When I was a kid my parents had 2 rules: I had to tell them where I was going and had to be home at dinner time (had a kiddie watch so no excuse to be late). Oh and before I had learned to swim (got enrolled into swimming lessons at 6) I wasn't allowed to do to the big duck pond alone. Playgrounds are one thing, but water? Yeah no, not until I was able to properly swim.
In Germany, public playgrounds are regularly checked by the TÜV. And whether they are technically ok! For example, whether the wood is ok (not rotten or splintering), whether the ropes still have their tensile strength and do not soon wander through or whether the screws are attached so that there are no sharp edges. Otherwise it says: "Playing at your own risk" - nobody can be sued here because the princess has broken off a fingernail!
I was born 1988. In first grade (6 years old), my mother walked the way to school with me twice and then I walked alone - although not really, the bunch of kids from the neighbourhood gathered and walked together. Later I cycled the 3 miles to secondary school, sometimes alone, sometimes not. I could've used the bus, but nah. I was only driven by car twice in my entire time at school: Once I had an upset stomach and was feeling poorly and once there was a storm in the morning and I was driven and, crazily, school got canceled after the first lesson due to severe weather (oh, really?). At the age of 8 I was driving the bus on my own, at 12 I got my braces and once a month I cycled 10 miles there and back to the orthodontist and nobody cared. Until I was 14 years old, there was one rule when playing outside: If the streetlights come on, I have to go home, in summer at 6 o'clock in the evening (‘When the church bells ring six times.’). Nowadays, however, children here still have a lot of freedom and I think it's good that independence is being encouraged from an early age. But a lot of kids even here in my village are driven to school by car, a lot more than years before and that's absolutely ridicolous and even dangerous for kids who walk or cycle there.
same for me (decades earlier). in first grade, we learned to read a map, had to draw the route from home to school on a map, and talked about where dangerous points of that route (eg guarded and unguarded crosswalks) were. from then on, we walked alone or in groups. a dream of many was to become _Schülerlotse_ (school crossing guard) later which required to be in 5th or 6th grade (age 10+), and to be good in school (be responsible, and with good notes since you might miss the start or end of lessons when coming from or going to your duties). Where we have a traffic light now, there was only a zebra crossing decades ago, and these older children alternatingly stopped pedestrians (other children) and cars(!). driving kids to school is a self-reinforcing thing : with cars in front of the school, some parents think that it is too dangerous to walk and start driving their children, thus there are more cars and more parents drive their children and thus even more cars are there, until there are really so many cars that some children start walking the last few hundred meters (which are the most dangerous) to not get to the school too late while their parents are stuck in that school traffic.
Sums it up perfectly. I was born 1984. My daughter, born 2018, just entered school and I teach her the same. She already knows her way to school and will start walking alone very soon. I won't drive her at all. She has two healthy legs, if you know what I mean 😂
Sums it up perfectly. I was born 1984. My daughter, born 2018, just entered school and I teach her the same. She already knows her way to school and will start walking alone very soon. I won't drive her at all. She has two healthy legs, if you know what I mean 😂
6:59 -- Odds are, a child that falls down and gets hurt (like a bump, or a skinned knee) and has mummy/daddy instantly at their side, being all worried and solicitous, will wail like they're being burned alive at the stake. Watch that same kid have a similar accident the next day, and no hovering parent in sight or earshot, they might sniffle a bit, but in 90% of the time will just jump up and go back to playing. Many helicopter parents would be shocked to their core if they saw that.
That's why sunglasses and a book are essential when going to a playground with your kid. You can watch your kid without it noticing. If your kid falls, you're just pretending to read your book and the kid won't start crying if it doesn't really got hurt.
@@omadduxo Sunglasses aren't quite workable if it's a grey-sky day (like in the fall, say), but essentially, yes. 🙂 I usually brought some reading material when my son was small, and kept him within my line of sight.
I work in a Kindergarten here in germany and i see that constantly. Both the child just sniffeling a bit then going back to playing and the helicopter parent's mindbreak when that happens.
@@tranquilthoughts7233 Exactly! Saw it wirh my son and his buddies all the time, even in our own backyard. Even when the parents were close by, like sitting on the terrace -- as long as we weren't obviously watching the kids from a distance, a (s)tumble was no problem. 🥴
I‘m currently living in Switzerland (born in Germany) and my oldest son (5) goes to the kindergarten almost alone. They have about 5 times the year a „forest day“ to improve their skills. My husbands aunt from Kosovo was shocked how I let him play at this playground at the kindergarten (it’s always open for visitors). He was jumping through hoops and stood on top of the playground and waved at us. She was like: „Oh my god. He‘s falling“ I looked up after watching my daughter in the buggy and said: „Don’t worry. He fell on time. It doesn’t happen a second time.“ 😂 My childhood in Germany was the same too. Many times they weren’t even parents around.
In the Netherlands it's also very common to let your kids go to school by themselves. Not the first day, but as soon as you - as a parent - know your kid knows how to get home and how to get to school. At 6 or 7 years old the school (here) is mostly at walking distance, so there's no need for public transport. There's one or more primary schools in most neighborhoods. And you're right: kids need to be kids and learn kids-stuff .... like sand-cookies don't taste .... falling out of a tree hurts .... fire is hot. If you don't do that, you - as a parent - never can relax, because your kids, at whatever age, still depend on you for everything.
If they don't try it as toddlers, they're gonna try it later. Like in college when they're drunk the first time and have never had a chance to develop their motor skills.
I think its so funny that you can only drink at 21 and not in public, but in some states you can carry a weapon. xD When you enter college in germany your probably have been drunk so many times, that your allready have the "nah i dont need to drink so much" attitude. I had my first "hangover" at 16. I did not rel had an hangover, because I was just 16. But i womited on a field and stuff. Haaa... I wish I could be 16 again so I dont get a hangover. xD
As a father of a (very adventurous) 3 year old, let me assure you we are every bit as concerned and panicky as our american or british counterparts. We have to accept a bit of our discomfort so that our children learn how to deal with theirs. The cool thing is, as you allow your kid to do more on their own, they become better at judging their capabilities. As long as you can accept that, giving them more independence becomes easier, too. Also, a good playground is one that makes parents envious of their children. If it looks like I would have a blast climbing around in it, it's worth my son's time.
It's not that we aren't worried when we first let our kids do their stuff alone. I have let my kids go to the Aldi (about 800m away) on their own, along a lively street, across several small streets (without traffic lights) and one bigger one (with traffic lights). I wasn't fine the first few times, no. But I knew I had to trust them, or they wouldn't learn self-confidence. I also have to let them put their knowledge, understanding and reasoning to the test. Because, if your parents don't trust you to do things, who should? Independence, self-reliance and problem solving are crucial to any kid's development. Yes, I have to live with the decisions they make, but since I try to make them understand why certain things should not be done and other should be done (in a certain way, perhaps), they usually do the right thing. It has paid off, so far. My kids are smart, creative and funny. They usually know their limits (of course they like to test them), and mostly are very sensible. They are independent, but seek confirmation or help if they come across a situation they think they can't handle on their own. I can send them to the store to grab something I forgot, and I can send them to school or to friends or to the playground on their own. I'm currently thinking about getting my middle one (7-yo) a monthly bus ticket so I can send him to a sports club, because he is very athletic and active, and let him handle training alone. I'm incredibly anxious when I think about it. But I know he could do it, and so it probably will happen.
Maybe a video about the German principle of “Waldkindergarten" (forest kindergartens) would be interesting for you. The small children spend almost all of their time outside.
There is a "but" to it, and I won't do this again. After sending my kid there, the woods around us, where I grew up in, without kindergarten and beeing attended, became full of monsters and dangers...in my childs mind, the same child that walked them cross-terrain at night, with me. (Yeah, doing 9:49 this type of things regularily, since my own childhood, and yes, took toddler along. While the waldkindergardeners were like, don't touch this, don't touch that, plus telling scary myths and legends of witches and ghost, who are just not there. They're busy in the cities, there's more public to scare and abduct .. Good thing tough, knife handling at 4 (not the ones on the dinner table), campfire from the start, and when it's minus 13 celsius, it's minus 13, period. What you shouldn't undersetimate, all of his friends from there, he's 13 now, became couch potatoes. Cold and wet kindergarten time over? Snacking, tele and internet, Waldkindergarten was "just a job", weekends and evenings are leisure time, in.. Which was very different when I was young, school, kindergarten over, we went out instead Not entirely bad, but, not as expected what came out of it. Turning leisure into "work".
@@sr-nw3kr I have no idea what you're getting at. No child will be frightened in the forest or anything like that. It's about being in nature rather than in cramped spaces so that young children can exercise both physically and mentally. And when it comes to the behavior of 13-year-olds: parents are the ones who should raise their children to be decent people, and therefore parents are primarily responsible for their children's behavior.
In the US or the UK you'd be seen as a danger or a potential paedophile visiting children's playgrounds. On a less serious note: Hope those installations are designed to carry the weight of an adult, or else you might be the one to sue the council :p
@@demil3618actually in germany humans over 14 or 16 are not allowed on playgrounds without a child. If i were a child i also wouldnt want to use a playground that a 20+ person is currently using. Also playgrounds are made for the size of children, the extra weight is no problem but like why not go to a climbing garden or playground for adults in the first place?
@@theuglypotato7017 Officially there are signs very often. It doesn't look appropriate indeed. But if nobody else is there, I don't care if I see some 20-somethings exercising there- as long as they don't make a mess that is.
Du bist einfach ein Mega sympathischer Typ! 😁👍 Keine Ahnung warum aber ich finde jedes Video von dir interessant, weil du so einen ultra freundlichen, und mega reflektierten Eindruck machst. Mach weiter so, beste Grüße aus Deutschland :)
I was born in 75. Both my parents worked, so me and my two year younger brother had to entertain ourselves often. We lived in a hilly village app. 20 minutes from the city and we spend our kindergarten and school years with friends, roamed the countryside, explored the forest and the hills. Only time our parents really took an interesst was not when we had scrammed knees or cuts, but when we ripped our clothes. It was paradise for us
I went to the bakery alone when I was 3 years old (says my mother - I don't remember). The bakery was 150 meters away from our house and there was hardly any traffic.
Gen X here... thrown into the world in 1967 I grew up in Berlin-West and a lot of the houses at the river where just ruins and bombed warehouses...which where our secret playground in the time between school and dinner when our parents where back from work. We had keys and prepared our lunches for ourselves and had to do some work at home before we played with our friends. Parent did not know where you have been around with your friends...you placed a notice on the kitchen table "I am on the football field with friends and maybe we go to Frank and listen music" I had to take public transport from six years on and it took me thirty minutes to get to school...time enough for forgotten homework.All our trousers had holes at the knees and we always have been bruised or had "summer knees" because we played on an ash football field with little slack stones some of them are still in my shin :) Later ( 14 or 15 ) I got in to the Punkszene in Berlin where it was very easy to get your hands on alcohol and drugs and I still wonder how we survived all that....Okay not all of us did.
When we were in primary school my brother and me went into the woods for hours. We were instructed to be home on sunset. We built a monkey swing with a 6m rope. The tree we attached it to was on a steep slope. At it's highest point we were probably 10m above the ground. Nowadays I built such a swing for my own kids. It's a blast.
There is a video around somewhere in which a german tech inspector talks about playgrounds. They are ok to have obvious "dangers" that kids understand very early - such as high = ouch, metal pipe + head = boing. However, non obvious hazards are a massive no go. Lose screws, rusted metal, big splinters, dodgy ropes - this is why playgrounds are subject to serious safety standards.
That's definitely not the case for the whole of Germany. In our town (in Hessen) and even many "nearby" cities where our friends are living, the parents are watching their smaller children playing from a safe distance, the never leave, and let a small child completely alone. The playgrounds are similar though, thay are not that super safe, but that's okay.
@@ClaudiaThur The reaction was more about German kids in general, not this particular 7-year-old. I wasn't talking about the older ones, but the younger ones. A 7-year-old is somewhere in between, but I'd say I mostly see kids over 10 playing outside alone, almost never younger ones.
@@Mikaci_the_Grand_Duke You cant say, the story happens never in your town. four year old I would say are never out alone. But 7 is old enough to go to school alone, why not to the playground? 7 is second grade.
@ClaudiaThur Just think about it from the perspective of a criminal. If someone wants to kidnap a child as it walks to school or home, it's not as easy as waiting beside a playground, taking time to choose the right victim, and preparing and executing the plan. I wouldn't let either a first or second-grade child go to school alone if it takes longer than 5-10 minutes to get there. However, most of those kids are brought by car to school anyway if their house is not nearby. I don't say it's everyone, but as I originally commented, not all German parents are generally like in this example. In our town, rather the opposite is true, but of course, not without exceptions.
I can't count the amount of times I watched my little brother fall off something at a playground. Most times, he'd just get back up and climb right onto the next tower. Sometimes he would cry, but that was mostly because some person who wasn't either of my person would react shocked and ask if he's okay. Kids who hurt themselves and don't get babied will learn that getting hurt is part of life and they'll learn to be more careful and how to make sure they don't fall as often.
You can see at many playground hugh first steps, this is, how they provide to little kids from climbing up, before they can. I always stood nearby the one to three year old kids (after they asked me to lift them up) and said: Try! I won't help, but I catch, if you fall. With 4, they mastered the step alone.
My mom is definitely the more protective kind, and even she let me walk to school alone when I was that age. Though one time I took a different route back, and we delayed quite a bit because I was playing something with friends. That definitely made her panic and she went searching for me. She even asked the neighbor kid who was a few years older than me if he could look because she hadn't found me on the regular route and was ready to call the police.
Great reaction! And cool to see how you recall your own childhood and realize how far away from that approach today‘s helicopter parents are… I agree, you must learn things, you must learn to take responsible risks. Padding your child in cotton will only make it grow up a coward and less adaptable, with less developed motor skills and less developed sense of the laws of physics…
In Switzerland some kids are 4 years old when they start using public transport. The kids go to the busstop, take the bus and go to school. Everybody knew and suport them. Its pretty normal here.
My 9 year old son is out the whole day. He goes alone, he comes back alone. No tracking. Sometimes a smartwatch that he can call, but is broken atm. Doesn't matter. He is out the whole day by his self if he want, just on rule: Be Back at time. That is all. He do it since he is 7. Normal here and for us. All his friends do the same, the came and ask for him by them selfes. Greetings From Germany
Kids play parks in the UK have become unbelievably sanitized since the 1980's and 90's. The park in the street where I used to live is a prime example. Gone are the swings with the giant 3-meter high A-frame and long chains holding the swing in favour of a tiny a-frame and solid metal bars to limit how high and fast they can swing. We used to stand on those swings, get as high as we could and see who could jump from furthest from the swings. Gone is the equally high slide, which has been replaced by a tiny little thing that looks no fun at all to slide down. The old roundabout that we would spin at breakneck speeds and hold on for dear life. It has not been replaced. The large fort-like climbing frame is also gone and has not been replaced by anything. The seesaw that our friends used to launch many of us into the air was taken away and replaced wit a piddly wee thing that looks like it's no fun at all. We understood the need for safety when the concreate/tarmac bases were replaced by rubber matting. That made sense. After all, there were quite a few kids who failed to hold on as the roundabout spun around too fast and ended up falling onto the tarmac below, suffering bumps & bruises. But once the tears were dried, the gravel cleaned out of any cuts; they'd climb back on and give it another go. And I used to walk to and from school for nearly 1 mile by myself from the age of 5. It didn't seem like that big of a deal.
About being alone on their way to school: Traffic education starts in kindergarten, age 3, and they learn how to travers their surroundings as a pedestrian or take the local public transportation while going on frequent trips. They already know a lot about safety and just need to learn the new route. The police is also very involved in traffic education, local police may offer to visit or offer a road safety program or theater. They also regularly organize a bike safety check at schools for older kids, where they help make sure that the kid's bikes are up to standard and all the lights work as intended. Some companies etc. may offer a road safety project, where the kids get neon or reflective gear and the more they are showing up with it on, the higher the rewards the class gets. (i.e. teacher records each day, how many kids came in with their neon hat, sends the 'attendance' in after several months and then the class gets a book budget or a cool learning toy.) There is also the weird thing most of us Germans have with jay walking: as long as a child could see you, you do NOT jay walk. And i distinctly remember a game I had at home, where you had to memorize your route by looking for markers along the way (a specific shaped tree, a different house colour to it's suroundings, a memorable patch of flowers etc.)
Well, I am not a parent so I can only speak as an educator and Aunt: First: there is a big difference between a professional looking after a group of other people’s children and family looking after their own. As an educator in primary child care (1-6 years old) there are rules and laws to follow. For example you can not leave the children unsupervised especially not outside. However there is also the clause of “responsible care” in the sense that you can let a six year old child climb the tree without holding them if you know he/she has done it before and is age appropriately good in it. The 3 year old that is trying it for the first time should be accompanied and supervised until you can be sure the child is capable of climbing the tree without serious injury (and nowadays it should be documented). As a parent or family member it is less “strict” as it is your own child and thus your responsibility to know what your child can and can not do. German Grundgesetz article 6 states that parents have the right and responsibility to raise their child (as they see fit). So as long as you do not cause serious Kindeswohlgefährdung (harm to the child’s (long term) wellbeing) it is your decision as a parent or guardian what you let your child do or not. And the authorities have little control over your decision (again, as long as the child’s health is not in serious danger). Second: The judicial system in the USA is elementary different to the German system. (Completely based upon “common knowledge” and personal interest on certain aspects of the system in either country and not based upon actual lawyer/Judge or other Judicial degree) In Germany the courts judge according to the constitution and the laws laid down by the government. In the US the courts decisions and laws are often/also based on or influenced by previous precedents/convictions/decisions by other courts. So if one claim that the playground is unsafe was successful, all following claims can be based upon that decision (doesn’t always have to be) but in Germany every new claim is looked at as a separate case and you can not argue that in bla vs. blub it was decided this way and such it should be decided like that again. (I realise that each judicial system has its intricate rules, traditions and laws and that what I have written is a very simple and not 100% correct comparison of the two and that there is always an exception to the rule) So lawsuits in Germany have to have a totally different foundation than those in the USA. So comparing the two is very difficult. Third: the kids in Germany don’t “just walk to school alone” it is a process of teaching them to be independent. My mother walked me to school for a few weeks and slowly pulled herself back out of sight and finally let me go alone. She talked with me and pointed out dangers or places I could find help on the way if I needed it. She told me never to go with strangers or get into a car with someone I didn’t know etc. Also school covered some “do’s and don’ts” for the first graders in the first few weeks. At the beginning of the new school year, there would be banners and signs asking the driver to be mindful of the children taking their first walks to school etc. Usually we were a group of kids from the neighbourhood and of different ages so we looked after each other, but at times I also walked completely alone. For both primary and secondary school it was about a 15 minute walk and a relatively safe neighbourhood. When my younger sister started to go to school, my mum accompanied us again but this time only for a few days or so because she knew that I would be with my younger sister in the following weeks/months to show her the ropes. In the US (as far as I know) the schools tend to be further away and not necessarily in walking distance. Also the us has special school buses. In Germany we have extra buses that are put into service during school hours to ensure a good connection to school or work but there are no special buses only for school kids. At least not usually. So it is not just a matter of “they do it differently” but first and foremost about the different possibilities given.
as a kid i was allowed to just roam free. we used to run around in the woods, climb on trees, ride our bikes... and only had to come home when it got dark. and i raised my kids like that as well. they even went to kindergarden by themselves age 4, which was specifically encouraged by the kindergarden. German parents put a lot of emphasis on beeing independent and doing stuff on your own
When my kid climbed 2m above me in one of these spiderwebs on a public playground, a Turkish boy approached me and asked "how old is he?" "Oh, she is three", I responded. He looked at me slightly shocked and was up there after 10 seconds, guiding her. She did slip, eventually, but I could catch her.
It actually starts in Preschool/Kindergarten. In the second year (4yo) the kids becone "Alleinegänger" -> "allone walker". Means with 4yo kids walk to and home from Kindergarden allone or with (only) other preeschool kids.
I biked to school from 3rd grade on, about the age of 8. It was about 4 km, and there was a bike lane/agro roads for most of the way. But two road crossings where included. My mom took me for a week, then she secretly followed me for another one at a distance, to see if I was safe. Biggest problem was that I sometimes decided to visit friends or go play on the way home, and they naturally panicked when I was two hours late. I guess today they would just give me a number-locked phone so they could check up on me. But that was 30 years ago - as I observe, modern mums have been intimidated by the "fredo-scare" in media a lot. Even though the occurrence of that crime has dropped considerably since then.
The playgrounds are not dangerous they just make children take a few daring chances and maybe they fall down a bit and bump their knees or hands but that's how kids learn in life. You can't keep kids insulated from everything in life that might scratch them or be a bit difficult they must learn things even some difficult things in life. The playgrounds are very very sturdy made of wood ,metal not plastic like in the US playgrounds.
Of course they can be dangerous.. like anything else in the world. As a kid our playground had a huge climbing installation of like 6 m high and around 10 m wide.. that was so incredible, however, once, I fell from the top through all these metal rods and bumped hard into the sand.. I will never forget this feeling, I thought, my chest emerged somewhere in China. However, next day I was on it again. I also jumped from walls there (3 m high) into the sand and also, once, I stumbled with my shoe, tripped, the wall made me turn 180 degrees and bumped with my face upside down against the concrete wall... the same playground today: The climbing installation is totally gone and all walls are covered with fences...
@@TheSkullCrossbone I mean made dangerous due to the design no they're not . Even crossing the street CAN be dangerous doesn't mean it is intentionally dangerous if you use it properly usually no problem.
There are so-called latchkey children - those who go home alone before the age of 6, i.e. in kindergarten (german word; the origin means preschool from 3y-6y). They are called latchkey children because they have their own key to their apartment.
I'd say the predators were there at any time in history probably. Just the media attention and fear was not on the same level. And I am certainly no expert on the subject, but my guess is that the kid playing outside with other kids in the forest or the park is probably less likely to come into contact with someone meaning them harm, than the kid that's not allowed to go outside and sits in their room on the internet and consuming social media...Quite apart from the mental health issues that often brings anyways, even without any bad actors involved.
I was born in 1968, and my parents never worried too much about what I did or where I played, as long as they knew where I was. Imagine a kid falling on the playground and breaking an arm. German parents wouldn't panic; they'd simply take the child to the nearest hospital, where they'd get a plaster cast. As soon as the child wants to return to the playground where they fell, the parents would let them, confident that the child will be more cautious next time (pain is a good teacher, you avoid things that hurt you). Plus, that kid would become a hero among their friends. Don't get me wrong, we love and care for our children, but we understand that life can be dangerous, and we teach them that. It's better for them to learn about the risks than to live in fear because we shield them from everything.
The jaywalking is interesting in germany, i as a small kid (now 16) was told to wait for traffic lights and i did, the older i got though the more i just looked out for cars. Now I jaywalk all the time if there aint cars, if children are around though i don’t though cause they are smaller and shouldn’t do that, they don’t know what their doing. I am old enough to know the risks and whatnot, i just choose to take those risks. Personally i feel like lots of people jaywalk but wait if kids are arounf.
U.K. playgrounds have been really ‘baby proofed’. In the eighties we climbed this large metal climbing frame that was on concrete. We also walked to school about 6/7ish and hung around in packs lol.
I went to kindergarten alone since I was 3-4 years old. (Well, it was less than 500 m away, and just around the corner in a low low traffic region), but I remember to be allowed to play outside since I was a young child (as long I was back home before 18/dark).
Another thing is... in germany the dictricts in cities are way smaller than in America and therefore the walkingdistances to most elementary-schools are short in comparison. I remember walking 15-20min. (5-10min. with my bike) to school, when i was little. Whilst a friend who grew up in America told me 20-30min. car or busrides werent out of the ordinary
A big part in this, I think is the health care system. Cuts and bruises, even broken bones in germany burn down to "making your own experiences" and you ought to learn from it. In the UK, health care is free, as in germany, but it´s underdeveloped in size. It´s a reason to watch more over your kids. In the US, a broken arm or leg can ruin a family financially. Affecting more than just the injured kid. It shows in how to take care of your kids.
Kostenlos? Wohl eher nicht, oder warum bezahle ich hunderte Euro im Monat obwohl ich so gut wie nie zum Arzt muss, weil ich kerngesund bin? Vielmehr muss man sogar in das Gesundheitssystem einzahlen, auch wenn man es nicht in Anspruch nimmt. Von kostenlos kann also keine Rede sein. Wenn man, aus welchen Gründen auch immer, nicht in das Gesundheitssystem einzahlt und keine Krankenkarte vorweisen kann bekommt man nicht mal eine Audienz bei einem Arzt.
Throughout my school days the only time my mom accompanied me to school was the first week where I was at a new school and had to learn the way to school. Public transport was normal. So in all the 12 years of school, my mom accompanied to school 10 days in total.
Berlin is the capital. I'm german and I wouldn't let my grandkids go alone anywhere there. But in our small city and the villages arround it's just like gated communities. So there it's normal that everyone is also watching and take care to the younger or elderly ones. It's like you say being a kid in New York is the same like in a gated community in a small village.
The strictness in Germany is exactly because of children doing it alone. Typical primary school age of 6, children do not have fully matured spatial awareness. They cannot judge when it is safe to cross. So they must be taught that they absolutely only can cross when the light is green. Seeing adults ignoring that rule will make them question it and break it. Especially in large cities many people jaywalk. But to do so in the presence of children is hugely frowned upon and would earn you a telling off by bystanders. Most people will do the opposite and watch out for the children and might even reinforce the rule "oh we re waiting for green, can t cross now"
Ich wurde 1970 in Deutschland geboren und wenn ich nur hier bei uns die Ansichten zur Kindererziehung zwischen heute und damals vergleiche, frage ich mich, wie ich meine Kindheit überlebt habe 😊. Es ist gut, sich um seine Kinder zu kümmern, keine Frage, aber überbehüten schadet mehr als es nützt!
I'm a 2000's kid and grew up in the middle of absolute nowhere, Germany. I spent most of my time outside, in the forest or on fields, by rivers, etc. We climbed structures that were definetely not safe to climb, played in agrarcultural machines, just about tried every stupid thing we could have. I can't say how many times I came home covered in cuts and bruises. One time I fell backwards down a tractor and hit my head on a huge rock, another time I got stuck in quicksand in a river trying to go under a bridge - a situation I only got out of with the help of a friend and without my shoes lol. We built bridge-like structures or boats that failed us just about as often as they didn't. We shot each other with airsoft weapons and hit each other with wooden swords or occasionally fists. It was awesome. I'm pretty sure most of the things we did would've given my mom a heart attack, if she knew we did them. Yet, besides the odd concussion and as I said relatively frequent bruises and smaller cuts there weren't any major injuries. I once dislocated my wrist in a fall, immediately got up and relocated it myself, no long-term problems. I pierced my own ears with a sewing needle. The only time I actually broke something was way later at 16/17ish, during combat sports training😅 Still think it was a great way to grow up, only downside is that it gets harder to recreate even a bit of the excitement for life that I used to have as a kid, the older I get.
Wow you were definitely one of those really adventures kids growing up lol! I new kids like you back in the day. No fear haha! Love it. Glad you didn't get too hurt.
When my sister was born in '89 my parents lived close to the Cologne Zoo. And right next to the back entrance there was (and still is) a big playground. So my Parents had a yearly pass for the Zoo, just so my sister can play on the playground there. And my parents wheren't alone, as there where 5-10 children every day playing there, while the (grand)parents waited in the cafe, or took a walk. "Sadly" when I was born in '91 we relocated out of the city, so I only rarely went to the Zoo playground. But there it was even better. We grew up with 5 families in the same agegroup, in a designated playing street. Cars where only allowed to go 7 Km/h (4,3m/h) and we had a playground right around the corner, an empty filed on the other side, and a public sports ground about 1 kilometer away. We played outside every day with rarely a parent beeing present. And when the time came for us to go to school, we went there every day with just 3-5 kids. For secondary school, that was a little further away, we just went by bike.
I think there was ALWAYS predators out there. We just didn't have the media access. When I was little in the 80s/90s, we just told our moms "We'll be outside with friends, back by dinner" after homework, and our parents basically had no means of actually locating us. We were just somewhere in town. Completely normal. Now kids aren't allowed in the back yard without a GPS/GLONASS/GALILEO Tracker attached to them.
Being born 1979 for me it was totally normal to go to Kindergarten/preschool on my own in the 80s when I was 6 years old. I also took my bike and met friends to climb trees, explore abandoned houses from maybe 8 onwards, etc. So I left the house around noon and came back in the evening when the lights went on. There were no smartphones so my parents weren't worried because NOT stalking your kids all the time was normal. Children are individual humans and need to make experiences to learn their own limits. That's how you become self-sufficient. There are things that are REALLY dangerous and should not be experienced ever. Those are the things parents need to stop you from doing. But if your parents stop you from doing anything you want to try just because THEY are scared, one day you'll do them anyways and find out they aren't even that dangerous at all. That leads to not trusting your parents anymore and ignoring all their warnings just to rebel and try out what else they were overprotective with. You'll get hurt and they'll say "see, told you so" not realising it was their fault being bad parents with good intentions.
I was born 1970. I walked by my self to Kindergarden, but was picked up after by my mom. What i didn' knew, my mom followed me for a while, to be shure i did well. ... In Hamburg. When comming to school, i woke up by my self, got me ready, and walked to the bus station. My mom didn't even got up. She slept. It is not safer in Germany vs. US/UK. But i think, i've got raised to be more independant and carefull. Nowadays there are a lot of helicopter moms and dads. Don't underestimate your kids! Teach them instead. That would help them for the rest of their life!
So im a German, born and raised in Berlin 2000. and my parents also were pretty open about my experience when they knew the enviroment. Like we used to have a spot at a campingplace with like roughly 1000 tennants or so next to a small village right in the woods. and my parents let me wander off there and the woods because they knew id find my way home. Or id take the bike and drive around places there (with quite a few daredevil things that backfired at some point). Obviously especially my mom would worry about me but it never was a reason to forbid me from going out or so. Actually now that im 24 she is more worried about me and riding bike or public transport at night because berlin can be hella scary. but as a kid, that never really was a factor and every negativ encounter i had "build character" so to speak. Also now studying landscape architecture, seeing how especially kids interact with parks, public places and playgrounds is really interesting and quite a big topic one can learn to respect and appreciate
I was born 1962. Our mothers walked with us to school and picked us up. At the second grade we meet up with classmates and walked to school and back home together. You must know, that we couldn't get lost or run on purpose, because we had a wall around our city. I'm talking about former West-Berlin... 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I read the other day the German regulations concerning playgrounds are not there to prevent injuries only grave bodily harm, permanent damage or death. And I love that for us. I loved the playgrounds growing up. I got hurt plenty of times but it was always fun and you're learning by doing.
It was between 6 and 10 i got my first swiss knife multitool, i climbed trees, saw down branches, made small fires, broke into a chicken cage, biked around (farest was 10km), everytime found back home and that was in a foreign country campsite/village. so yeah my parents gave me much trust and potential to grow, sure i had to be brought back by locals but it was all ok, we didn't had phones, gps or other tracking, it was pure trust (born 1987, from germany, into the netherlands for vacation/camping)
I start going to school in 86 and I recall my mom bringing me to school for just the first few weeks. Admittedly, it was just a 10-15min walk to school. And, i think, after the first few weeks my school insisted on us kids walking to school on our own. So we did. But I don't think it's because of predators. The fear of predators is about the news. Nowadays the issue is parents bringing kids to school by car and therefore posing a danger to kids walking to school.
we live since 2018 in Eastern europa! Our Girl jumps in a river with her cousin. bevor they do it, they see a snake ! My 9 year old says: Wait, the snake should pass! after a minute: Jump! ❤
When I was a kid in the 60s we were a big bunch of children in the neighbourhood. Playing outside whole the time. About a pair of sibling we were joking, one of them always was with plaster bandage. If I had a bleeding knee and made a fuss of it, my mum asked if we had to amputate. Ups! A friend of mine, definitivly a tomboy, had two brothers, a large garden and a wood behind the house. They wrote postcards from holidays to the emergency of the local hospital....🤣 We walked to school on foot, were fit. But because my mum was to frightened to led me go to the public swiming facility (Freibad) with the others I never learned to swim. Nor bike riding - no money for bikes. My brother didn´t care about that, went swiming with his friends and lend bikes from them. That happens when parents are to anxious. And I was a good little girl; instead of bans I would needed of encouragement.
I was born in 1992 and grew up generally very independent. My parents accompanied me somewhere maybe 5 times and then I started walking myself sometimes without their knowledge. It wasn't a problem in my hometown, where everyone knows each other either from the church or the local association. When I was 6, I ran twice with my mother, then alone or with my sister, who went to the same school. When we moved and lived further away from school, my mother drove me for about six months until I started walking to school when I was about 8 years old. Apart from that, my mother sent me into the city alone to go shopping when I was 5-6. She called the shops beforehand and everything else worked without a message or phone call :D
hello from geramy when i was in elemantary scholl my mom showed me the way 1 or 2 times and then said go by urself thats how we learn in germany they show us 1 or 2 times and then say literraly fck off
I'm French living in Berlin, Germany and yes my kids go to school alone with the metro since they are 9. They often meet others schoolmates with whom they complete the travel. Also they used to walk to their music school (at 6.pm) alone. It's safe here, I never had to worry. Maybe I was just worried sometime that they check well the road before crossing, so I was repeating it regularly. Also they like this freedom and I think they would be embarrassed if I would take them to school, like they were still babies... Also, on the weekend, they hang out with their friends in the city and I just need to know where they go and what time they'll be back. I happy for them they can feel free and responsible. That being said, I would not do it in America. The society is too violent there and the roads are not made for walkers.
Between 2018 and 2023, the number of missing children per year fluctuated between around 14,500 (2021) and 18,100 (2019). During 2023, a total of around 16,500 children were missing. Around 15,800 cases of missing children were resolved over the course of the year.
born in 1971 in The Netherlands 2 working parents and walked to school every day from the age of 7 and at 12 i took a trainride from the Hague to Amsterdam alone we never went outside with parents and i was always late for dinner and never i never felt unsafe and people always watch after kids walking alone ( even when nothing really bad ever happened ) ! those playgrounds were just amazing for a kid and they learn you to be aware of danger !
Well, my 6 year old daughter asked me on her first real day at school, when I walked with her to the bus station, "mum, but tomorrow I can go alone?" I was only slightly baffled. Since that day, I never accompanied her again on her way to school. She knew traffic very well from Kindergarten already. I walked her every day on foot there, our distance was about 1 kilometer one way. So I had no problems with this. Also, there never was any incident. She was perfectly fine and grew up to now be a very independant young woman. Regarding playgrounds: we mostly let her run freely. Our attitude always was "better she has a little hickup there in pretty controlled environment, and she learns that she can hurt herself, than having something serious happen later in traffic and such. So she learnt to take us seriously and look after herself." Because at some stage - what do you do if she, let's say, decides to study in the USA or Japan? Rent an apartment for the family? Ridiculous IMO.
When my daughter started the 1st grade, we just sent her on her way. Before she started, we let her practice on the weekends just going to the bakery or supermarket on her own. The goal is to teach them independence as quickly as possible. The reality is that there are still a lot of parents who hover or drive their kids to school out of convenience. So, not all German families embrace the concept. It's honestly just up to your family, your child, and how safe you feel your city is. For example, we had no qualms about her walking places, but we never let her ride a bike here. The traffic situation made it so dangerous for kids because there were no bike lanes back then.
In elementary school I was bought to school and get from school first few years but that's because my sister died in that road in the way to school when she was 6 so my parents were a bit overprotective, but then don't know 8-9 I walked alone... You can't put people into cages for safety even if your scared. I climbed trees so high I can to this day but believe the thin head didn't break with my weight xD you need to let children get their own limits
I was born 1989 U.K, we were allowed to just get on with it. I remember going out in the morning to play up trees, come back for lunch, go back out, back for dinner then out until 10pm. I used to walk to school on my own at 7 years old.
I grew up in a smaller village that didn't have a school. So from 6 years old I walked or biked all the way to the next bigger town that had an elementary school, around 4 kilometers each way. Around that age we learn all the traffic rules. A policeman came to our daycare and taught us how to cross streets safely and what we need to do and where we need to stand to make sure the cars will see us and stop to let us cross. In first grade a policeman came again and trained us in traffic by bike. So we learned traffic signs and more rules and basically learned all we need to know to move safely in traffic. Education is key and knowledge will set you free. Love being independent. When I lived in the US (age 16 to 17) my host family wrapped me in cotton and didn't let me do anything. 'Just go for a walk in the neighbourhood? no, that is way to dangerous, there might be people or cars'. In that age I had already travelled to several countries by myself and roamed cities like London, Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Palma, Boston, New York and Los Angeles by myself or only with friends of my age.
I'll Born in 1961 the first day my mother me acomplate but after two weeks I'm going tô school without her. It's normaly in Germany. You must teach your Kids the life autonomy.
In Germany we have a very popular sign "Eltern haften für ihre Kinder" (Parents are liable for their children). That liabality goes both ways: For what happens to their children as well as what their children do. Playground: that sign is there. Construction site: that sign is also there. Lake where people sunbath and swim: that sign is there. In the forest: that sign is there. Here in Germany becoming a parent comes with TONS of responsibility, but that doesn't mean you have to have to put your kids into a giant ball of cotton and roll them down the street on a leash. It's a parents responsibility to teach their child and then let them experience what they were taught on their own - often with the parents watching from the sidelines, if at all.
Those signs have no legal meaning, they're there to scare off kids: Parents are only liable for neglecting their duty to supervision and that's an uphill battle before court no matter what you write on some sign. The signs, though, tell kids "we catch you and your parents are going to hear of it and are going to be angry and disappointed because they have to deal with your shite and they won't have money for birthday presents and holidays" so they don't even think of exploring a construction site on their way back from school in a way that a sign saying "danger of death" would *never* be able to do. Or, differently put, the construction industry is using parents as a boogeyman and it works.
Maybe not the rule but mine were able to travel the metro to go to school at that age. And there was other kids. I think it depends but you're right it's not a rule, it's just a possibility
"Even the insurance agrees" ... of course they prefer to deal with playground stuff over people not learning how to deal with risk.... so they have to pay out a car crash or something later.
0:51 Born 1979. My Parents went to school with me twice and then I had to walk there on my own. I was 6 back then. Totally normal back then. But nowadays it's different. 😢
@@nurkuepeli1190 Dann muss das meine verzerrte Wahrnehmung sein, dass ich fast keine Schulkinder mehr innerhalb eines kleinen Dorfes zur Schule laufen sehe sondern zig Autos die die Straße morgens vor der Schule blockieren um die Kinder abzusetzen. Aber wenn bei euch die Welt noch normal ist freue ich mich sehr 🫶😊
The main problem with safety today is: the media! 30 years ago, when nobody cared about children being alone on the outside we had 5 times the amount of child deaths in traffic and we had 2 times the amount of violent crimes. (In germany) The risk of something happening to a child is at an all time low, but the fear that something is happening to a child is at the same time at an all time high. The big difference is the media, 30 years ago we had news from the tv and newspapers, with limited time and space, you mostly got the importent worldwide news from the TV and the newspaper mostly only covered you region. Most of the bad stuff that happend couldn't reach you, now with the internet and unlimited access to news from every region, we see a lot more reports about all that bad stuff happening. Same with terrorism, in germany there is a big fear about terrorism in the last few years and we get a lot of media reports about terrorism. Which is also a big political topic, about how we can make germany safe again... with more surveillance and restrictions on freedom!... And a lot of germans agree with this. Fact is, in the last 10 years, we got 18 people that died cause of terrorism in germany, thats 1,8 per year. The chance to die in an terrist attack in germany this year is around 1 in 50.000.000. I you play the eurojackpot once per month, the chance is 4 times higher to win the jackpot this year, than to die in an terrorist attack...
Everybody falls down somewhere at some point in his live. You don't get hurt less if you're older or youngr and if the parent sits next to the playground watching the kid or not. Or are US-American parents so incredibly fast that they can jump from 10 meters distance to catch their kid before it hits the ground?
born 81 in a small town with about 50k people...I was a so called "Schlüsselkind" ( Schlüssel means Key... the key to the house). As soon as i went to school i got my own key. I was suposed to come home after school in the beginning, but i usually didnt.. there was a nice playground on my way home 😁 after a while my parents gave up on that rule.. At the age of around 9 or 10 the only rule remaining was " you´re home till its getting dark" Unfortunetly things have changed to the worse in Germany... it makes me sad that my children are not able to expirience the same level of freedom anymore
At primary school in the UK, our teacher would wait at the door until they saw our parent before allowing us to leave. At age 9, when my family moved to Germany, the bell would ring and we would just leave and either walk, cycle, get on the bus/underground to either go home or to visit friends etc. This was also the case for the 6 year old year 1 kids. I never knew a single kid who got dropped off or picked up from school by an adult as under 25s in full time education have monthly tickets for bus, tram, underground and trains in their region which cost my parents €10/month back in the early 2000s. Today, these tickets are valid nationwide. We had no uniform either. It felt more liberated. I hear that there's been a lot more helicopter parenting in Germany since covid, but still not as bad as in the UK, where unsupervised primary school kids walking, cycling or taking public transport to school, to town, to a playground or to their friends can look very alarming to strangers.
At my elementary school (germany, like 15years ago) the parents would tell the school or the schools after care program (hort) if the kids could leave on their own, be taken to the bus or be picked up. I was category bus so the after school teacher would take us kids to the bus station 10min away, wait for the bus with us and made sure we got in. It was a small town and the various busses would go to the nearby villages
7:10 but the point is we dont say no we dont do this because we hurt ourself the last time. We think about how to do it safe the next time 😅 i hope you understand what i mean 😂
Im half puerto rican and half german. One side of my family--the american side--told me with the bullying to just go tell the teacher, dont say anything back so on--and then there was the ww2 immigrant grandma who looked at me and said, "and they still hit you? Then hit them back twice as hard and dare em to do it again. If your teacher who do nothing has problem, you call me at the office". 😂 (thanks Oma❤) One thing I noticed about America as Ive gotten older..there are no more places for kids to go or do anything. And they get yelled at for being outside alone even at a kids park. Like cops called on them even. There is also no more eyes on the street. Everyone in america ignores screaming children even in the neighborhood and just calls it annoying. So they have no neighbors looking out for saftey and no other kids to play with outside in the first place. And the infastructure is TERRIBLE here. Kids get hit on a red light cross walk going to school here. Constantly. Even on halloween someone in our neighborhood's 5 yr old was killed by a car that didnt even see the child. The roads and cars are too big, we cant see them and there is not really safe crossing either
But I'm from germany and from 5 years on I was allowed alone on my bike to friends as far as 5 miles away, i even broke my arm on a playground where I played with my 4 year old friend without both our parents present. My child is not allowed the same today.
When I was 6, 7, 8 years old in 1968 I would play with my same age friend alone in the forest about 800 meters from our home. Nothing special at the time. Helicopter parenting creates morons!
yes, german children seem to be given more freedom of being alive and trying things out. i know a 5 (grew more by now) yo who can work with handheld saws.
The playgrounds are totally fine. Children need a bit of challenge to train their motor skills. Whether an elementary school child can walk to school alone or not totally depends on the surrounding traffic situation. Most children in our small village will go alone because we don’t have much fast traffic or dangerous crossings. They even play on most of the streets with scooters, skate boards or bicycles. There is a small dense forest behind the cemetery where children play hide and seek and built tree houses and such or they run into the meadows and fields. Nobody really cares unless they are playing with fire. They nicknamed our area Bullerbü / Bullerby named after the children book of Astrid Lindgren. Big city children are unfortunate.
I also walked alone to kindergarten at age 4 already (grew up in east Germany). My parents also did start a countdown early on: each year on my birthday they would tell me how many years are left until I turn 18. Because that day would be the day I will move out 😂 (I moved out for good once I finished school around that exact age 18/19y. A week later they had my room transformed into a dining room 🤣🤣🤣. It's been more than a decade now that I have been living abroad. Oh boy, I wish everyone had a little German inside him. Punctuality, reliability, directness, certain regulations like NOISE free hours/days... Some things Make life so much easier...
@@emilwandel trust me if you ask anyone where I grew up who had the coolest parents ever... They would name my family. From early on I insisted in having birthday parties at home... My parents where my co-hosts (because I was never able to stay up until the last guests leave) and they had to run the bbq. .. sometimes I invited up to 80 people, without even telling them before. They went through a lot with their strong minded rebel daughter and deserved to have their home and lives back. And I personally would have loved to move out much earlier.... . I love to be and live alone. It's mutual.
The biggest danger in the US is the traffic, when you think about it. Also, we have more people walking around because we are not as car dependent. This means, most of the strangers out there, aren't danger. They keep the kids safe because the actual creeps don't get to be alone outside with a child, or at least, it's much less likely. When a child gets in trouble, chances are, the adults and other children nearby will help the kid out. The busdriver will tell the kid where to get off, the lady who is on her way back fromm her grocery run will make that call to the parents with her phone if the child is lost. I just did that the other week. It was the first day of school ans the child seemed a bit lost, so I offered her my phone to call her mommy (the number was written down on a little notebook in her schoolback). Another guy stopped to make sure the child was okay as well, and that there was another safe adult around just in case i wasn't safe for the child. Together we figured it out.
France before had USA style of play grounds about 10yrs ago but now they all changed to German style play grounds. And today kids like to take risks and more adventurous and more and more independent at a very early age because of this. Some kids even know how to make a meal for themselves and they are around 8 to 9 👏
When I was a kid my parents had 2 rules: I had to tell them where I was going and had to be home at dinner time (had a kiddie watch so no excuse to be late). Oh and before I had learned to swim (got enrolled into swimming lessons at 6) I wasn't allowed to do to the big duck pond alone. Playgrounds are one thing, but water? Yeah no, not until I was able to properly swim.
In Germany, public playgrounds are regularly checked by the TÜV.
And whether they are technically ok! For example, whether the wood is ok (not rotten or splintering), whether the ropes still have their tensile strength and do not soon wander through or whether the screws are attached so that there are no sharp edges.
Otherwise it says: "Playing at your own risk" - nobody can be sued here because the princess has broken off a fingernail!
I was born 1988. In first grade (6 years old), my mother walked the way to school with me twice and then I walked alone - although not really, the bunch of kids from the neighbourhood gathered and walked together. Later I cycled the 3 miles to secondary school, sometimes alone, sometimes not. I could've used the bus, but nah. I was only driven by car twice in my entire time at school: Once I had an upset stomach and was feeling poorly and once there was a storm in the morning and I was driven and, crazily, school got canceled after the first lesson due to severe weather (oh, really?). At the age of 8 I was driving the bus on my own, at 12 I got my braces and once a month I cycled 10 miles there and back to the orthodontist and nobody cared. Until I was 14 years old, there was one rule when playing outside: If the streetlights come on, I have to go home, in summer at 6 o'clock in the evening (‘When the church bells ring six times.’). Nowadays, however, children here still have a lot of freedom and I think it's good that independence is being encouraged from an early age. But a lot of kids even here in my village are driven to school by car, a lot more than years before and that's absolutely ridicolous and even dangerous for kids who walk or cycle there.
Same here :)
Me too
same for me (decades earlier). in first grade, we learned to read a map, had to draw the route from home to school on a map, and talked about where dangerous points of that route (eg guarded and unguarded crosswalks) were. from then on, we walked alone or in groups. a dream of many was to become _Schülerlotse_ (school crossing guard) later which required to be in 5th or 6th grade (age 10+), and to be good in school (be responsible, and with good notes since you might miss the start or end of lessons when coming from or going to your duties). Where we have a traffic light now, there was only a zebra crossing decades ago, and these older children alternatingly stopped pedestrians (other children) and cars(!).
driving kids to school is a self-reinforcing thing : with cars in front of the school, some parents think that it is too dangerous to walk and start driving their children, thus there are more cars and more parents drive their children and thus even more cars are there, until there are really so many cars that some children start walking the last few hundred meters (which are the most dangerous) to not get to the school too late while their parents are stuck in that school traffic.
Sums it up perfectly. I was born 1984. My daughter, born 2018, just entered school and I teach her the same. She already knows her way to school and will start walking alone very soon. I won't drive her at all. She has two healthy legs, if you know what I mean 😂
Sums it up perfectly. I was born 1984. My daughter, born 2018, just entered school and I teach her the same. She already knows her way to school and will start walking alone very soon. I won't drive her at all. She has two healthy legs, if you know what I mean 😂
6:59 -- Odds are, a child that falls down and gets hurt (like a bump, or a skinned knee) and has mummy/daddy instantly at their side, being all worried and solicitous, will wail like they're being burned alive at the stake. Watch that same kid have a similar accident the next day, and no hovering parent in sight or earshot, they might sniffle a bit, but in 90% of the time will just jump up and go back to playing. Many helicopter parents would be shocked to their core if they saw that.
That's why sunglasses and a book are essential when going to a playground with your kid.
You can watch your kid without it noticing. If your kid falls, you're just pretending to read your book and the kid won't start crying if it doesn't really got hurt.
@@omadduxo Sunglasses aren't quite workable if it's a grey-sky day (like in the fall, say), but essentially, yes. 🙂 I usually brought some reading material when my son was small, and kept him within my line of sight.
I work in a Kindergarten here in germany and i see that constantly. Both the child just sniffeling a bit then going back to playing and the helicopter parent's mindbreak when that happens.
@@tranquilthoughts7233 Exactly! Saw it wirh my son and his buddies all the time, even in our own backyard. Even when the parents were close by, like sitting on the terrace -- as long as we weren't obviously watching the kids from a distance, a (s)tumble was no problem. 🥴
I‘m currently living in Switzerland (born in Germany) and my oldest son (5) goes to the kindergarten almost alone. They have about 5 times the year a „forest day“ to improve their skills.
My husbands aunt from Kosovo was shocked how I let him play at this playground at the kindergarten (it’s always open for visitors). He was jumping through hoops and stood on top of the playground and waved at us. She was like: „Oh my god. He‘s falling“ I looked up after watching my daughter in the buggy and said: „Don’t worry. He fell on time. It doesn’t happen a second time.“ 😂
My childhood in Germany was the same too. Many times they weren’t even parents around.
Wait till she finds out about "Forest-Kindergartens" lol
OH YES PLEASE!!!! ROFL
...to be fair, we don't have bears in our Forest 😂
You made my day!
@@Mondfischli sometimes we do but that is reaaaaaaally rare.. wolves would be a diffrent story :D
@@Bloodbound89
Wolves are really skittish though….. no danger there
In the Netherlands it's also very common to let your kids go to school by themselves. Not the first day, but as soon as you - as a parent - know your kid knows how to get home and how to get to school. At 6 or 7 years old the school (here) is mostly at walking distance, so there's no need for public transport. There's one or more primary schools in most neighborhoods. And you're right: kids need to be kids and learn kids-stuff .... like sand-cookies don't taste .... falling out of a tree hurts .... fire is hot. If you don't do that, you - as a parent - never can relax, because your kids, at whatever age, still depend on you for everything.
If they don't try it as toddlers, they're gonna try it later. Like in college when they're drunk the first time and have never had a chance to develop their motor skills.
I think its so funny that you can only drink at 21 and not in public, but in some states you can carry a weapon. xD
When you enter college in germany your probably have been drunk so many times, that your allready have the "nah i dont need to drink so much" attitude. I had my first "hangover" at 16. I did not rel had an hangover, because I was just 16. But i womited on a field and stuff. Haaa... I wish I could be 16 again so I dont get a hangover. xD
As a father of a (very adventurous) 3 year old, let me assure you we are every bit as concerned and panicky as our american or british counterparts.
We have to accept a bit of our discomfort so that our children learn how to deal with theirs.
The cool thing is, as you allow your kid to do more on their own, they become better at judging their capabilities. As long as you can accept that, giving them more independence becomes easier, too.
Also, a good playground is one that makes parents envious of their children. If it looks like I would have a blast climbing around in it, it's worth my son's time.
As an elenentary school teacher: Good job, Dad 😊.
Außerdem geh ich immer noch gerne schaukeln, ist ja nicht verboten 😉.
Believe me, you are NOT as concerned and panicky as US parents.
As a german you just don't grasp of how much worse they are.
I loved the Playground in my last holiday in the netherlands. The swings are wide enough for a grown female hip. Yeah!
@@ClaudiaThur As they should be! 🌈
It's not that we aren't worried when we first let our kids do their stuff alone. I have let my kids go to the Aldi (about 800m away) on their own, along a lively street, across several small streets (without traffic lights) and one bigger one (with traffic lights). I wasn't fine the first few times, no. But I knew I had to trust them, or they wouldn't learn self-confidence. I also have to let them put their knowledge, understanding and reasoning to the test. Because, if your parents don't trust you to do things, who should?
Independence, self-reliance and problem solving are crucial to any kid's development. Yes, I have to live with the decisions they make, but since I try to make them understand why certain things should not be done and other should be done (in a certain way, perhaps), they usually do the right thing.
It has paid off, so far. My kids are smart, creative and funny. They usually know their limits (of course they like to test them), and mostly are very sensible. They are independent, but seek confirmation or help if they come across a situation they think they can't handle on their own. I can send them to the store to grab something I forgot, and I can send them to school or to friends or to the playground on their own. I'm currently thinking about getting my middle one (7-yo) a monthly bus ticket so I can send him to a sports club, because he is very athletic and active, and let him handle training alone. I'm incredibly anxious when I think about it. But I know he could do it, and so it probably will happen.
Maybe a video about the German principle of “Waldkindergarten" (forest kindergartens) would be interesting for you. The small children spend almost all of their time outside.
Sehr interessant....
There is a "but" to it, and I won't do this again. After sending my kid there, the woods around us, where I grew up in, without kindergarten and beeing attended, became full of monsters and dangers...in my childs mind, the same child that walked them cross-terrain at night, with me. (Yeah, doing 9:49 this type of things regularily, since my own childhood, and yes, took toddler along.
While the waldkindergardeners were like, don't touch this, don't touch that, plus telling scary myths and legends of witches and ghost, who are just not there. They're busy in the cities, there's more public to scare and abduct ..
Good thing tough, knife handling at 4 (not the ones on the dinner table), campfire from the start, and when it's minus 13 celsius, it's minus 13, period.
What you shouldn't undersetimate, all of his friends from there, he's 13 now, became couch potatoes. Cold and wet kindergarten time over? Snacking, tele and internet, Waldkindergarten was "just a job", weekends and evenings are leisure time, in..
Which was very different when I was young, school, kindergarten over, we went out instead
Not entirely bad, but, not as expected what came out of it. Turning leisure into "work".
@@sr-nw3kr I have no idea what you're getting at.
No child will be frightened in the forest or anything like that. It's about being in nature rather than in cramped spaces so that young children can exercise both physically and mentally.
And when it comes to the behavior of 13-year-olds: parents are the ones who should raise their children to be decent people, and therefore parents are primarily responsible for their children's behavior.
I still like climbing at German playgounds ...and I'm 48! 😆
In the US or the UK you'd be seen as a danger or a potential paedophile visiting children's playgrounds.
On a less serious note: Hope those installations are designed to carry the weight of an adult, or else you might be the one to sue the council :p
@@demil3618Because they are paranoid fools.
@@demil3618actually in germany humans over 14 or 16 are not allowed on playgrounds without a child.
If i were a child i also wouldnt want to use a playground that a 20+ person is currently using. Also playgrounds are made for the size of children, the extra weight is no problem but like why not go to a climbing garden or playground for adults in the first place?
@@theuglypotato7017 Officially there are signs very often.
It doesn't look appropriate indeed. But if nobody else is there, I don't care if I see some 20-somethings exercising there- as long as they don't make a mess that is.
Du bist einfach ein Mega sympathischer Typ! 😁👍
Keine Ahnung warum aber ich finde jedes Video von dir interessant, weil du so einen ultra freundlichen, und mega reflektierten Eindruck machst.
Mach weiter so, beste Grüße aus Deutschland :)
"Why do German chrildren travel (not go?) to school so young?" My counter question: Why not?!
I'm a german playground builder and Thanks for the compliments.;)
I was born in 75. Both my parents worked, so me and my two year younger brother had to entertain ourselves often. We lived in a hilly village app. 20 minutes from the city and we spend our kindergarten and school years with friends, roamed the countryside, explored the forest and the hills. Only time our parents really took an interesst was not when we had scrammed knees or cuts, but when we ripped our clothes. It was paradise for us
Not the hard way - the slogan is: learning by doing. Thanks your reaction🤝
leaning by pain also works.
I went to the bakery alone when I was 3 years old (says my mother - I don't remember). The bakery was 150 meters away from our house and there was hardly any traffic.
Gen X here... thrown into the world in 1967 I grew up in Berlin-West and a lot of the houses at the river where just ruins and bombed warehouses...which where our secret playground in the time between school and dinner when our parents where back from work. We had keys and prepared our lunches for ourselves and had to do some work at home before we played with our friends. Parent did not know where you have been around with your friends...you placed a notice on the kitchen table "I am on the football field with friends and maybe we go to Frank and listen music" I had to take public transport from six years on and it took me thirty minutes to get to school...time enough for forgotten homework.All our trousers had holes at the knees and we always have been bruised or had "summer knees" because we played on an ash football field with little slack stones some of them are still in my shin :) Later ( 14 or 15 ) I got in to the Punkszene in Berlin where it was very easy to get your hands on alcohol and drugs and I still wonder how we survived all that....Okay not all of us did.
When we were in primary school my brother and me went into the woods for hours. We were instructed to be home on sunset. We built a monkey swing with a 6m rope. The tree we attached it to was on a steep slope. At it's highest point we were probably 10m above the ground.
Nowadays I built such a swing for my own kids. It's a blast.
There is a video around somewhere in which a german tech inspector talks about playgrounds.
They are ok to have obvious "dangers" that kids understand very early - such as high = ouch, metal pipe + head = boing.
However, non obvious hazards are a massive no go. Lose screws, rusted metal, big splinters, dodgy ropes - this is why playgrounds are subject to serious safety standards.
That's definitely not the case for the whole of Germany. In our town (in Hessen) and even many "nearby" cities where our friends are living, the parents are watching their smaller children playing from a safe distance, the never leave, and let a small child completely alone. The playgrounds are similar though, thay are not that super safe, but that's okay.
Kid in the story was 7!
@@ClaudiaThur The reaction was more about German kids in general, not this particular 7-year-old. I wasn't talking about the older ones, but the younger ones. A 7-year-old is somewhere in between, but I'd say I mostly see kids over 10 playing outside alone, almost never younger ones.
@@Mikaci_the_Grand_Duke You cant say, the story happens never in your town. four year old I would say are never out alone. But 7 is old enough to go to school alone, why not to the playground? 7 is second grade.
@ClaudiaThur Just think about it from the perspective of a criminal. If someone wants to kidnap a child as it walks to school or home, it's not as easy as waiting beside a playground, taking time to choose the right victim, and preparing and executing the plan.
I wouldn't let either a first or second-grade child go to school alone if it takes longer than 5-10 minutes to get there. However, most of those kids are brought by car to school anyway if their house is not nearby. I don't say it's everyone, but as I originally commented, not all German parents are generally like in this example. In our town, rather the opposite is true, but of course, not without exceptions.
I can't count the amount of times I watched my little brother fall off something at a playground. Most times, he'd just get back up and climb right onto the next tower. Sometimes he would cry, but that was mostly because some person who wasn't either of my person would react shocked and ask if he's okay. Kids who hurt themselves and don't get babied will learn that getting hurt is part of life and they'll learn to be more careful and how to make sure they don't fall as often.
You can see at many playground hugh first steps, this is, how they provide to little kids from climbing up, before they can.
I always stood nearby the one to three year old kids (after they asked me to lift them up) and said: Try! I won't help, but I catch, if you fall. With 4, they mastered the step alone.
My mom is definitely the more protective kind, and even she let me walk to school alone when I was that age. Though one time I took a different route back, and we delayed quite a bit because I was playing something with friends. That definitely made her panic and she went searching for me. She even asked the neighbor kid who was a few years older than me if he could look because she hadn't found me on the regular route and was ready to call the police.
Great reaction! And cool to see how you recall your own childhood and realize how far away from that approach today‘s helicopter parents are… I agree, you must learn things, you must learn to take responsible risks. Padding your child in cotton will only make it grow up a coward and less adaptable, with less developed motor skills and less developed sense of the laws of physics…
In Switzerland some kids are 4 years old when they start using public transport. The kids go to the busstop, take the bus and go to school. Everybody knew and suport them. Its pretty normal here.
My 9 year old son is out the whole day. He goes alone, he comes back alone. No tracking. Sometimes a smartwatch that he can call, but is broken atm. Doesn't matter. He is out the whole day by his self if he want, just on rule: Be Back at time. That is all. He do it since he is 7. Normal here and for us. All his friends do the same, the came and ask for him by them selfes.
Greetings From Germany
Same here. Live in Berlin
Kids play parks in the UK have become unbelievably sanitized since the 1980's and 90's.
The park in the street where I used to live is a prime example. Gone are the swings with the giant 3-meter high A-frame and long chains holding the swing in favour of a tiny a-frame and solid metal bars to limit how high and fast they can swing. We used to stand on those swings, get as high as we could and see who could jump from furthest from the swings.
Gone is the equally high slide, which has been replaced by a tiny little thing that looks no fun at all to slide down. The old roundabout that we would spin at breakneck speeds and hold on for dear life. It has not been replaced. The large fort-like climbing frame is also gone and has not been replaced by anything. The seesaw that our friends used to launch many of us into the air was taken away and replaced wit a piddly wee thing that looks like it's no fun at all.
We understood the need for safety when the concreate/tarmac bases were replaced by rubber matting. That made sense. After all, there were quite a few kids who failed to hold on as the roundabout spun around too fast and ended up falling onto the tarmac below, suffering bumps & bruises. But once the tears were dried, the gravel cleaned out of any cuts; they'd climb back on and give it another go.
And I used to walk to and from school for nearly 1 mile by myself from the age of 5. It didn't seem like that big of a deal.
About being alone on their way to school: Traffic education starts in kindergarten, age 3, and they learn how to travers their surroundings as a pedestrian or take the local public transportation while going on frequent trips. They already know a lot about safety and just need to learn the new route. The police is also very involved in traffic education, local police may offer to visit or offer a road safety program or theater. They also regularly organize a bike safety check at schools for older kids, where they help make sure that the kid's bikes are up to standard and all the lights work as intended.
Some companies etc. may offer a road safety project, where the kids get neon or reflective gear and the more they are showing up with it on, the higher the rewards the class gets. (i.e. teacher records each day, how many kids came in with their neon hat, sends the 'attendance' in after several months and then the class gets a book budget or a cool learning toy.)
There is also the weird thing most of us Germans have with jay walking: as long as a child could see you, you do NOT jay walk.
And i distinctly remember a game I had at home, where you had to memorize your route by looking for markers along the way (a specific shaped tree, a different house colour to it's suroundings, a memorable patch of flowers etc.)
Was Du als Kind nicht gelernt hast, wirst Du als Erwachsener nicht begreifen! - What you didn't learn as a child, you won't understand as an adult!
we encourage our children to be fearless and also it´s good exercise
Well, I am not a parent so I can only speak as an educator and Aunt:
First: there is a big difference between a professional looking after a group of other people’s children and family looking after their own.
As an educator in primary child care (1-6 years old) there are rules and laws to follow. For example you can not leave the children unsupervised especially not outside. However there is also the clause of “responsible care” in the sense that you can let a six year old child climb the tree without holding them if you know he/she has done it before and is age appropriately good in it. The 3 year old that is trying it for the first time should be accompanied and supervised until you can be sure the child is capable of climbing the tree without serious injury (and nowadays it should be documented).
As a parent or family member it is less “strict” as it is your own child and thus your responsibility to know what your child can and can not do. German Grundgesetz article 6 states that parents have the right and responsibility to raise their child (as they see fit). So as long as you do not cause serious Kindeswohlgefährdung (harm to the child’s (long term) wellbeing) it is your decision as a parent or guardian what you let your child do or not. And the authorities have little control over your decision (again, as long as the child’s health is not in serious danger).
Second: The judicial system in the USA is elementary different to the German system. (Completely based upon “common knowledge” and personal interest on certain aspects of the system in either country and not based upon actual lawyer/Judge or other Judicial degree) In Germany the courts judge according to the constitution and the laws laid down by the government. In the US the courts decisions and laws are often/also based on or influenced by previous precedents/convictions/decisions by other courts. So if one claim that the playground is unsafe was successful, all following claims can be based upon that decision (doesn’t always have to be) but in Germany every new claim is looked at as a separate case and you can not argue that in bla vs. blub it was decided this way and such it should be decided like that again. (I realise that each judicial system has its intricate rules, traditions and laws and that what I have written is a very simple and not 100% correct comparison of the two and that there is always an exception to the rule) So lawsuits in Germany have to have a totally different foundation than those in the USA. So comparing the two is very difficult.
Third: the kids in Germany don’t “just walk to school alone” it is a process of teaching them to be independent. My mother walked me to school for a few weeks and slowly pulled herself back out of sight and finally let me go alone. She talked with me and pointed out dangers or places I could find help on the way if I needed it. She told me never to go with strangers or get into a car with someone I didn’t know etc. Also school covered some “do’s and don’ts” for the first graders in the first few weeks. At the beginning of the new school year, there would be banners and signs asking the driver to be mindful of the children taking their first walks to school etc. Usually we were a group of kids from the neighbourhood and of different ages so we looked after each other, but at times I also walked completely alone. For both primary and secondary school it was about a 15 minute walk and a relatively safe neighbourhood. When my younger sister started to go to school, my mum accompanied us again but this time only for a few days or so because she knew that I would be with my younger sister in the following weeks/months to show her the ropes. In the US (as far as I know) the schools tend to be further away and not necessarily in walking distance. Also the us has special school buses. In Germany we have extra buses that are put into service during school hours to ensure a good connection to school or work but there are no special buses only for school kids. At least not usually.
So it is not just a matter of “they do it differently” but first and foremost about the different possibilities given.
as a kid i was allowed to just roam free. we used to run around in the woods, climb on trees, ride our bikes... and only had to come home when it got dark. and i raised my kids like that as well. they even went to kindergarden by themselves age 4, which was specifically encouraged by the kindergarden. German parents put a lot of emphasis on beeing independent and doing stuff on your own
When my kid climbed 2m above me in one of these spiderwebs on a public playground, a Turkish boy approached me and asked "how old is he?" "Oh, she is three", I responded. He looked at me slightly shocked and was up there after 10 seconds, guiding her. She did slip, eventually, but I could catch her.
It actually starts in Preschool/Kindergarten. In the second year (4yo) the kids becone "Alleinegänger" -> "allone walker". Means with 4yo kids walk to and home from Kindergarden allone or with (only) other preeschool kids.
I biked to school from 3rd grade on, about the age of 8.
It was about 4 km, and there was a bike lane/agro roads for most of the way.
But two road crossings where included.
My mom took me for a week, then she secretly followed me for another one at a distance, to see if I was safe.
Biggest problem was that I sometimes decided to visit friends or go play on the way home, and they naturally panicked when I was two hours late. I guess today they would just give me a number-locked phone so they could check up on me.
But that was 30 years ago - as I observe, modern mums have been intimidated by the "fredo-scare" in media a lot.
Even though the occurrence of that crime has dropped considerably since then.
Yeah. I walked alone to school and my kids drive the bus to school alone either.
The playgrounds are not dangerous they just make children take a few daring chances and maybe they fall down a bit
and bump their knees or hands but that's how kids learn in life.
You can't keep kids insulated from everything in life that might scratch them or be a bit difficult they must learn things even
some difficult things in life.
The playgrounds are very very sturdy made of wood ,metal not plastic like in the US playgrounds.
Of course they can be dangerous.. like anything else in the world. As a kid our playground had a huge climbing installation of like 6 m high and around 10 m wide.. that was so incredible, however, once, I fell from the top through all these metal rods and bumped hard into the sand.. I will never forget this feeling, I thought, my chest emerged somewhere in China. However, next day I was on it again. I also jumped from walls there (3 m high) into the sand and also, once, I stumbled with my shoe, tripped, the wall made me turn 180 degrees and bumped with my face upside down against the concrete wall... the same playground today: The climbing installation is totally gone and all walls are covered with fences...
@@TheSkullCrossbone I mean made dangerous due to the design no they're not .
Even crossing the street CAN be dangerous doesn't mean it is intentionally dangerous if you use it properly usually no problem.
There are so-called latchkey children - those who go home alone before the age of 6, i.e. in kindergarten (german word; the origin means preschool from 3y-6y). They are called latchkey children because they have their own key to their apartment.
I'd say the predators were there at any time in history probably. Just the media attention and fear was not on the same level. And I am certainly no expert on the subject, but my guess is that the kid playing outside with other kids in the forest or the park is probably less likely to come into contact with someone meaning them harm, than the kid that's not allowed to go outside and sits in their room on the internet and consuming social media...Quite apart from the mental health issues that often brings anyways, even without any bad actors involved.
I was born in 1968, and my parents never worried too much about what I did or where I played, as long as they knew where I was. Imagine a kid falling on the playground and breaking an arm. German parents wouldn't panic; they'd simply take the child to the nearest hospital, where they'd get a plaster cast. As soon as the child wants to return to the playground where they fell, the parents would let them, confident that the child will be more cautious next time (pain is a good teacher, you avoid things that hurt you). Plus, that kid would become a hero among their friends.
Don't get me wrong, we love and care for our children, but we understand that life can be dangerous, and we teach them that. It's better for them to learn about the risks than to live in fear because we shield them from everything.
You wouldnt believe it but in Germany Kids are allowed to go out 🤣
The jaywalking is interesting in germany, i as a small kid (now 16) was told to wait for traffic lights and i did, the older i got though the more i just looked out for cars. Now I jaywalk all the time if there aint cars, if children are around though i don’t though cause they are smaller and shouldn’t do that, they don’t know what their doing. I am old enough to know the risks and whatnot, i just choose to take those risks. Personally i feel like lots of people jaywalk but wait if kids are arounf.
U.K. playgrounds have been really ‘baby proofed’. In the eighties we climbed this large metal climbing frame that was on concrete. We also walked to school about 6/7ish and hung around in packs lol.
I went to kindergarten alone since I was 3-4 years old. (Well, it was less than 500 m away, and just around the corner in a low low traffic region), but I remember to be allowed to play outside since I was a young child (as long I was back home before 18/dark).
Another thing is... in germany the dictricts in cities are way smaller than in America and therefore the walkingdistances to most elementary-schools are short in comparison. I remember walking 15-20min. (5-10min. with my bike) to school, when i was little. Whilst a friend who grew up in America told me 20-30min. car or busrides werent out of the ordinary
A big part in this, I think is the health care system. Cuts and bruises, even broken bones in germany burn down to "making your own experiences" and you ought to learn from it.
In the UK, health care is free, as in germany, but it´s underdeveloped in size. It´s a reason to watch more over your kids.
In the US, a broken arm or leg can ruin a family financially. Affecting more than just the injured kid. It shows in how to take care of your kids.
Kostenlos? Wohl eher nicht, oder warum bezahle ich hunderte Euro im Monat obwohl ich so gut wie nie zum Arzt muss, weil ich kerngesund bin? Vielmehr muss man sogar in das Gesundheitssystem einzahlen, auch wenn man es nicht in Anspruch nimmt. Von kostenlos kann also keine Rede sein.
Wenn man, aus welchen Gründen auch immer, nicht in das Gesundheitssystem einzahlt und keine Krankenkarte vorweisen kann bekommt man nicht mal eine Audienz bei einem Arzt.
Throughout my school days the only time my mom accompanied me to school was the first week where I was at a new school and had to learn the way to school. Public transport was normal. So in all the 12 years of school, my mom accompanied to school 10 days in total.
Berlin is the capital. I'm german and I wouldn't let my grandkids go alone anywhere there. But in our small city and the villages arround it's just like gated communities. So there it's normal that everyone is also watching and take care to the younger or elderly ones. It's like you say being a kid in New York is the same like in a gated community in a small village.
The strictness in Germany is exactly because of children doing it alone. Typical primary school age of 6, children do not have fully matured spatial awareness. They cannot judge when it is safe to cross. So they must be taught that they absolutely only can cross when the light is green. Seeing adults ignoring that rule will make them question it and break it.
Especially in large cities many people jaywalk. But to do so in the presence of children is hugely frowned upon and would earn you a telling off by bystanders. Most people will do the opposite and watch out for the children and might even reinforce the rule "oh we re waiting for green, can t cross now"
My daughter walked alone to school or with friends
Ich wurde 1970 in Deutschland geboren und wenn ich nur hier bei uns die Ansichten zur Kindererziehung zwischen heute und damals vergleiche, frage ich mich, wie ich meine Kindheit überlebt habe 😊.
Es ist gut, sich um seine Kinder zu kümmern, keine Frage, aber überbehüten schadet mehr als es nützt!
I'm a 2000's kid and grew up in the middle of absolute nowhere, Germany. I spent most of my time outside, in the forest or on fields, by rivers, etc. We climbed structures that were definetely not safe to climb, played in agrarcultural machines, just about tried every stupid thing we could have. I can't say how many times I came home covered in cuts and bruises. One time I fell backwards down a tractor and hit my head on a huge rock, another time I got stuck in quicksand in a river trying to go under a bridge - a situation I only got out of with the help of a friend and without my shoes lol. We built bridge-like structures or boats that failed us just about as often as they didn't. We shot each other with airsoft weapons and hit each other with wooden swords or occasionally fists. It was awesome. I'm pretty sure most of the things we did would've given my mom a heart attack, if she knew we did them. Yet, besides the odd concussion and as I said relatively frequent bruises and smaller cuts there weren't any major injuries. I once dislocated my wrist in a fall, immediately got up and relocated it myself, no long-term problems. I pierced my own ears with a sewing needle. The only time I actually broke something was way later at 16/17ish, during combat sports training😅
Still think it was a great way to grow up, only downside is that it gets harder to recreate even a bit of the excitement for life that I used to have as a kid, the older I get.
Wow you were definitely one of those really adventures kids growing up lol! I new kids like you back in the day. No fear haha! Love it. Glad you didn't get too hurt.
When my sister was born in '89 my parents lived close to the Cologne Zoo. And right next to the back entrance there was (and still is) a big playground. So my Parents had a yearly pass for the Zoo, just so my sister can play on the playground there. And my parents wheren't alone, as there where 5-10 children every day playing there, while the (grand)parents waited in the cafe, or took a walk. "Sadly" when I was born in '91 we relocated out of the city, so I only rarely went to the Zoo playground. But there it was even better. We grew up with 5 families in the same agegroup, in a designated playing street. Cars where only allowed to go 7 Km/h (4,3m/h) and we had a playground right around the corner, an empty filed on the other side, and a public sports ground about 1 kilometer away. We played outside every day with rarely a parent beeing present. And when the time came for us to go to school, we went there every day with just 3-5 kids. For secondary school, that was a little further away, we just went by bike.
I think there was ALWAYS predators out there. We just didn't have the media access.
When I was little in the 80s/90s, we just told our moms "We'll be outside with friends, back by dinner" after homework, and our parents basically had no means of actually locating us. We were just somewhere in town. Completely normal. Now kids aren't allowed in the back yard without a GPS/GLONASS/GALILEO Tracker attached to them.
Being born 1979 for me it was totally normal to go to Kindergarten/preschool on my own in the 80s when I was 6 years old. I also took my bike and met friends to climb trees, explore abandoned houses from maybe 8 onwards, etc. So I left the house around noon and came back in the evening when the lights went on. There were no smartphones so my parents weren't worried because NOT stalking your kids all the time was normal. Children are individual humans and need to make experiences to learn their own limits. That's how you become self-sufficient.
There are things that are REALLY dangerous and should not be experienced ever. Those are the things parents need to stop you from doing. But if your parents stop you from doing anything you want to try just because THEY are scared, one day you'll do them anyways and find out they aren't even that dangerous at all. That leads to not trusting your parents anymore and ignoring all their warnings just to rebel and try out what else they were overprotective with. You'll get hurt and they'll say "see, told you so" not realising it was their fault being bad parents with good intentions.
I was born 1970. I walked by my self to Kindergarden, but was picked up after by my mom. What i didn' knew, my mom followed me for a while, to be shure i did well. ... In Hamburg.
When comming to school, i woke up by my self, got me ready, and walked to the bus station. My mom didn't even got up. She slept.
It is not safer in Germany vs. US/UK. But i think, i've got raised to be more independant and carefull.
Nowadays there are a lot of helicopter moms and dads. Don't underestimate your kids! Teach them instead. That would help them for the rest of their life!
So im a German, born and raised in Berlin 2000. and my parents also were pretty open about my experience when they knew the enviroment. Like we used to have a spot at a campingplace with like roughly 1000 tennants or so next to a small village right in the woods. and my parents let me wander off there and the woods because they knew id find my way home. Or id take the bike and drive around places there (with quite a few daredevil things that backfired at some point). Obviously especially my mom would worry about me but it never was a reason to forbid me from going out or so. Actually now that im 24 she is more worried about me and riding bike or public transport at night because berlin can be hella scary. but as a kid, that never really was a factor and every negativ encounter i had "build character" so to speak. Also now studying landscape architecture, seeing how especially kids interact with parks, public places and playgrounds is really interesting and quite a big topic one can learn to respect and appreciate
Please don't forget, the rate of abductions is the same despite usa parents guarding their children so much more.
I was born 1962. Our mothers walked with us to school and picked us up. At the second grade we meet up with classmates and walked to school and back home together.
You must know, that we couldn't get lost or run on purpose, because we had a wall around our city.
I'm talking about former West-Berlin...
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I read the other day the German regulations concerning playgrounds are not there to prevent injuries only grave bodily harm, permanent damage or death. And I love that for us. I loved the playgrounds growing up. I got hurt plenty of times but it was always fun and you're learning by doing.
It was between 6 and 10 i got my first swiss knife multitool, i climbed trees, saw down branches, made small fires, broke into a chicken cage, biked around (farest was 10km), everytime found back home and that was in a foreign country campsite/village. so yeah my parents gave me much trust and potential to grow, sure i had to be brought back by locals but it was all ok, we didn't had phones, gps or other tracking, it was pure trust (born 1987, from germany, into the netherlands for vacation/camping)
I start going to school in 86 and I recall my mom bringing me to school for just the first few weeks. Admittedly, it was just a 10-15min walk to school. And, i think, after the first few weeks my school insisted on us kids walking to school on our own. So we did.
But I don't think it's because of predators. The fear of predators is about the news.
Nowadays the issue is parents bringing kids to school by car and therefore posing a danger to kids walking to school.
we live since 2018 in Eastern europa! Our Girl jumps in a river with her cousin. bevor they do it, they see a snake ! My 9 year old says: Wait, the snake should pass! after a minute: Jump! ❤
When I was a kid in the 60s we were a big bunch of children in the neighbourhood. Playing outside whole the time. About a pair of sibling we were joking, one of them always was with plaster bandage. If I had a bleeding knee and made a fuss of it, my mum asked if we had to amputate. Ups! A friend of mine, definitivly a tomboy, had two brothers, a large garden and a wood behind the house. They wrote postcards from holidays to the emergency of the local hospital....🤣
We walked to school on foot, were fit. But because my mum was to frightened to led me go to the public swiming facility (Freibad) with the others I never learned to swim. Nor bike riding - no money for bikes. My brother didn´t care about that, went swiming with his friends and lend bikes from them. That happens when parents are to anxious. And I was a good little girl; instead of bans I would needed of encouragement.
I was born in 1992 and grew up generally very independent. My parents accompanied me somewhere maybe 5 times and then I started walking myself sometimes without their knowledge. It wasn't a problem in my hometown, where everyone knows each other either from the church or the local association. When I was 6, I ran twice with my mother, then alone or with my sister, who went to the same school. When we moved and lived further away from school, my mother drove me for about six months until I started walking to school when I was about 8 years old. Apart from that, my mother sent me into the city alone to go shopping when I was 5-6. She called the shops beforehand and everything else worked without a message or phone call :D
hello from geramy when i was in elemantary scholl my mom showed me the way 1 or 2 times and then said go by urself thats how we learn in germany they show us 1 or 2 times and then say literraly fck off
I'm French living in Berlin, Germany and yes my kids go to school alone with the metro since they are 9. They often meet others schoolmates with whom they complete the travel. Also they used to walk to their music school (at 6.pm) alone. It's safe here, I never had to worry. Maybe I was just worried sometime that they check well the road before crossing, so I was repeating it regularly. Also they like this freedom and I think they would be embarrassed if I would take them to school, like they were still babies... Also, on the weekend, they hang out with their friends in the city and I just need to know where they go and what time they'll be back. I happy for them they can feel free and responsible. That being said, I would not do it in America. The society is too violent there and the roads are not made for walkers.
Between 2018 and 2023, the number of missing children per year fluctuated between around 14,500 (2021) and 18,100 (2019). During 2023, a total of around 16,500 children were missing. Around 15,800 cases of missing children were resolved over the course of the year.
born in 1971 in The Netherlands 2 working parents and walked to school every day from the age of 7 and at 12 i took a trainride from the Hague to Amsterdam alone we never went outside with parents and i was always late for dinner and never i never felt unsafe and people always watch after kids walking alone ( even when nothing really bad ever happened ) ! those playgrounds were just amazing for a kid and they learn you to be aware of danger !
Well, my 6 year old daughter asked me on her first real day at school, when I walked with her to the bus station, "mum, but tomorrow I can go alone?" I was only slightly baffled. Since that day, I never accompanied her again on her way to school. She knew traffic very well from Kindergarten already. I walked her every day on foot there, our distance was about 1 kilometer one way. So I had no problems with this. Also, there never was any incident. She was perfectly fine and grew up to now be a very independant young woman.
Regarding playgrounds: we mostly let her run freely. Our attitude always was "better she has a little hickup there in pretty controlled environment, and she learns that she can hurt herself, than having something serious happen later in traffic and such. So she learnt to take us seriously and look after herself." Because at some stage - what do you do if she, let's say, decides to study in the USA or Japan? Rent an apartment for the family? Ridiculous IMO.
When my daughter started the 1st grade, we just sent her on her way. Before she started, we let her practice on the weekends just going to the bakery or supermarket on her own. The goal is to teach them independence as quickly as possible. The reality is that there are still a lot of parents who hover or drive their kids to school out of convenience. So, not all German families embrace the concept.
It's honestly just up to your family, your child, and how safe you feel your city is. For example, we had no qualms about her walking places, but we never let her ride a bike here. The traffic situation made it so dangerous for kids because there were no bike lanes back then.
In elementary school I was bought to school and get from school first few years but that's because my sister died in that road in the way to school when she was 6 so my parents were a bit overprotective, but then don't know 8-9 I walked alone... You can't put people into cages for safety even if your scared. I climbed trees so high I can to this day but believe the thin head didn't break with my weight xD you need to let children get their own limits
I was born 1989 U.K, we were allowed to just get on with it. I remember going out in the morning to play up trees, come back for lunch, go back out, back for dinner then out until 10pm. I used to walk to school on my own at 7 years old.
I grew up in a smaller village that didn't have a school. So from 6 years old I walked or biked all the way to the next bigger town that had an elementary school, around 4 kilometers each way. Around that age we learn all the traffic rules. A policeman came to our daycare and taught us how to cross streets safely and what we need to do and where we need to stand to make sure the cars will see us and stop to let us cross. In first grade a policeman came again and trained us in traffic by bike. So we learned traffic signs and more rules and basically learned all we need to know to move safely in traffic. Education is key and knowledge will set you free. Love being independent. When I lived in the US (age 16 to 17) my host family wrapped me in cotton and didn't let me do anything. 'Just go for a walk in the neighbourhood? no, that is way to dangerous, there might be people or cars'. In that age I had already travelled to several countries by myself and roamed cities like London, Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Palma, Boston, New York and Los Angeles by myself or only with friends of my age.
I'll Born in 1961 the first day my mother me acomplate but after two weeks I'm going tô school without her. It's normaly in Germany. You must teach your Kids the life autonomy.
In Germany we have a very popular sign "Eltern haften für ihre Kinder" (Parents are liable for their children). That liabality goes both ways: For what happens to their children as well as what their children do.
Playground: that sign is there. Construction site: that sign is also there. Lake where people sunbath and swim: that sign is there. In the forest: that sign is there.
Here in Germany becoming a parent comes with TONS of responsibility, but that doesn't mean you have to have to put your kids into a giant ball of cotton and roll them down the street on a leash. It's a parents responsibility to teach their child and then let them experience what they were taught on their own - often with the parents watching from the sidelines, if at all.
Those signs have no legal meaning, they're there to scare off kids: Parents are only liable for neglecting their duty to supervision and that's an uphill battle before court no matter what you write on some sign. The signs, though, tell kids "we catch you and your parents are going to hear of it and are going to be angry and disappointed because they have to deal with your shite and they won't have money for birthday presents and holidays" so they don't even think of exploring a construction site on their way back from school in a way that a sign saying "danger of death" would *never* be able to do.
Or, differently put, the construction industry is using parents as a boogeyman and it works.
Children alone in public transportation at 6/7 years are not the rule in Berlin.
Maybe not the rule but mine were able to travel the metro to go to school at that age. And there was other kids. I think it depends but you're right it's not a rule, it's just a possibility
And then there are the adventure playgrounds with saw, hammer, nail and other tools, wehre kids can build what they want.
"Even the insurance agrees" ... of course they prefer to deal with playground stuff over people not learning how to deal with risk.... so they have to pay out a car crash or something later.
0:51 Born 1979. My Parents went to school with me twice and then I had to walk there on my own. I was 6 back then. Totally normal back then. But nowadays it's different. 😢
Ist es nicht. Es ist kein Stück anders. Die Kinder gehen immer noch allein in die Schule.
@@nurkuepeli1190 Dann muss das meine verzerrte Wahrnehmung sein, dass ich fast keine Schulkinder mehr innerhalb eines kleinen Dorfes zur Schule laufen sehe sondern zig Autos die die Straße morgens vor der Schule blockieren um die Kinder abzusetzen. Aber wenn bei euch die Welt noch normal ist freue ich mich sehr 🫶😊
The most dangerous thing for kids on playground is to wear a parka with a cord. The cord can strangle the neck of a child.
In france and belgium too
I think in europe in general we have those
The main problem with safety today is: the media!
30 years ago, when nobody cared about children being alone on the outside we had 5 times the amount of child deaths in traffic and we had 2 times the amount of violent crimes. (In germany)
The risk of something happening to a child is at an all time low, but the fear that something is happening to a child is at the same time at an all time high.
The big difference is the media, 30 years ago we had news from the tv and newspapers, with limited time and space, you mostly got the importent worldwide news from the TV and the newspaper mostly only covered you region. Most of the bad stuff that happend couldn't reach you, now with the internet and unlimited access to news from every region, we see a lot more reports about all that bad stuff happening.
Same with terrorism, in germany there is a big fear about terrorism in the last few years and we get a lot of media reports about terrorism.
Which is also a big political topic, about how we can make germany safe again... with more surveillance and restrictions on freedom!... And a lot of germans agree with this.
Fact is, in the last 10 years, we got 18 people that died cause of terrorism in germany, thats 1,8 per year.
The chance to die in an terrist attack in germany this year is around 1 in 50.000.000.
I you play the eurojackpot once per month, the chance is 4 times higher to win the jackpot this year, than to die in an terrorist attack...
Everybody falls down somewhere at some point in his live. You don't get hurt less if you're older or youngr and if the parent sits next to the playground watching the kid or not. Or are US-American parents so incredibly fast that they can jump from 10 meters distance to catch their kid before it hits the ground?
born 81 in a small town with about 50k people...I was a so called "Schlüsselkind" ( Schlüssel means Key... the key to the house). As soon as i went to school i got my own key. I was suposed to come home after school in the beginning, but i usually didnt.. there was a nice playground on my way home 😁 after a while my parents gave up on that rule.. At the age of around 9 or 10 the only rule remaining was " you´re home till its getting dark"
Unfortunetly things have changed to the worse in Germany... it makes me sad that my children are not able to expirience the same level of freedom anymore
im a german gen z but am 19 years old and got a backbone from bullying and operations so im on the beter side than some of my dumm classmates
At primary school in the UK, our teacher would wait at the door until they saw our parent before allowing us to leave. At age 9, when my family moved to Germany, the bell would ring and we would just leave and either walk, cycle, get on the bus/underground to either go home or to visit friends etc. This was also the case for the 6 year old year 1 kids. I never knew a single kid who got dropped off or picked up from school by an adult as under 25s in full time education have monthly tickets for bus, tram, underground and trains in their region which cost my parents €10/month back in the early 2000s. Today, these tickets are valid nationwide. We had no uniform either. It felt more liberated. I hear that there's been a lot more helicopter parenting in Germany since covid, but still not as bad as in the UK, where unsupervised primary school kids walking, cycling or taking public transport to school, to town, to a playground or to their friends can look very alarming to strangers.
At my elementary school (germany, like 15years ago) the parents would tell the school or the schools after care program (hort) if the kids could leave on their own, be taken to the bus or be picked up.
I was category bus so the after school teacher would take us kids to the bus station 10min away, wait for the bus with us and made sure we got in. It was a small town and the various busses would go to the nearby villages
7:10 but the point is we dont say no we dont do this because we hurt ourself the last time. We think about how to do it safe the next time 😅 i hope you understand what i mean 😂
6:35 What is the lesson to learn? If you are a german engenier for playgrounds you could earn a Bug or two by building them in U.S.!
Im half puerto rican and half german. One side of my family--the american side--told me with the bullying to just go tell the teacher, dont say anything back so on--and then there was the ww2 immigrant grandma who looked at me and said, "and they still hit you? Then hit them back twice as hard and dare em to do it again. If your teacher who do nothing has problem, you call me at the office". 😂 (thanks Oma❤)
One thing I noticed about America as Ive gotten older..there are no more places for kids to go or do anything. And they get yelled at for being outside alone even at a kids park. Like cops called on them even. There is also no more eyes on the street. Everyone in america ignores screaming children even in the neighborhood and just calls it annoying. So they have no neighbors looking out for saftey and no other kids to play with outside in the first place. And the infastructure is TERRIBLE here. Kids get hit on a red light cross walk going to school here. Constantly. Even on halloween someone in our neighborhood's 5 yr old was killed by a car that didnt even see the child. The roads and cars are too big, we cant see them and there is not really safe crossing either
But I'm from germany and from 5 years on I was allowed alone on my bike to friends as far as 5 miles away, i even broke my arm on a playground where I played with my 4 year old friend without both our parents present. My child is not allowed the same today.
When I was 6, 7, 8 years old in 1968 I would play with my same age friend alone in the forest about 800 meters from our home. Nothing special at the time. Helicopter parenting creates morons!
yes, german children seem to be given more freedom of being alive and trying things out. i know a 5 (grew more by now) yo who can work with handheld saws.
The playgrounds are totally fine. Children need a bit of challenge to train their motor skills. Whether an elementary school child can walk to school alone or not totally depends on the surrounding traffic situation. Most children in our small village will go alone because we don’t have much fast traffic or dangerous crossings. They even play on most of the streets with scooters, skate boards or bicycles. There is a small dense forest behind the cemetery where children play hide and seek and built tree houses and such or they run into the meadows and fields. Nobody really cares unless they are playing with fire. They nicknamed our area Bullerbü / Bullerby named after the children book of Astrid Lindgren. Big city children are unfortunate.
I also walked alone to kindergarten at age 4 already (grew up in east Germany). My parents also did start a countdown early on: each year on my birthday they would tell me how many years are left until I turn 18. Because that day would be the day I will move out 😂 (I moved out for good once I finished school around that exact age 18/19y. A week later they had my room transformed into a dining room 🤣🤣🤣. It's been more than a decade now that I have been living abroad. Oh boy, I wish everyone had a little German inside him. Punctuality, reliability, directness, certain regulations like NOISE free hours/days... Some things Make life so much easier...
To get kickt out at 18 is not typical in Germany. I’m sorry that happened ti you
@@karinland8533 that was perfectly fine, I really wanted to move out too. 😉
This you move out with 18 thing wasn't funny to me. It increased the feeling to not be welcome at home and not loved at all.
@@emilwandel trust me if you ask anyone where I grew up who had the coolest parents ever... They would name my family. From early on I insisted in having birthday parties at home... My parents where my co-hosts (because I was never able to stay up until the last guests leave) and they had to run the bbq. .. sometimes I invited up to 80 people, without even telling them before. They went through a lot with their strong minded rebel daughter and deserved to have their home and lives back. And I personally would have loved to move out much earlier.... . I love to be and live alone. It's mutual.
The biggest danger in the US is the traffic, when you think about it.
Also, we have more people walking around because we are not as car dependent. This means, most of the strangers out there, aren't danger. They keep the kids safe because the actual creeps don't get to be alone outside with a child, or at least, it's much less likely. When a child gets in trouble, chances are, the adults and other children nearby will help the kid out. The busdriver will tell the kid where to get off, the lady who is on her way back fromm her grocery run will make that call to the parents with her phone if the child is lost. I just did that the other week. It was the first day of school ans the child seemed a bit lost, so I offered her my phone to call her mommy (the number was written down on a little notebook in her schoolback). Another guy stopped to make sure the child was okay as well, and that there was another safe adult around just in case i wasn't safe for the child. Together we figured it out.
France before had USA style of play grounds about 10yrs ago but now they all changed to German style play grounds. And today kids like to take risks and more adventurous and more and more independent at a very early age because of this. Some kids even know how to make a meal for themselves and they are around 8 to 9 👏
I blame a Interent - True Crime addiction 😂 😂 and I'm not taking me out of that.
It's a lot harder to sue the government than it is a business or individual. Not saying that's good or bad, just facts.
She is not too close to the tracks. Thats a tram not a train. They go really slow and if you are not like in front of the tram you are fine