Writing books about raising babies is a big business! We were gifted a few, flicked through a few in the library, tend to ignore them as much as possible, but one that cropped up- just kept asking to be read. ‘The Danish Way of Parenting’.

Now it may just be that it sings to my fantasy of relocating to Scandinavia, living in a snowy lakeside cabin, with furs and blankets, hanging out with our teenage kids who consider us to be friends not parents and feeling eternally happy in a world where the gap between rich and poor is small, and I’m safe in the knowledge that my high taxes mean my family, my friends and strangers are all well looked after. I’m not sure. But either way it slipped through the net and got read!

If you’re into nature and the outdoors, unstructured exploring, having down time and saying ‘yes’, then it’s definitely the book for you! (Or if you don’t do those things, but would like to, it would certainly be an eye opener!). Thankfully, it rings true on many levels with how we lead our lives already.

The UK has latched on to the ‘oh so 2017’ activity of Hygge, but to The Danish Way of Parenting, this is an essential part of day to day life! And no, Hygge doesn’t just mean a blanket, knitted socks, hot chocolate and open fire.. you can have hygge in the woods building a den.. or on the beach toasting marshmallows on the BBQ. It’s not exclusively for winter by any means! To us, it’s just the importance of quality family time, exploring the world, learning, creating and enjoying things that are readily available to you. Not spending tons of money or having high expectations! We’ve certainly found over the past 9 months raising Oatcake, that less is more. As someone said to us recently.. ‘oh you’re of the school of thought ‘2 sticks and rock is all they need’.’ But, put 2 sticks, a rock and a plastic neon fluffy cat in front of a child and see which one they can kill more time with! We all notice how in to ‘stuff’ our babies are- shoes, wires, leaves, a bit of dirt on the floor, your mum’s pet dog.. but imagine if you didn’t know what these things even WERE. I would be fascinated for sure! Why do we throw fake plastic objects at them before they even know what the REAL things are!

There’s not a ton in the book about raising babies, but that’s our interpretation of it! And it’s definitely full of things we will be applying as Oatcake grows up. So watch this space!