Meet the Global Families of Puget Sound
Photo:
The Mogren family | Photo by Jiaying Grygiel
The Mogren family from Sweden
Who lives here? Claes and Justine Mogren, and their daughters: Ava, 7, and Zea, 6. Justine, 36, was born in the Philippines and moved to Sweden as a teenager. She worked as an ICU nurse until just a few days before the family moved to Seattle. Because of her visa status, she’s now a stay-at-home mom. Claes, 38, is a software developer engineer at Amazon.
The family stayed in an Airbnb on Capitol Hill for the first month while they got their bearings. They arrived with no phone number, no Social Security numbers, no credit scores, no credit cards and no lease. Eventually, they found a condo for rent through Craigslist — the owner had just visited Stockholm! — and could register their daughters for school. The family doesn’t own a car, and they walk or take the bus everywhere.
Where? Lower Queen Anne
When did you move here? November 2016
What, if anything, did you know about Seattle before you moved here?
Justine: Sleepless in Seattle, Grey’s Anatomy, The Killing.
Claes: The Space Needle. Starbucks. Nirvana, Soundgarden. Microsoft, Amazon.
Do you plan to stay?
Justine: For a while. Our plan is to go back to Sweden after a few years.
Claes: First, we said three years, but after being here a couple of months, we said maybe five.
What has been the biggest challenge in moving to Seattle?
Justine: The language, for the girls, and missing their friends. The language is very important. When it comes to assignments, in the beginning, they did not understand exactly what they needed to do. They got frustrated, but now it is easier.
Claes: For Justine and me, the biggest challenge has been all the paperwork for getting a Social Security number, taxes, getting our Washington driver’s licenses and doing any kind of bank transactions.
What’s different about parenting in Sweden compared to parenting in the U.S.?
Justine: In Sweden, before 13, you don’t get grades, only attendance. The teachers give feedback. People don’t think so much about how good the kids are compared to the rest of the class. They want to know, “Are they making friends?”
Claes: We don’t have summer camps in Sweden. The kids can stay in the school for a few weeks after classes have ended, and then the parents take several weeks off in the summer. We spend more time with the kids, less time working.
It is much more flexible to spend time with your kids in Sweden. If they are sick, you get paid to stay home with your kids and that takes priority over work. It makes it really easy for both parents to work full-time.
