Dear Mom,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I woke up at 6:45 this morning. I barely made it to work by 9:45. No, I wasn\u2019t mugged or drugged on the way. No, I didn\u2019t meet anyone for breakfast. And no, despite the fact that many of the bars near my office open at 9:00 a.m., I didn\u2019t stop at any of them. It took me three hours to get from my bed to my desk because I have two children under the age of 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have a friend who has four kids. \u201cMy kids have definitely ruined winter,\u201d he likes to say. I feel him. It\u2019s cold in Finland. And everyone knows that the best way to keep warm is to layer. But bundling your 3-year-old into all those layers and that puffy snowsuit takes not only time but physical strength. As such, it’s best to dress your kids in your underwear. If you get dressed before they do, you’re going to sweat your butt off and your deodorant will ware off before you even make it to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is one good things about all those layers though. When your child craps his pants just as you\u2019re finally zipping up his snowsuit, the layers will hide the smell until he gets to nursery school. \u2018Cause you know<\/em> you\u2019re not going to take them all<\/em> off again just because he\u2019s got a load in his pants. Better to just hand him over to the teacher and yell \u201cSmell you later!\u201d as you make your escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd they\u2019ve also ruined summer,\u201d my friend says. It\u2019s usually pretty hot here in the summer nowadays (hey, thanks global warming!) and the sun shines from early in the morning well into the night. That means sunblock. Lots of it. And the blonder and fairer the kid, the more lotion you need. Mix all that lotion with all the ice cream kids eat here in the summer and you\u2019ll see why you need to take two showers a day from June till July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFall would be OK except for those f***ing rain pants,\u201d my friend goes on to say. If you like rain, you\u2019ll love Finland in the fall. Personally I try to stay inside when it\u2019s raining, but here kids play outside come rain or shine. Try pulling those rubber rain pants onto your toddler as he\u2019s trying to run away and you\u2019ll know how riot police feel when they\u2019re trying to handcuff a protester. And the dirt… oh God, the dirt….<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSpring isn\u2019t bad,\u201d he says. \u201cBut that\u2019s pretty much just May.\u201d Yeah, he\u2019s right, May is nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So. There are a few morals to this story:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Having kids will make you late.\n2. Having kids will ruin winter, summer and fall, so enjoy May while it lasts.\n3. In Finland, there\u2019s ALWAYS something to complain about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Love,\nLissu<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n P.S. Wait, I forgot! There’s one more moral:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. It doesn’t matter where you live, having kids is the best thing that will ever happen to you.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Mom, I woke up at 6:45 this morning. I barely made it to work by 9:45. No, I wasn\u2019t mugged or drugged on the way. No, I didn\u2019t meet anyone for breakfast. And no, despite the fact that many of the bars near my office open at 9:00 a.m., I didn\u2019t stop at any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"asauth_required_access_level":0,"asauth_cansharepaid":"true","om_header_attributes":[],"footnotes":"","om_featured_image_focal_point":[],"om_primary_tag":0,"om_contributors":[],"om_co_authors":[],"beyondwords_generate_audio":"","beyondwords_project_id":"","beyondwords_content_id":"","beyondwords_preview_token":"","beyondwords_player_content":"","beyondwords_player_style":"","beyondwords_language_code":"","beyondwords_language_id":"","beyondwords_title_voice_id":"","beyondwords_body_voice_id":"","beyondwords_summary_voice_id":"","beyondwords_error_message":"","beyondwords_disabled":"","beyondwords_delete_content":"","beyondwords_podcast_id":"","beyondwords_hash":"","publish_post_to_speechkit":"","speechkit_hash":"","speechkit_generate_audio":"","speechkit_project_id":"","speechkit_podcast_id":"","speechkit_error_message":"","speechkit_disabled":"","speechkit_access_key":"","speechkit_error":"","speechkit_info":"","speechkit_response":"","speechkit_retries":"","speechkit_status":"","speechkit_updated_at":"","_speechkit_link":"","_speechkit_text":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[235,57,233,234,232],"class_list":["post-336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kirjeita-aidille","tag-fall","tag-kids","tag-spring","tag-summer","tag-winter"],"om_views":null,"acf":{"tuuma_off":false,"tuuma_kysymys":"","tuuma_vastaus":""},"asauth":{"required_access_level":1,"share_token":"","is_paid":false},"yoast_head":"\n