
As soon as spring sprung, Linnea and Mattias’ fotboll training moved outdoors.

Again, the fields are incredible here! No mud, no rain puddles–just perfectly flat, well tended turf.

One of Linnea’s best buds is the only other girl on the team. They have a ton of fun together!

But proper sport attire is what this post is really about;

or rather Linnea’s version of fotboll fashion: Yes, you most certainly can play soccer in a skirt!
The general consensus among Norwegians is that Americans do not know how to dress properly.

When they see kids walking around in the snow with no ski pants and jackets unzipped, I guess I can understand their dismay. If only my kids would speak Swedish, dagnabbit! We did take them to Legoland afterall! That English gives us away every time!
Remember, I’m from California where frostbite was never an issue if we weren’t properly protected so I think it’s a cultural thing. I have enough battles to wage so if the kids are cold, I figure they’ll dress better the next time. That could be considered negligence or natural consequences depending on your perspective.

When one of our Norwegian friends saw our Besseggen post on this blog, she was incredulous that the kids didn’t have hats, gloves, and hiking shoes! (For the record, I had packed their caps, but Niklas forgot to put them on the kids.) Hiking shoes for kids? Never even crossed my mind! Aren’t tennies good for everything?

But keep in mind, Norwegians have special attire for every conceivable weather condition and sport activity–this assorted glove display is just one small example. Niklas likes to say they have a special glove to match each ski wax requirement (but you’d only understand that if you were a cross-country skiier–there are a lot of different kinds of ski wax out there)!

Sometimes I get lucky. At this practice, Mattias was dressed for the task at hand. He might not be paying attention, but he’s appropriately attired, by golly!

I swear, some of the other Norwegian kids were doing this as well, it wasn’t just this wayward American!
Or maybe I’m just saying that.

Linnea, on the other hand, is a loose cannon. She loves to play in whatever her creative mood dictates at the time, even if it’s tights and a dress!
But wait, something is missing. This soccer cone would make the perfect hat if I could just get it to stay on my head!

Yes, that’s it, I’ll use my head band to attach it to my head and then I’ll just hop this fence real quick!

I play so much better when I have some armor!

Sometimes I don’t get so lucky when Mattias joins his sister in her transgressions. I’ve never seen a Norwegian kid in kakis at practice. Maybe Americans reading this are just as perplexed as the Norwegians and would never let their kids go to soccer practice in their school clothes. Maybe I’m just a loose cannon mother who doesn’t make their kids wear the right clothes.
In any case, when Linnea and Mattias are both dressed so “wrongly” and they are chattering away in their American English, I fear we give credence to the general consensus that, “Americans don’t know how to dress.” To my fellow Americans, “Please accept my apologies!”

But in the grand scheme of things, I enjoy the Flashdance flashbacks and am delighted in the fact that the kids couldn’t care less what anyone thinks about their attire.

PS It’s snowing and we’re back indoors again. Our sports fashion saga continues…

























































