Why I do, what I do!

We all have reasons to do what it is we do with life. Here is some of mine… 

The man in the pictures is named Peter and I am married to him. The little one in the picture is my youngest daughter Kaya. Peter and Kaya are the reason that I founded Andemors Verden, and if you don’t know the story behind that, you can read a summary of it here.  

But these are also the people who, alongside our oldest girls, Marie Louise and Andrea, are the reason that I have “a thing for water”. 

While Peter loves water and could almost sail before he could walk, I was certainly not born with an inherent love of water. As a child I was world-champion in not getting my head under water, and I certainly wasn’t fond of water that was anything but clear and clean.  

I can still clearly remember going to summer swimming-school in Hundested Havn and swimming in the ocean water filled with seaweed. 

I hated it – just like I never really got used to sailing in my mom and dad’s little dinghy, in which we would take a trip out to sea every now and then.  

As an adult I can certainly swim just fine, but I don’t enjoy swimming in the ocean unless the situation is completely calm and under control.  

That bugs me. It is kind of like bowling with the bumpers up… Uncool in that stupid way. While everyone else is jumping in heads first… Well, I’m carefully stepping down the ladder. 

So, the mission has been clear when it came to my own children – they need to love water. 

And they do! 

They do so because we have taken them to (baby)swimming since they were very young and all three of them are still swimmers. We have always had a garden pool that we fill with water (when adults are present) and lots of fun toys. We have a bathtub in the house (because we made that choice). We live by the ocean. We go sailing every year and most recently I have gotten my “duelighedsbevis” (certificate of competency) at the age of 41 years. 

I once asked a couple of competitive swimmers why they were so good at swimming – what got them started. They both said that they had always loved water. And here my theory is, that a love for water begins at home in the bathtub or sink.  

And that is exactly why there are so many brands at Andemors Verden that in one way or the other is centered around water.  

I really want my daughters to become water-lovers, but in addition to that I want the toys and “water accessories” we give our children, water-lovers or not, to be of a high quality and preferably also with a twist of some well thought-out reasoning behind them – like it is the case with SwimFins sharkfin.    

Just like there are people at Quut and Scrunch who has taken beachtoys seriously, a Lego-inspired American at BathBlocks who has seen the benefits of letting children practice their fine motor skills while they are in the bath, Tinti that entice with fun colours, sounds and consistencies in the bathwater... And I could go on. 

It is all well-considered! 

I am not saying that everyone needs to live with the element of water the way we do at our home, where Peter is still an active sailor who spends a lot of time on the water – also with the girls! 

But I do believe that even if we focus just a little bit on water, it will make a difference if we do it in the right way. 

For us it was a milestone when our oldest at the age of 8 swam two kilometers in one go – backstroke. I was seriously about to burst from pride. I can’t even do backstroke - and then Andrea swims two kilometers! 

And even if they don’t turn out to be great swimmers, then so be it... As long as they don’t panic at the thought of seaweed, getting their heads under water or anything else that will prevent them getting all the fun out of water that a happy, safe and calm approach to water can bring to a life.