Ju's blog

When an 8 year old has school vacation while work just continues for parents, you have to get creative. How do you divide free days to support your child, or work from home so she isn’t alone all day? It becomes a puzzle.

Having Rosalie home all week and needing to be ‘on’ for her all day, especially for my partner, can create quite a bit of stress, or at least a strong need to decompress afterward.

That’s why I’m glad I have a spouse who works well with me to figure these things out.

I asked my partner which day would be best to create a little peace of mind. There wasn’t really a clear answer, so when I discovered there were regular steam train rides planned by a steam locomotive museum in the north of the country, I decided to plan a weekend away with Rosalie.

Of course, I coordinated everything at home first.

I also wanted Rosalie to see the long sea dyke in the north, so I planned to drive there with her and return by taking the scenic route around the other side of the country.

That was, of course, going to take quite a lot of time. And the train schedule didn’t really support a relaxed day of driving, so I started looking for a place where Rosalie and I could stay overnight.

I found an affordable, magical-looking wooden hut for the night, which later turned out to be an Airbnb.

That left us with the day before to fill. The reason the wooden hut was so affordable was because the train ride was on a Sunday, hotel prices tend to double once the weekend starts.

Rosalie loves seals, so I thought maybe we could also visit the seal sanctuary. It’s a place I’ve wanted to visit since I was a child myself, so it felt like the perfect excuse. At the same time, I still really wanted to show her the dyke.

During our date night, I talked it through with my partner. The suggestion came up to also book something for Friday night, which would open up Saturday for activities too.

Now, how could I make sure Rosalie would have just as much fun?

Last year, I took Rosalie to Zeeland, the province by the North Sea where seals live on sandbanks and swim freely in the sea. I invented a seal friend called Suzie, who invited Rosalie to come and find her.

We spent a whole week there, filling our days with seal-related adventures. Rosalie loved it and talked about Suzie as if she were real.

This time, Suzie is back.

She sent Rosalie a message in a bottle, asking for help. Suzie’s cousin, Snorre, has lost the Silver Whistle Tone. Without it, seals struggle to find each other in the fog, and it becomes much harder for them to sing together.

Rosalie loved receiving the letter from Suzie, and I hope she enjoys the trip just as much.

I have a lot more in store for her…