Moving to Sweden
A few months after we moved, she and I were sitting in a cafe and I was getting a little nervous because, for the 50th time, I am about to order a cinnamon bun. Which sounds simple right? except I still can’t pronounce it in Swedish – I ask for Cannon buns instead, and the barista gives me this blank stare.
Just then, my daughter, in perfect Swedish, says “Vi vill ha tvo kanel bullar”. (I still can’t say it). Then she turns to me and smiles.
Since we have moved to Sweden, she has become fluent in Swedish, and I can barely order a cinnamon bun.
It’s amazing. Here I was concerned about her. But 5 year old brains, as we know, are so impressionable, so elastic – they observe and take in everything around them.
And how much of what she is observing – experiencing – is being stored in her brain, and for how long? And what is my role in this – societies role – and what else are we teaching her? Am I raising her to be a leader in her own life? To have courage, and conviction?
Because the majority of stories that are told to boys and girls, the narratives and unspoken messages they receive, this is not the lesson that we teach. For the most part, our girls don’t get to slay dragons or save sailors from pirates or pull swords out of granite rock.
And my question is – what would our world look like if girls were raised to speak up, stand up and rise up?