Comments on: A Norwegian Children’s Party

By: Nath

Nath — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 20:37:16 +0000

In reply to c newyork. so true, ha ha !

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 18:55:02 +0000

Wow amazed by the level of judgment by all the ‘Karen’s’ here. He gave an honest point of view from a foreigners perspective. You can’t expect people to assimilate right off the bat. In many cultures it’s perfectly acceptable for the parents to relax and enjoy a few drinks at a kids birthday party. Getting pissed is a different story. Someone saying he’s got a drinking problem…. Get a life! There will be many foreigners who have had similar experiences. Great he’s taken the time to enlighten them/ us. Norwegians are not know for directness, it’s the subtle social cues that often aren’t picked up on. The author has done many people a favor.

By: dan

dan — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 03:34:11 +0000

Accept for family occasions, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of parents in the States making a birthday party for a group of kids where alcohol was being served. It’s not as much a Norwegian parent’s taboo- it’s every parent’s taboo. It goes without saying.

By: Ian Anderson

Ian Anderson — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 23:34:35 +0000

Alcohol at a (non family) children’s party?

Nope. Close to 100% inappropriate (in my experience, 11 years in Norway and a pair of now teens).

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 20:14:38 +0000

I ran into a problem with an unwritten rule around birthday parties. I think it might have been communicated in the parents’ meetings at the start of the year, but as my Norwegian wasn’t very good in those days, and there was no written summary sent out, I missed it completely.

For his birthday, I sent my six-year old son to school with invitations to his five best friends. I say best friends, but the reality was that he had very few friends. I think three came. One of the children said they weren’t coming and left it at that. The other told my son that his parents were not letting him come, as a point of principle, because I hadn’t invited all the boys in the class. That made me feel really sad. I felt they were punishing my son on his birthday because I hadn’t understood the expectation .

I also got a message from the school. Apparently it is not allowed to hand out invitations at school unless you invite either the whole class, or at least all the boys, or all the girls. No punishment, but it was made very clear what we had done was unacceptable. If we wanted only the few children who were friends to my son, we had to find out their names and addresses and take them round individually, even though they lived over three separate villages.

I mostly love living in Norway, and do see the point in the party social contract, but the unforgiving attitude to someone who made a social faux-pas, who they knew was new in Norway, and the attitude of not allowing a child to come to a party because of it, was very off-putting.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 19:33:53 +0000

In reply to Dee. Please don't judge all Americans by what you see on television or by tourists' behavior. We live in a small town (1400) in a rural area of the Midwest. We are appalled at the behavior of tourists who come from the big cities to vacation in our scenic area.

By: c newyork

c newyork — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 13:02:18 +0000

This is so true. As an American I have given up on trying to fit into this society. Everything does evolve around the kids (annoying), there is no thought put into the adults coming around so yes one does want to drop your kids and run why stay and help the poor sod hosts. There is no balance when it comes to drinking in Norway either drink to be drunk or sober as a judge. Not much socializing happens either way as they pretty much stick to the 1.5 friends they have had since they were 3 years old.

By: Dee

Dee — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 12:59:38 +0000

This is a strange post. I expected to learn about the customs of kids’ birthday parties in Norway, and how they differed from places like America or the UK. Instead, this was about whether the author can or should have a drink at a kid’s birthday party. He suggests that it’s entirely normal for there to be alcohol at such events in America when it is most definitely not the norm. I think he might have a bit of a drinking problem. And four years in, he should definitely have taken the Norwegian lessons and be speaking passable Norwegian. I’m sorry, he seems kind of the reason Americans have a bad name in Europe.

By: J Rui

J Rui — Sun, 31 Jan 2021 20:37:42 +0000

Every thing in Norway is about the kids. The whole family revolves around the child’s needs. Its a theme. Which includes those childrens parties . PS Learn Norwegian. Respect your luck. My Norwegian husband can’t get a visa to come back and live in the country he spent the first 35 years of his life. We speak Norwegian in the family in Australia.

By: Monica

Monica — Sun, 24 Feb 2019 17:42:42 +0000

Æh…kids pary is 1,5-2 hours of fun for the kids. Hotdog/pizza, soda, juice or wather. Sweets, cake or ice, baloons and thats it. Later a game or two. If parents need to attend you sit in the sofa with a cup of coffee, you can offer help if you like. Older kids go by themselves. Familyparty a different story. Then you do as you like. I am norwegian and this is not our way, but young parents migth have a cake theme or costumeparty but nothing to fancy…that would be very american…