The Road Less Taken: Why the Danish childhood deserves UNESCO heritage recognition
OPINION: The way the Danes bring up their offspring is a national treasure, worthy of inclusion alongside HC Andersen novels and hygge itself
OPINION: The way the Danes bring up their offspring is a national treasure, worthy of inclusion alongside HC Andersen novels and hygge itself
Most of us know the feeling of getting lost in a good story: that experience when a character etches themselves so deeply into our psyche that we find ourselves thinking about their stories long after the book is finished. Neuroscientists claim that we can actually improve our empathic response through reading fiction. When we experience…
When I read about the Supreme Court overturning a woman’s right to an abortion last month in the US, I had a familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach. It’s one I have grown accustomed to processing things happening in America over the last few years: a feeling of dread, unease, confusion and fear.…
When I married a Dane over 20 years ago and came to Denmark for the first time, I was a self-proclaimed ‘non-maternal person’. I didn’t even know if I wanted to have children. What I would learn from this tiny country in the north of Europe – famous for The Little Mermaid, Nordic Noir and…
Having been married to a Dane for 20 years now, I’m no stranger to controversial conversations and remarks. Many times, we have been in situations where I have found myself terrified of what might come out of his mouth. While he is funny in Danish, his humour sometimes hits like a sledgehammer at an American…
When the pandemic first hit, I feared for how my family would cope in lockdown. I wondered if constantly being together might break us apart. Ironically, it was the Danish concept of ‘fællesskab’ (community) that held us together. Unity in harmony Fællesskab is a huge part of Danish society. It’s essentially the feeling of unity…
As another American election appears on the horizon, it’s difficult to see where we are heading. The country has never been more divided. We have a pandemic eating away different states at an alarming rate. Racial unrest is bubbling up after months of being pressure-cooked inside a lockdown – all of this amidst a backdrop…
I am an American author and parenting expert currently living in Rome. I recently spoke to BBC World News about how it felt to be here. As many know, Italy was one of the first countries in the western world to go on lockdown. At that time, it wasn’t clear whether it was the right…
Last week CNBC ran a program on why Danish and Nordic people are so happy. They focused a lot on the work-life balance and the concept of well-being. For a long time I too wondered what made Danes seem so contented. It couldn’t be the food, weather or taxes, so why did they always seem…
We were on holiday recently and I witnessed a fairly familiar scene. I don’t need to talk about where we were. It could have been Anywhere, USA or Wherever, Europe. It could have been on a beach, in the snow, in a restaurant or on the street. A little bit passé A family were eating…