I took Tage to öppna förskolan for the first time this morning. For those who aren’t familiar with all things Swedish, öppna förskolan is “open pre-school,” where parents can go with their kids and hang out with other moms (or dads) while the kids play. I think it’s as much or more for the parents as it is for the kids, since you can’t put your kid in daycare before the age of one (I’m not saying that’s a bad thing) and some people tend to go a little stir-crazy during the course of a long parental leave. I’m not a terrifically social person myself, and it doesn’t bug me not to have lots of outside contact, so I haven’t gone before today (although I did go reasonably frequently with Lydia when we still lived in Stockholm).

Anyway, I went today and it was okay. There were probably six or seven other moms there with their kids ranging in age from a few months to four years old or so. Two of the women I knew from before (one was in our parents’ group last year and the other is the mother of one of Lydia’s friends), and we exchanged a few pleasantries. When I walked in, there were four women standing in the kitchen and I introduced myself and Tage. They all said hi, but only one of them shook my hand and introduced herself, which resulted in me feeling like a bit of an interloper.

So, I stayed for about and hour-and-a-half, and Tage played and I sat around trying not to look conspicuous and ill-at-ease. Then the woman who had introduced herself in the kitchen came up to me and started chatting, asking all the usual where-are-you-from, how-long-have-you-been-in-Sweden questions. She was really nice and it was fun to talk to her. She did pay me what seems to be the requisite compliment: “your Swedish is so good for having been here such a short time.” Isn’t there a statute of limitations on that? I’m not complaining, because it’s nice to get the positive reinforcement, but honestly, at what point will it be expected that I should speak good Swedish?