Dress a child for Finnish winter - my response to a friend's blog

A friend of mine wrote recently a great and funny post on her blog about how-to-dress-a-child-for-finnish-winter - dress for outdoor play of course. Melanie came to Finland from New Zealand and this is her first winter. So far she is coping very well, brave woman! What I particularly liked in her post was a picture depicting all the pieces of clothes needed for a particular weather. Especially the equipment for -20C was really impressive. Yes, with all that warm but light modern winter clothes you can really enjoy outdoor play, but what I would like to add is nothing comes without a cost. Yes, to dress your kid properly you need proper money. Winter overall at least 100 euros or if you decide for one of the best brands - and most parents actually do - its closer to 200. Boots. Something between 50 and 100 again. Balaclava - a good one, woolen with a wind-stopper could be 30 or something similar. Waterproof mittens another 15 (or about, or more if you go for big brands). If you also decide to get a woolen overall - especially for younger kids and for really cold weather, it adds another 40 euros or maybe more. I'm not sure, cause I never needed such. What people also use for their kids are thermal underwear, woolen socks and some other special clothes more similar to the alpinist's equipment than to a normal winter outfit. So, how much do we have? Something between at least 200 and up to 400 euros. Per one child, per one winter. Remember - kids do grow fast! One of my friends needed to buy a second, bigger winter overall for her child, because literally that winter was lasting from October till May and the kid simply grew out of the previous one. And it's not all, because if there gets wet and rainy and temperatures grow above zero, you will need some extra rubber pants and rubber boots. Best to get two pairs - one light for spring/summer and one with a warm filling inside for autumn/spring. Oh, and of course good rubber jacket and rubber mittens - remember it's so wet and muddy from March till June and again from September till November, that your child after playing in a park resembles a piglet rather than a human. Didn't I mention a set of outdoor pants, also waterproof but not rubber and same jacket? Yes. That's on your list too. I guess that is that barely. How much off your pocket already? Huh... And again, this is only the basics. And with Finnish weather conditions all the above equipment will be really used after one season. If you are lucky enough maybe the winter overall will be reused by your younger child. Reselling it? Yes, the second-hand market for kids clothes is very good and I am a regular customer of some "kirppis" shops, but not often you find there those big pieces of clothes. Why? My guess is, they are simply too damaged after surviving a harsh weather condition and being worn day after day for half a year. Yes, winter. 

Finnish day care

I probably didn't mention before that we've got a place in a day care for our little boy. This time was so different from the time I looked up places for our girl right after we moved to Helsinki. Because our daughter's day care doesn't take kids less than three and potty trained I had to find another place for our soon-to-be-two boy. And we decided it would be OK to place him in a regular Finnish day care. I applied on-line through e-services, I have chosen few places around Wanda's day care, I payed a visit to one which was my favorite and number one on the list and I waited. The whole application process takes at least four months. I applied early and got the response in May. We were lucky enough to get our most wished place. The day care is a so called family day care, which means very small place for only up to twelve kids and three teachers/nurses. I've already been there with Tomek to say hi and better know the place. And I like it even more. The teachers are such lovely women. You can see that they take care of the kids with love and joy. After summer there will be only children ages one to three and I think it is quite good. I've already made arrangements for the August and during the first week I am allowed to stay with my child. What's more during the coming week I can join the group when they are playing outdoors. At first Tomek was quite shy and reluctant to go there, but after a while he started to play and after I finished talking with the head teacher and wanted to leave, he insisted to stay longer because he was already busy playing with cars and trucks. I hope he will like the place, will pick up the language quite fast and we'll all gain from the new situation. 

Sad kids

I've read a letter from a Reader published  in a Polish magazine. The Reader was a woman, staff psychologist in an elementary school. She wrote about her every day encounters with pupils and their parents. And it was sad. It was about a lack of love. About loneliness. About acute longing to be loved, to be accepted, to be hugged. She wrote about a little boy, who very ofen is very sad because he knows his mother would never hug him, never kiss him. He is not allowed to play with his sister, because he is said he would always make a mess. His mother yells at him whenever he doesn't behave as she wished him to behave. He is scared. Another boy is sad, because he has heard from his mother several times that she's going to put him to a orphanage because he doesn't behave.
Every time I get mad because my kids do something stupid or not listen or whatever, I feel guilty. Whenever I do yell at them, especially my daughter, my son is still very little, I feel terrible. I know how wrong was I. I know how scared it was for my little girl. The angry mom is like an angry monster. The kid is scared and is vulnerable. As a mother I am learning every day a lot about being patient, about having tons of smiles and hugs to give, about not getting irritated and instead to laugh, about the unconditional love I do have for those two little kiddos and about how amazingly this love is growing every day. And still even with this love I do have bad days. I know it is normal, it is OK so far as we still give our kids love and appreciation and awareness and smiles and hugs and giggles. It is sad that not all parents know it and not all children are lucky to be nourished that way.

Puu-Vallila or Wooden Vallila walk

Today we went for a walk to this old district in Helsinki - wooden Vallila, old Vallila. It is few blocks with old wooden houses build in the beginning of XX century. They look a bit like those old small towns like Porvoo or Rauma. I mean that by walking down those narrow streets along those small wooden painted houses you don't have a feeling of being in a big city. You get the feeling of moving back several decades to some long forgotten old days. The weather was also perfect. Cold, a bit cloudy (and finally it started to snow a little), first sunny but soon quite dark. You know sort of the atmosphere from Kaurismaki's movies. Old fashion. Old Finland. Places you don't know where they are. And they hidden form the public eye. They hide nowadays between much higher newer buildings (still quite old though) which stand along main streets. For me it was sort of a surprise to "discover" the whole Vanha Vallila right behind a street which I used to drive almost for the whole last year (it was on my way to a day care). The houses still look quite good (some were under renovation) but what they say it is not a posh neighborhood. It used to be working class area but nowadays it is becoming trendy (or bohemian) like Kallio. I'm not sure about those wooden houses, but it is said about the whole Vallila. Unfortunately we didn't check the battery in our camera (it was empty) so no pics were taken. But I believe the one Helsinki episode from old Jim Jarmush movie has a scene either in this area or another with very similar old wooden houses. So, you can google and see that scene (when the drunk guy ends up being kicked out of the taxi around his house). Anyway, I like Helsinki for still having so many places like that. Preserved for decades without any touch of modern life.

Saturday at Haltiala Farm