Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·PinnedMember-onlyOne Simple Reason Why My Husband and I Won’t Raise Our Daughter in the U.S.It’s not (just) guns and lack of free healthcare — My daughter, born in Los Angeles, will turn two in a few months. My Danish husband and I can’t help but talk about what future we want for her. I wish I wanted to raise my daughter in America. But the truth is, I don’t. And there’s only one reason…Life3 min readLife3 min read
Published in P.S. I Love You·PinnedMember-onlyMy Family Moved From Denmark to America, and Here’s What They LearnedAnd what America can learn from them — A little over a year ago, my husband and his two daughters moved from Denmark, voted the second happiest country in the world, to America, the eighteenth country on that list. Here’s what they think so far. American schools look like jails When my 10-year-old step-daughter joined a (well-ranked) public school in Brooklyn, she asked…Travel5 min readTravel5 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION·PinnedMember-only7 Questions About America (from My Danish Husband) I Just Can’t AnswerSometimes I’m just as puzzled as he is — For a year and a half since moving to New York and then Los Angeles from his home country of Denmark, my husband has been asking me questions about this weird country of ours that I sometimes struggle to answer. It’s not that his questions are difficult. It’s just that…Life5 min readLife5 min read
Published in P.S. I Love You·PinnedMember-onlyThings My (Danish) Husband Still Doesn’t Get About AmericaTwo polar-opposite people from two polar-opposite countries — You couldn’t find two countries more different than America and Denmark. The huge vs. the tiny. The loud vs. the quiet. The money-obsessed vs. the equality-driven. The huge egos vs. no egos at all. The fourteenth Happiest Country on Earth vs. the second. …Life5 min readLife5 min read
Published in P.S. I Love You·PinnedMember-onlyI Borrowed the Habits of the World’s (Almost) Happiest People, And It WorkedWe can’t all move to Denmark, but we can bring some of it to us — When adjusting to life in Copenhagen, I noticed that things were very different in Denmark from back home in New York City. Locals seemed more relaxed, less addicted to their phones, more present with one another. Streets were quieter, shops and restaurants played gentle music on low volume. …Denmark5 min readDenmark5 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·2 days agoMember-only7 Crazy Things I Find In My MailboxAmerica summed up in 7 images — They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So here are my thousand words about the ridiculousness that is mail in the U.S. 1. Gun cataloguesLife3 min readLife3 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·Mar 10Member-only5 Things That Work For Me in AmericaSweatpant-chic and late-night everything — These days, I’m out and about a lot on my own, with my husband working out of town and me running errands for myself and three kids. I bump into more people, I see more things, and I talk to strangers more. Maybe it’s the spring feeling in the air…Life5 min readLife5 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·Mar 5Member-onlyI Found a Pre-School of The FutureHow, why, and what we can all learn from it — As I wrote recently, looking for a new pre-school for my daughter in California has been an uphill battle. Inspired by husband’s native Denmark, I wanted my daughter to play outside for as long as possible, without formal learning, and myself to have enough child-free hours in the day to…Parenting7 min readParenting7 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·Feb 28Member-onlyWhy I’m Looking Forward To an 11-Hour Flight With a Toddler (Alone)The real reasons why traveling is addictive — Next month, I’ll put myself through an ultimate test of parenthood: I’ll spend 11 hours on the plane with a 2.5-year-old. Alone. Then take a train and an Uber. Then another Uber and train back. Three more hours on the plane. Then repeat the whole journey backward. Alone. The only…Travel4 min readTravel4 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·Feb 19Member-onlyCrazy Things I Discovered Looking for a Preschool in the U.S.And more culture shock for my Danish husband — Looking for a (better) preschool for my now-2.5-year-old daughter has been way more stressful than it should have been. Parents in our city of Santa Monica, CA, can get crazy competitive about their offsprings’ education, aiming for the two local preschools that promise to get you into the right kindergarten…Parenting5 min readParenting5 min read
