American teens in Europe, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, and dinner at Chin Chin.

If you have read the list “Hidden Europe: The Top 20 sights you’ll see when traveling with your teen,” (snort) you will have a greater understanding of the Saturday afternoon argument that is threatening to become routine in our family.

The weather was glorious (and based on all 4 weather apps I consult, I was 93% confident it would stay that way), I spent a few hours scouring guide books and googling for a fun family activity.

“Why don’t we go to [insert name of palace, museum, gardens, beach] here.

MBH “Sure, sounds great. Let’s go.”

Teen and Pre-teen: “NO! [that activity you spent hours researching] is b-o-r-i-n-g.”

Me “Come on! It’ll be super fun. Let’s go! We’re living in an amazing European capital, we need to take full advantage of it! We can’t just sit around in the apartment all day! Plus, more than one person has told me it’s their most favorite museum. Do you know how lucky you are to be here? Do you know how privileged you are? PLUS, you’ll get into this museum for FREE!”

“NO! Museums are BORING! We’re TIRED, we need DOWN TIME and REST. We LIKE sitting around in the apartment! AND WE KNOW WE ARE PRIVILEGED!!!”

Glares.

To be fair, their school day starts at 8:30am and ends at 3:30pm Monday through Friday. Their commute by bike is 15 to 20 minutes. And the way home Every.Single.Day includes a long stretch of what must be the country’s fiercest headwinds, in a country known for “having headwinds everywhere.”

They are also involved in quite a number of after school activities – football (there’s a fun story about how the youngest showed up for her first game last week, played, the team won 9 – 1, and turns out, it was THE WRONG TEAM hahahahahaha) piano, parkour, hip hop dance – and have handled the move away from Rochester and transition to life here remarkably well.

So maaaaybe I should cut them some slack.

But not right away.

This back and forth goes on for about 30 minutes. I don’t get back up from MBH for forced family fun. The stubbornness only strengthens, getting closer to diamond-level hardness and given my improving ability to pick my battles, eventually, I relent.

But I also have the last word “FINE. Give me all your screens, NOW!” Glares, protests, angry retorts.

But I do not give in. Looks who’s got diamond-quality stubbornness now…

Screens are collected, hidden, MBH and I head out.

This afternoon’s proposed activity was a visit to The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art . To get there we bike to the Hellerup train station, take the 029 train 20 minutes to Humlebaek stop, then walk about 12 minutes. It’s a sunny, crisp, fall day (do leaves in Denmark change colors?) and an overall lovely journey.

Incidentally, the name of the museum has nothing to do with the State of Louisiana in the United States. Something about it was the name of the first estate of the guy who founded the museum. The explanation wasn’t as interesting as I’d thought it might be so I didn’t pay close attention.

The very first exhibit is that of the artist Pipilotti Rist.

We both found this exhibit just, well, weird and opaque and unpleasant. Didn’t understand it at all. I really didn’t like it and wanted to get out quickly.

Maybe that’s the point?

I snapped a few photos of it on our way out just to try and share/convey the oddness of the exhibit.

The exhibit where we spent the most amount of time was Lauren Greenfield’s Generation Wealth. Really it was more a documentary: “A visual shell shock: With ‘Generation Wealth’ Lauren Greenfield has created a unique document of the recent decades’ crazed consumerism in a world, which is increasingly obsessed with the dream of looking both beautiful and rich.” Photographs and videos, all with fairly detailed descriptions that took time to read. I know the wealth is out there, but I intentionally avoid thinking about it as the world slides deeper into ecological and climate apocalypse from human activity, (including that of our family). Anti-depressants have a limit to their effectiveness.

But for Generation Wealth, I did feel an obligation (and morbid curiosity) to stay.

Going through this exhibit I found myself getting physically sick to my stomach at the greed, consumption, selfishness, jaw dropping waste, shallowness, cultures that encourages sadly impressive spending so young girls grow up faster and orders of magnitude more spending for women to look ever younger, obscene wealth earned and spent around the world.

A few examples.

The couple that set out to build a replica of Versailles in Florida (would have been the biggest house in the USA), spent years collecting stuff from France to furnish it, and stores it all in a 60,000 sq ft warehouse. And they lost their not-even-half-finished Versailles-copy dream home after the 2008 crash.

But are still filthy rich.

A 16 year old polo player from China, attending Choate, owns 5 horses.

A 9 year old owns 3 luxury cars.

Mall of the Emirates in Dubai has an indoor downhill ski area.

Girls in LA start getting plastic surgery in middle school.

A bus driver (somewhere in the USA) goes to Brazil to get 8 plastic surgeries – it’s cheaper and the doctor is fine performing them all at once. The USA doctor wanted to do them one at a time.

A family of 4 from Rochester NY moves – flying of course – (another huge contributor to global carbon emissions) to one of the most expensive capital cities in the world for a 1 year sabbatical, and does so on one income. Maybe one day traveling on zero carbon emissions sail boats will become the norm.

Ok, so our family did not actually make it into the Generation Wealth exhibit, but I include this to share that while it’s easy to focus blame on the super rich for their wealth and habits, too many of us are complicit in this culture of consumption and waste and fossil fuel emissions. I am acutely aware – just about every waking moment of every day – of the privilege of having this opportunity. And I’m constantly identifying (and acting on) ways I can use this opportunity to make the world a better place. I’m open to suggestions if you have them.

I took my time, reading just about every description and watching every movie/slide show.

This does remind me of a story from when the oldest was about 4 years old. We lived in New Haven Connecticut, 4 houses down from Vincent Kay, Founder and Owner of Swords into Plowshares honey. His honey processing barn was in his back yard, and he also kept 10 or so chickens in the coop behind his house. Periodically I’d send the girls down there to get either eggs or honey or both.

One day he told me when they came down, the oldest had announced, apropos of nothing “You know we are very rich.” (at that particular point in our lives money was quite tight)

This took him aback but he asked “Oh, really? What makes you say that?” Her response “Well, we have food, and clothing, and shelter, and medicine when we need it, so that makes us RICH!” Remembering that story always makes me smile.

After spending about 90 minutes in the Generation Wealth exhibit, I was feeling quite drained and needed to go outside.

I’d read and heard how incredibly beautiful the grounds are, and on a day like yesterday, they were magnificent. Sculptures and art throughout, paths that go every which a way. The museum sits right on the coast of the Baltic Sea and as such there are gorgeous views of the sea and of Sweden on clear days.

I snapped a few pictures.

It was getting near closing time and dinner time, so we headed home. Rounded up the girls and biked [10 minutes] to an Asian food place grad students had recommended to MBH.

It was quite delicious.

All and all a lovely Saturday. I highly recommend the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and I do think the girls would enjoy it. Maybe one day I’ll convince them.