German children are given much more freedom than kids in the U.S., but they’re also expected to be more self-reliant. These are some of the observations made by Euromaxx reporter Hallie Rawlinson, who has lived in both countries. One example that surprised her is how hazardous German playgrounds can be. And she was shocked by the fact that many 7-year-olds take public transportation by themselves to get to school.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:18 Hallie’s first impressions in Germany
00:50 Are German parents more relaxed?
01:42 Is Germany safer than the U.S.?
03:23 Are German playgrounds built to be dangerous?
#Germany #playground #parenting
——————————————–
CREDITS
Report: Hallie Rawlinson
Camera: Henning Goll
Edit: Arndt Baumüller
Supervising Editor: Mirja Viehweger
——————————————–
Subscribe to DW Euromaxx:
https://bit.ly/DWEuromaxx_Sub
Would you like to find out more about Euromaxx?
▸Website: https://www.dw.com/english/euromaxx
▸Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dw.euromaxx
▸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dw_euromaxx
DW Euromaxx brings you engaging insights into European cultures and lifestyles.
4:05 I grew up in Germany and played at many playgrounds. And I was capable to master everything. When revisting the same playgrounds as an adult I almost shat my pants trying some of the jumps and climbs. I´ve clearly lost my confidence and skills due to a lack of practice. As an adult I was full of fear when inline skating came up and I tried them. But I was fearless when I was roller skating as a kid and teen.
noice
Freedom? No armed guards? No electric fences? Not overweight to immobility?
German children are doomed……
So, my brother and I were dropped off at Grannies house when we were Kids, that was in the middle of nowhere compared to teh next village over in Schleswig-Holstein (only slight exageration, by bicycle it was like 15-25 Minutes into teh village propper). We we're not alone however, all grandchildren and a neighbourskid (from the fringe of teh next village) basically squatted at her place the entire summer and we basically WERE "Dorfkinder" for the summer and we made the woodlands etc. our stompingground after we were above 10, befoer we ONLY made the not so small property and teh two villages our stompingground, fun times indeed!
But from what I understand, letting your kids roam all over the place would be unthinkable in the US.
This is because not every second, or even worse, carries a weapon.
In all Europe the kids are “”free”” to go alone to school or play outside I remember long time ago my mom giving me money and send me to buy breads…. Always I was repeating in my had what I have to say 😅”” hello Mme , I have to buy this bread , here are the money, thank you , goo d bye”😅😅😅I was may be 7?😅
Als Elternteil in US hätte ich eher Angst, dass wenn etwas passiert die Krankenhauskosten durch fehlende Krankenversicherung zur Insolvenz führen.
Ähm…. FIrearms?!
when we were kids in the 90s we used the playgrounds mostly to drink cheap beer and wine and smoke crack
Kind kriegt Schlüssel. Kind weiß was es darf und mit wem es nicht reden darf. Kind geht raus auf den Spielplatz. Kind kommt zurück kurz vor dem Abendbrot, ist dreckig und hungrig und bringt lauter andere Kinder mit, welche alle Hunger haben… Kinder gehen zusammen im Planschbecken baden. Ich gehe noch einmal einkaufen und sag den anderen Eltern bescheid, das heute bei uns gegessen wird. Nachdem essen wir diskutiert warum nicht alle 4 Freunde bei uns übernachten können. 5 Minuten nachdem das Licht aus ist, schläft das Kind. Es hat nicht einmal gefragt ob es was gucken kann…
I have three children here in Germany, one with disabilitys. Puplic Playgrounds are TÜV proofed, and very expensive.
My oldest child 7, wishes a friend to going to school with by itself. All the Other parents driving their kids these 500m with their SUV. Big chaos in front of school, dangerous for those, who are going by feed. School is trying to change with a big transparent "stop dem Elterntaxi!", a Initiative against parents with their cars. Our traffic person was accidently hitting by car for three times now. Almost so far this year. I have no explanation for that. But perhaps it is a explanation for the also increasing diabetes and adipositas rate in Germany, too. And in the end, you have "pampered" kids, who are not able to help themselfs when they are alone in a critical Situation, who are not able the close theire shoes by themselfes, who can not ask for help, climb a tree or run with joy just because.
Born in 1970.
For our generation and those before us, it was normal to go to school alone or take public transport. Not every family had a car back then. When we met up with friends after school, the maximum information from me to my parents was "I'm going out to play."
as a 80's 90's kids we all independent
Germans allow children to learn by doing !
They evidently don't have as many child molesters and child killers in Germany as they do in the U.S. The U.S. is pretty pathetic in a lot of ways. And yes, I know that because I live here.
I'm a German living in Japan right now and I must say that playgrounds here are way better because they don't distinguish between age groups and offer facilities for all ages – even for adults. Also Denmark has this. That's very much missing in Germany.
But I understand that most things are already great if compared to greedy and superstituous US.
It is necessary to say that although it does not look like, still the German law has some requirements of safety for these playgrounds. For example the structure need very good foundations, the floor surface has to be soft for tall structures (there was tree bark small pieces in the video) in order to reduce impact in case of fall and they are yearly check by specialized companies.
This could have been about growing up in small town USA in the 1960s, as I did. Everything was the same then as depicted in Germany today. Children had much more true autonomy, clear and simple boundaries, and a sense of accountability. I think the change is why anxiety seems to rule for parents and kids today.
us kids get kidnapped because they are slower….
Cool video!
It has been different in the US just a few decades ago. Before the Americans let the government scare them into a nanny state.
My daughter and brother walked to school together. They walked to the playground and played alone. They had to be home when the street lights came on. My step father did spy on them occasionally to check up on them. They walked to the stables too alone. They stopped on the way to school to pick through the junking trash. My daughter came home with a baby buggy full of stuff every few months. Lol. My mom cleaned what she could and put some back out for our junking. 😅
I shopped in East Berlin before the wall came down in 1986. The East Berlin side of the Brandenburg gate was a tourist place. I bought posters and pamphlets there and souvenirs. We also shopped at the old train station in West Berlin as it was a huge flea market in 86.😅
4:25 All those playground playthings adhere to very strict safety standards.
It's the same in the Netherlands. More so probably, because the bike infrastructure has been taken to a whole other level.
When you create a safe society, this is the result.
standing with your back close to a tramline … you are hereby qualified for the next olympic darwin award games in Grygla MN
Well, the US are the odd-one-out here. Nowhere in the world except in the US are playgrounds etc. so super duper safe that nothing could possibly happen. And the reason is simple: Nowhere except in the US are there absurd lawsuits in which people get millions for not being able to take care of themselves (e.g. for burning themselves with coffee, slipping on bird droppings etc).
You kind of mention this yourself at 5:08, but it sounds like a minor aspect, when it is really the only reason that is so! In the US, companies just can't afford to build e.g. playground installations that aren't absolutely guaranteed to preclude lawsuits, because the potential economical damage would be way too high. If that risk were miraculously (and highly unlikely) taken away, I guarantee you that they'd build stuff like everywhere else in the world – well, probably even taller, bigger and more thrilling 🙂
To imagine that I grew up making bonfires, running through the woods, always a machete in hand, and me and my friends had the times of our life’s. I see kids nowadays and fell nothing but sorry for their super protected reality.
No matter how kind you are, German Children are kinder
How often did I break a leg or an arm when I was a kid? Me: Yes! 😉
They brought same play park to the uk and kids here love it and the sand parks are our favourite
I can totally confirm that some playgrounds in germany are actualy built scary even for adults. I've seen some where I realy was afraid when I saw my kids climbing up without any safety or security but they are not only built to train the kids, but also their parents, too. As a german parent, you have to learn to trust your children that they know what they can manage and to let them go. Uowards in this case. And if they realize they were overconfident and they need you to get down again, well, you should learn to ignore your own fear of heights fast. 😀
I dont like those plastic playgrounds of today. We have everything metallic and wooden and it felt right and real.
I was a kid in Germany and climbed up everything. My parents were American but my nanny was a German old lady that took me everywhere especially the park that I still remember.
Lolz, american firearms have more rights than human beings, so what do you expect?!
Unfortunately some german places are getting obsessed with this hyper safeness. My old elementary school had a huge playground with lots of different and unusual play equipment and a bunch of trees. As i grew older i often passed my old school and they felled all the big trees you could climb on and got rid of all the cool stuff and replaced it with generic slides and swings. Really sad to see. Even as an adult i love big and creative playgrounds. I wish i was still small enough to play in them😅
"prone to obesity" she says… yeah well, I guesa so 😁
When I was a kid in the countryside of Germany, we did´t even have playgrounds. We played on the street, in the woods and in the vast fields and gardens. We were out all afternoon and had to come back for dinner. We often had scratches from climbing trees, but that was considered normal. We wore old clothes when playing outside. The best playground to me is an exiting environment with trees, lakes, bushes, fields…
Nevertheless, I love, how creative modern playgrounds are. There have many difficult levels, swings and slides, for example. Kudos to the designers of these beautiful playgrounds, the are doing a great job.
wait 10-15 years you will see …
American playgrounds used to look A LOT more like the German ones. In the 70s I used to play on a rocket shaped thing that looked somewhat like that thing in the video. There also used to be a wide variety of “jungle gyms” in different shapes and often just random bars and such. You learn what you can and cannot do, and how to accomplish something that initially seems daunting. The plasticization of playgrounds in America is quite a shame; a lot of creativity is lost. I also find it unfortunate that many American children have such heavy schedules. They are ferried from soccer practice to dance class to whatever else with little time to just be a kid and experiment or just be in their skin.
So sane!
Give it a few years, bet you won’t say the same
We're comparing a tiny European country with the US? Germany fits inside a single US state, there is no comparison.
As a child, I would throw my school bag in the corner after school. And then I would leave the house until the evening.
We mostly played cowboys and Indians and shot at each other with homemade arrows.
And we climbed the highest trees
We mostly played in the meadows or in the nearby forest.
We despised playgrounds.
And there were no cell phones yet. So our parents couldn't harass us with calls LOL
We could do whatever we wanted all day long without supervision.
We only had to be home in the evening, when the church bells rang at 7 p.m. We didn't have our own clock, of course.
We enjoyed this freedom – it was a wonderful childhood.
Greetings from Germany:-)
I was 5 and my sister was 6 and we walked to school several blocks away in 1975 in Cleveland Ohio.
German playgrounds are best!
Also it is a pleasure to see security officers in Germany regularly checking the conditions of the playground.
So here, all adults more or less look after other people's children. For example, I (male, 45 years old) take the bus to work every day, which school children also take.
Recently, a group of girls were getting on the bus with their bikes (there is space for bikes on the buses) and one of the girls had problems getting her bike onto the bus.
Of course, I helped her, one of her friends held the door open and I got her bike onto the bus.
At least here, as an adult, you naturally keep an eye on other people's children and help them if necessary.
Comments are closed.