel_lau...), and out of countries with >1 million population, I find Sweden #1, Norway #5, Denmark #7.

  Although I don't know how to take the bias that Nobel Prize committees all take place in Sweden, a nordic country.

• by suddenclarity on 2/26/24, 10:13 AM

  These articles always seem a bit iffy when watching from the inside. Sure, I know plenty of immigrants who have raised concerns about the habit of leaving babies outside in the stroller during the winter, but the rest?

  Children in other countries don't play or leave the house due to bad weather?

  Indeed, the school doesn't start until they are six years old but that's because we just call it kindergarten (nowadays preschool) instead. They still have an official curriculum where they are expected to learn to interact, communicate, build a foundation for writing, and learn about nature. Among many other things.