Sweet B: Sweden on the Brain

A picture I took of Carl Linnaeus' childhood home in Smoland...
(where a part of my family comes from)

I have been busy reading these books....i am just about done with the second one...yesterday the boys and i watched Pippi Longstocking and today i read this post and it made me miss Sweden dearly...

she touches a bit about how Swedes raise their kids, and the Swedish mentality about children...very differently than America...for instance...

Many stairwells in Stockholm looked like this (below) ramps built in for strollers and wheelchairs. the city was built with the handicapped and mothers in mind, which i loved. (i know it looks steep like a wheelchair would go flying...but they aren't so steep as they look!)

We went to a lot of museums and a lot of famous dead people's houses and it seemed like (i know it wasn't always the case) that in many of them they had specific areas for children. One of my favorite places we visited was the Rottneros Sculpture Garden and inside they had a Pippi playground. We see that at IKEA they have a children's play room as well...very Swedish
A lot of the houses (more so in the more rural areas) have separate houses. I asked my Uncle why and he said that when the child becomes a teenager they move in there. ummm...brilliant...sorta...love the idea of a stinky loud teenager in a sorta separate house...dont love the idea of what they can do there...but still - it says a lot about their view on independence and trust and control...Americans tend to make every decision for their kids then slingshot them out into the world and let em figure it out...
Spanking is illegal and has been for a long time...when my cousin told me that (he lived with us when he was 17 and i was 12) i was appalled and excited to tell my parents...they calmly explained we live in America now...dern...
the legal age of consent is 15...legal age to drink alcohol is 18...which i have to say that in a place with amazing public transportation, i dont mind so much...the drinking...the consent age would not work in America i don't think...

i see a lot of how i was parented and how my parents were parented with a lot of the Swedish mentality and it is neat to be able to know that and decide whether or not to take it or leave it. i love the freedom that the children have - love the sense of cultivating the child and not squashing the spirit. i love that kids are outdoors all the time. i know (like my parents explained) we are not in Sweden...but still...its where the bulk of my lineage is from and a lot of Swedish idylls have been stubbornly handed down..

i so miss it there. i had a wonderful 3 weeks there and saw amazing things and met amazing people. I still need to go back...i still NEED to go here...like soon...definitely on that bucket list!

PS...i know there is a lot of talks about the British Royal Family and the recent wedding...but have you ever seen the Swedish Royal Family? Here they are in all their Royal hotness!