I remember it as it was yesterday. The Mr and I was leaving the hospital with our firstborn for the first time. The midwife (or if it was a nurse) said: “Don’t forget, now you have a new boss.” At the time I got offended (of course), which I didn’t show (could have happen). I…
Category: Parenting
Enjoy it while you can
The other day I was doing my tax returns, calculating some figures while Fabian was eating his dinner, thinking I was working. After a while he said: “Wow, mum! I though that the only thing you were doing at your job, was sitting in meetings and deciding things. But you are calculating stuff too.” It…
Lessons learnt
Almost a week has past with not only without my husband but also my children! What have I learnt? I do enjoy my husband’s company, he is quite a lot of fun Without my children I have oceans of time (I new that already, but still) Without children I don’t need to eat different dishes…
Just like that
Mr F broke his arm 1.5 hrs into the ski vacation in the Austrian alps. The Dock children and their skiing traditions… Never the less. The Mr and I discussed shortly if F should fly home by him self. And a couple of hours later they called. My loving parents. 80 years old, they come…
Slipping
Can you feel it? How its disappearing? How its slipping away right at your fingertips? We know that our children are only a loan. They are only “yours” for a tiny time. Ours are leaving, I have a hard time understanding this. That soon it is me and the Mr only. Again. Before that I…
Limits
Sometimes I notice how limiting others (especially grown-ups) are towards other people. It’s especially upsetting when they are it towards children (and naturally my own). Do not limit the brains of a youngster! Let them believe they can accomplish anything and everything. Hopefully, with my awareness, I’m not. On the other hand I know that…
When you find out
Sometimes you find out things about people around you that you just didn’t expect. And you get both angry, upset and disappointed. What to do? When it’s your kid, just keep on struggling. Independent how hurt you are. You thought you had done a good job…
Flawless or not
To be a teenage parent is hard. Harder than I ever expected. I would be a huge fan of any software you could run in their brains so they are ready by default. My current task is to support in the things, the things I thought I made clear long before (and so many times…
Happiness is a question
Happiness comes in different forms. Like a question from a boy. A boy, tall like a man but still a boy. A question that shows he’s thinking about his future and that he wants something.
Drumroll please
In the annual award ceremony of the year – Greatest parents EVER, the price goes to….. Louise and Tobias Dock! Both the Mr and I have started working, and our sons, like many other children of their age get stuck infront of a screen. During summers we have a rule that the screen and gaming…
It’s not…
Five weeks of vacation is by the end of the day officially over, tomorrow it’s just a regular weekend. The Mr took two extra shifts (today and tomorrow), so from a family perspective vacation was over already at 5.30 am this morning. It’s not that I don’t like working, I kind of do and I’m…
Giggles
While getting a call from F, asking for more data for his cell (his father is providing both siblings with an amount each month, is a real ascendancy in any negotiation – evil laughter) you hear him giggle. Oh, the joy.
Vacay – trip 3
And the morning after F’s 11 birthday, off we went. The entire clan. Up to the northern part of Stockholm’s archipelago and the island Blidö. Where we finally got to experience the Mr’s childhood friend’s summer home (he’s been talking about it forever, that is how old they are). His childhood friend is also my…
Vacay – trip 1
Me and Fabian fabulous took the first trip of this vacation together with friends of ours (also mother and son). We spend 2.5 days at beautiful Österlen. Sigh. Thanks to other friends the trip could be spent in a very nice cabin (the kind I would choose if I would have one. For all of…
Two semesters later
There it was, the last day of school for this school year. Sam’s first in junior high with new school, new teachers, new classmates, new subjects and new ways of assessments. But, this change would’ve happened anyway, so when comparing it (with Fabian’s), without depreciate it, was a smaller change. For Fabian the school start…
Happier
Today I’m happier, especially when I don’t think about yesterday and when thinking of the Sam who passed his exam to his red belt in taekwondo. Proud! Of course.
To not cave in
For me, it’s hard. To let go. To no be too intrusive. Sam is away with his class over night. Even if I want to know everything (like he would tell me, and that he would tell me while he’s away…), I resist the urge to continue the Snapchat conversation with his reply that everything…
No pressure
This post is filled with exorbitant amounts of bragging over kids (my own), don’t read if you have a tendency to regurgitate. It’s amazing how someone can become full supporter (and expert I might add) of a sport she previously had no real interest of. Love does amazing things. Today, both our sons won their…
Soccer, soccer, soccer
I’ve played one game. It all came back to me a couple of weeks ago when I returned to the crime scene with Fabian. This week it has been soccer Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I enjoy it though. Especially if I bring my camera. But sometimes it gets so exciting that I forget to take…
Something is happening
When looking at our youngest son and then taking a quick glance in my Instagram feed it’s clear. He is growing. Taking his first small steps into adolescence. Slowly that all childish features is leaving him. My boys. My precious boys. Life is impermanent, enjoy every moment of it, nothing will ever return.
Next level
Good Sunday, after carrying 6 cubics of soil to our lawn, me and the Mr left the kids for a glass (OK two) of wine with friends in the sun at one of the local hotels. We enjoyed it until… one kid made nuisance. The worst sort – whining. I have full respect for kids and their…
Positive reinforcement
When you see that people make an effort, after been told to, you become proud. Especially when a mother and a son is involved. That’s when you use the most powerful tool in parenting – positive reinforcement.
When kids are OK
There are so many reasons why I love this clip. First Walk of Earth are super talented (alternative fact/opinion). Ed Sheeran is brutally talented in writing good songs (alternative fact/opinion). But foremost I LOVE the fact that they have one of their (no not that it is everybody’s baby, but someone’s in the group) baby…
Transformation
Getting reminded by Facebook what I did a year ago. Remember. The boys and I went to Gothenburg of a day out. If I recall correctly this was the day after Sam got rid of his cast. Could that be correct? But I guess it could. He wasn’t more than five weeks in the cast. Nevermind,…
How stupid would I be
If I didn’t cherish every single day. People might think I’m naive for thinking like that. I know I’m not. Reposting an old picture on my Facebook profile with our small dudes. So small. Even if I can’r recollect those times, I know I appreciated them. Because I do it every day. Every single day I…
Non stick for negativity or just plain smart
My youtube clip in my last post, doesn’t do much to help balance our time’s biggest disease – aggregated stress. Aggregated stress is when you take each individual sanitized post in your social media feed and add it on top of each other, making you believe that your life has to have all of these (individual)…
Slope sliding
Returned home after a 7 day ski trip. Absolutely the best thing a family can do together. Absolutely the hardest thing a 40 year old body can do. But I got most bruises from getting up and down in the bunk bed… Today we will spend as good Christians, doing nothing. Tomorrow we need to…
Things are going to be alright
Left the kids with the instruction to make Fläskpannkaka. Nothing hard dish to make but had never been done before (by the Dock brothers). When I arrived back, it was standing there in all its glory. Proud over our sons and proud over myself for delegating. Things are gonna be just fine. For now.
Unfair?
When sharing one’s emotions like I do, out in the open, with no filter more than a half hearted proofreading (usually after publishing), there’s a risk that people misunderstand and, God forbid, judge, not me, but the ones I’m writing about. I realize that my children as well as my husband, who over the years have…
Grey January
Took the boys and my camera for a spin. January is currently very grey and not much light to work with, which is both good and bad.
Perks of parenthood
Although one might not think it reading my latest posts, there are perks of being a parent too. One of the greatest gifts is to take part of and enjoy the interests and development of your kids. Yesterday it was the annual futsal cup in our area. I think Fabian has played it every year…
Expectation management
In communication and especially in change communication, the most important thing to manage, is expectations. This is the fine act of balancing marketing and selling hypes with reality. In parenting this doesn’t happen too often. Simply because there is no one responsible but yourself for the change to come and as human beings we tend…
Nostalgia strikes a cord
Two more gifts to wrap. Then we are done. Tomorrow we have a teenager in the house, but something says he moved in this summer. Our tall, smart, kind, loud, emotional boy turns 13 tomorrow and I am just about to send his father a link to film I made with old and new photos…
But I’m not you
Teenagers, a people who are lacking the capability to understand the simplest consequences, can at the same time provide wisdom beyond many adult minds. Like Sam, in of our conversations yesterday, answered me: “But, mom, I’m not you.” Those are the moments one must not only remember but also reflect and revise your own shortcomings. I guess…
A ray of light
All one needs is a spontaneous “Thanks! You’re the best mum in the word.” after finishing the day’s studying for Friday’s test in Law and order. It makes you forget the fact that he, two hours earlier, drove you mad for forgetting to make the homework due today AND “forgetting” to complete it as soon as coming home….
Stupid is that stupid does
Is it so that mankind, to survive, continues to lure herself that life follows a progressive path? Because it clearly doesn’t and, what is worse, I get surprised every single time. Life as a parent (ans maybe as a human being) is more one step forward and two steps back. I hardly had pressed the…
Realizing
Sam’s started “junior high” and it is clear that the tempo and amount around homework and tests are C.O.M.P.L.E.T.E.L.Y different from sixth grade. We are cool but demanding parents. We’re not demanding straight A’s (which is almost impossible to get in Sweden), we’re actually not demanding any specific grade more than he needs to pass. But, we…
What just happened?
A month and a half into the semester and the son is Skyping with girls. Having a good time as far as I can hear. I didn’t see this coming.
Not cut out for this shit
Kids, should I really have had them. Not because they are not spectacular. One (two) of a kind. The best. My everythings. But because I am not cut out for it. In periods I worry too much, far too much what is good for you (and most probably them, not that I tell them all)….
Happiness can also be…
… when the same teenager comes home from youth club only because he remembers his practice. And ALL by him self (or at least without parental guidance). Maybe that brain of his is more than just looks….
Happiness is…
…when the teenager comes home after practice for a late supper and BY HIM SELF puts the leftovers in a container and place them in the fridge. There can be peace on earth one day too.
Memories & good choices
This little fellow showed up in my Facebook memories. 5 years ago. Oh, I cherish the fact that I worked 80% and gave a full Friday for 5 years or so to my princes. Fabian and I had a tradition of a weekly fika at a café of our choice. A 30 min or so only for…
Gahhhhhh!
Really?! REALLY?! REALLY?! I know, neither me or the Mr are Mensa material and neither is our kids. But is it too much to ask for a little brain activity. I know I shouldn’t but I get really scared when our offsprings show no mental capacity. This combined with lack of effort. OMG, where will…
Slowly but surely
We are in the end of July. Summer has been present, at least during the last days. Slowly but surely does reality start kicking in. The Mr started to work again beginning July and I’m taking the possibility sporadic days and half days off. Kids has about three more weeks of summerbreak. But this week…
Death as a constant companion
No, there is no known fatal decease around, luckily. But not having the boys around get me thinking of loosing them. The risk is as big (or little) as the sit in the neighboring room, but it gets so much more scary and more frequent (uninvited) companion in my mind when they are not around….
One time at band camp
I wasn’t a summer camp kid. As my mother was a stay-at-home-mom/working from home, I always stayed at home the full summer break. As Sam can’t have a real summer job until next year (the luck of having your birthday in December. Personally I started out quite early at 9 or 10 with simpler chores at…
Happy Mother’s day – to me
It’s almost 13 years ago I became a mother. Kids have always been part of my “life plan”, but I never felt that strong conviction in my soul that I must become a mother – until the day I actually became one. From that day, they have been the most important beings in my life….
Wonderful
There are several reasons to complain at times. Times when life is just not what one deserves or expect. And there are days when you can take a step back and just realize that it could be so much worse. Tonight it was one of those days. Even if the boys were reluctant we made it….
In every teacher…
… is an aspiring actor. The other day I went to Fabian’s after-school activity. In Sweden all children with working parents have the right to attend “after-school activities (often/always? provided by the school/municipality) till they are 12 (thereafter they are considered to be old enough to care for them self). Anyway, parents were invited and…
Louise Dock 