Our son has only met his Swedish grandparents once, last summer when we went to Sweden. We stayed for a few weeks and he got to know them and play with them, and I believe he really came to love them. Fast forward nine months, a long time in the life of a quickly growing toddler, and imagine my joy when we came to Tokyo to meet them and my son acted like it was yesterday that he was playing in his grandparents’ house in Sweden. It seemed like no time had passed and he immediately took their hands and wanted them to come and play with him.
For this I believe I have, apart from my son’s love of other people, the Internet to thank. Almost on a daily basis we have been video calling Sweden so even though we live a world apart, to my son his grandparents are part of his daily life. I am so grateful for this chance we have to stay in close contact with Sweden, and I hope my son always will have a close connection to his other home country.
As I wrote about last week we took the Shinkansen together from Tokyo to our home in Fukuoka. Having my parents living with us a few weeks has meant that I am not the only Swedish speaking person during my son’s everyday activities, and this is so precious I have come to see. Hearing my son communicate with his grandparents, I feel like his language abilities has grown so much already, and I can see that he really enjoys being able to communicate freely in Swedish. But more than language, just being together is the most precious thing. All the interpersonal connection that is not possible through video has suddenly become reality and it is wonderful to see my son anew becoming best friends with his Swedish grandparents.
More about our time together in Fukuoka next week.
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