It was one of those bitterly cold weekends, the kind when you hunker down inside and wonder how you’ll keep the kids occupied — or at least not fighting.

Because it was not a payday weekend, our outings were limited to the library on Saturday and church on Sunday. I’m the rare parent who does not have her children engaged in sports or other extracurricular activities.

So, we made our own fun in our little condo apartment. We invited friends over, built a fire, watched movies, played video games, engaged in epic Nerf battles and — highlight — hung a basketball hoop in the dining room.

It was adorable to watch my 12-year-old son teach my 6-year-old daughter how to play: Every time she scored, per her brother’s instructions, she had to shout, “Kobe!” in honor of the basketball champ Kobe Bryant of the L.A. Lakers.

“Mommy,” she’d say, her eyes shining with happiness, “I got another goal!”

Eventually, though, I stopped smiling. Even though we live on the ground floor of a fourplex, I began to worry that the sound of my happy children — with all that thumping, jumping, shooting and yelling — was still too much. I shut down the game at 8 p.m.

Apparently, though, that wasn’t soon enough.

On Sunday evening, I found a note taped to our door.

It said something about how we had been “exceptionally noisy” over the weekend.

It was unsigned.

Once again, I was reminded that kids and condos do not mix.

In the almost three years since I bought this three-bed, two-bath condo, some of our neighbors have scolded us for everything from sidewalk chalk to unattended playing to playing in general.

I wonder if this would happen if we had Norwegian neighbors.

I don’t think so.

At least, not if the Norwegian philosophy of childhood is still as it is described in Eric Dregni’s memoir, “In Cod We Trust: Living the Norwegian Dream.” This book, published in 2008 by the University of Minnesota Press, explores Norwegian culture through the eyes of a Minnesota family who temporarily relocates there.

Dregni describes what happens when a school group of 9-year-old boys descended upon the pool locker room: The boys were singing Christmas carols (in July), playing catch with their underwear, running forward and backward in swim fins. You know, acting like … kids. And no one stopped them.

“I was witnessing what my Norwegian teacher, Sissel, told me was en fri oppdragelse, a free upbringing in which children are allowed to roam and to express themselves,” Dregni wrote.

Dregni goes on to describe the boys’ behavior at the pool:

“In the large whirlpool, some of the boys played catch with a big foam cube that was obviously hard to control. When it bonked an older man on the head, he uttered, ‘Uff da!’ (Ouch) but didn’t say anything to the lifeguards.”

Yeah, my note-writing neighbors would have definitely said something to the lifeguards.

It’s not just my neighbors, though.

At my gym, I dislike how they won’t let children use the sauna, even if parents are attending them. “Did you know that in Finland, where saunas were invented, a sauna is a family event?” I once asked the unyielding rule enforcer.

At the library, I dislike how the librarians shush the children and tell them to stop running in the children’s section.

At the hotel, I get upset at the lady in the children’s pool who tells my daughter she’s going to get her kicked out for splashing.

Before you berate me, know this:

We won’t use the sauna if you tell us we can’t.

We don’t run at the library, unless we forget because we’re really excited about a book.

We try to remember not to splash too much at the pool.

Also?

We want to move to Norway.

Molly Guthrey can be reached at mguthrey@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5505.