Kristina’s story:
I lived in Norway for just over a year because my husband was working there. I have two small children, three and six years old. Little did I know at the time, that I was putting my children in danger from Norway’s Child Welfare, barnevernet, just because, I was a foreigner with small children.
It was my son’s preschool teacher that reported me as extremely stressed out. I wasn’t stressed out, just very annoyed that the preschool teachers were making many mistakes and I wasn’t shy in pointing these things out to them.
For example, my son was bullied by some other children and left out a lot, and the preschool teachers did absolutely nothing about it. They even gave him a very sharp knife to cut fruits without any help and he nearly cut his finger off.
When I found out about this, I ran to pick him up and told him I would take him to Toys r Us, to brighten up his day. A little time after this episode, I received a letter from barnevenet – they accused me of bribing him.
What was written, was beyond unbelievable, the false accusations and lies. With just this event, barnevernet managed to put together a six-page report on me that seriously upset me, because it was littered with lies, words were twisted, added to and mixed all around, in contrast to what really happened. It was like reading a piece of fiction, totally disconnected to any form of reality.
I went to one meeting with my husband and again I didn’t hesitate to tell them what I didn’t like about this preschool and their teacher. When I asked a barnevernet employee where I can go and complain about the preschool, they were not helpful at all. The only thing they said was, we weren’t the first family the preschool had reported to them.
And one of the teachers was even from my country and she shockingly, helped barnevernet greatly when I complained to her instead of warning me about them. Anyhow, the same day I had a meeting with barnevernet, I packed my children’s stuff and took them away from Norway. I didn’t give them a chance to come to my house, or snatch them from school.
After two months, our case was closed. My husband stayed there until the case was closed. I hate the behaviour of Norwegians who believe naively in their social welfare system. My advice to everyone in Norway, with young children, would be to leave as soon as possible, when barnevernet show any type of interest in them.
Leave Norway when you still have the chance to get your children away to safety, because, mothers and fathers very rarely get their children back when they have been snatched by barnevernet.
Barnevernet didn’t have the chance to do psychological damage to my children. My daughter hadn’t seen her dad for almost two months and she didn’t recognise him at first. We have now been together for six months and she loves her daddy to the moon and back – always running around looking for daddy to play with. It’s very sad what is going on in Norway. I wish I could do something about it. I find it hard to keep quiet about what’s really happening in Norway.
I did what was best for my family, and it was the best decision I have ever made in my life – to leave Norway! It’s not a great place to live when you have a family and small children.
(Names have been changed to protect the children and their family)
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