Motherhood Series
Issue 2. Sweden - Meet Magdalena
Tell us a bit more about you and your family.
My name is Magdalena and I live in Sweden with my husband and our two children Leopold (7) and Esther Grace (4). We also have a little dog called Daisy.
A few years ago, I managed to convince my husband Max to leave the city life and move to the village where I grow up in the south of Sweden. Råå is an old fishing village.
This is where I spent my childhood, running down the small cobbled streets to friend’s picturesque houses and heading off every morning towards the school on the beach.
One day in Stockholm, the final straw came when I was struggling for the hundredth time to get the push chair into the lift to go down into the tube, I made up my mind, there and then, that I was going to move my family to Råå and give them the same childhood experience as I had, a quiet and peaceful life next to the sea.
Do you work alongside motherhood?
I have been working as a teacher in a primary school but this year I am delighted to follow a new path and be able to study again.
What does being a mother mean to you?
Everything. I love my children and they make my life amazing and fulfilling. My husband Max and I try to make the most out of these years.
What is the most rewarding and the most challenging part?
The true love I feel for my children is my reward in life. When I pick them up at school and when I watch them run along the beach in front of me I am so grateful for what life has given me. Then of course, like every parent we also carry the constant worry about our children. It always comes alongside the love for the little ones. Then the puzzling of the daily routines to make everybody happy can also be the challenging part.
"The true love I feel for my children is my reward
in life"
Paint us a picture of daily life as a mother in Sweden
I get up before the children and practice yoga which is my way of greeting the new day. When I have woken them up we try to have a calm breakfast together at the table. We need a harmonious start to the day. Esther Grace loves to chose her own clothes, trying to match them and it seems to make her ready for meeting the day. Leopold is normally too tired to copy that routine. Regardless of the weather we walk alongside the sea to the school.
When I get back home, I have my coffee and start my studies. The hours go so quickly and usually around lunch time, my friend knocks on the door and we go for a walk and have lunch together .
I pick up the children at 3 a clock and they normally bring friends home or we go to the beach and throw stones in the sea. On rainy days we visit the village library and enjoy reading. The children love to bring home treasures from the beach to paint or make into artistic creations. They are both very creative and love to use their imagination.
We eat dinner at 6 o' clock and at the moment I try new recipes from a pod called ”Food Pharmacy”. At 8 o' clock the children and me read a bedtime store and Esther Grace immediately falls asleep whereas Leopold likes to speak about life and how the day has been for a little while.
I try to finish the day in the same way I started it, in a real ”Hygge” way, by drinking tea and lighting candles. Sometimes I speak to my sister who lives in New York.
Is there anything passed down from your mother that you have been taken on as a parent?
The love for the sea and Råå and actually for the simple way of life..
What do you look for when choosing clothes for your children?
Wonderful material, beautiful colours and the country of production.
What do you like about Nellie Quats?
Everything. The splendid colours, classic models and the beautiful material.
What´s your favourite piece from the collection?
The Hopscotch dress, a dress could not be more beautiful!
A big thank you to Magdalena for sharing a little of her life and lovely family and also for the beautiful photographs.
Find more of Magdalena's work on her Instagram feed @magdalenad, it's a truly stunning account to follow.
Esther Grace is wearing age 3-4Y in our deep forest green Hopscotch Dress with our Ribbed Knee High Socks in dusty pink and Wiltshire Print Hair Bow / Bramble Print Hair Bow.
Her second outfit is age 3-4Y in our Mother May I Blouse in milk white linen, layered under our baby pink super soft Pinafore, mustard Ribbed Tights and Emma and Georgina Hair Bow.
