We got videobombed by Griffin and the cat this time! Haha! We've really enjoyed having a lifestyle here in Germany where our kids have more freedom and indpendence!
There is also a other difference in Germany - Kids and money. German kids usually get very early their regular pocket money. Many kids above 12 have also usually their own bank account (Sparbuch + Giro) wich is by most German Banks for kids without fees. So many get their pocket money transfered to the bank account and have a bankcard for payment and ATM´s.
@@Rick2010100 yeah its to learn spend money wisely and save some cash and not the typical " american way " to ask dad or someone to buy u someting , like if u want a pc or something like that u save ur money u get and buy it urself and i did in the german summer when we had free " Sommerferien " a part time job (Ferienjob) in the industry to get some money and earn it and not to rely on my parents to buy it for me and u learn to appreciate the things u bought
I was born in GERMANY, and spent the first eight years of my life there. When we had to move back to U.K., my brother and I were constantly asking our parents when we were going “home” again. In 2018 I took my youngest daughter to Nurnberg for a week as a reward for getting good GCSE results, including German. Had a wonderful time. It may say “British” on my birth certificate and passport, but I identify as European and in my heart, I am German.
I had a similar experience both of my parents are born and raised in Germany however when I was 9 my parents needed a break from the German School system at least for the most part and now at the age of 18 I miss the opportunitys that I could have had if my family stayed in Germany
I'm half British and half German and the 5 years of my childhood I spent in Germany were the best, mostly because of all the independent mobility. School finished at 12.30 and there was no uniform so we could get the u bahn straight into town with our friends without having to go home and get changed first. There was so much to do. Freibäder, Jugenzentren, local mountains and woodland. It was all really accessible to us. British kids don't know what they're missing.
The best thing about traffic education in schools is that it improves the children's safety not only by making sure the kids themselves are aware of the rules and signs. It also works on the parents, as the kids are so proud of their new knowledge, they will keep pointing out any mistake their parents make.
I'm a kindergarten teacher in Germany and "my" kids are between 1 and 3 years old. And we use glass cups as well! They're break-safe (they CAN and WILL break eventually but not as easy) and the heavier glass makes them great to handle for kids that age. They don't fling them off the table because they make a sudden movement, but if they do it's a great opportunity to learn cause and effect. We talk about being careful and gentle and they can actually see and hear what happens when they are not. No need to scold - if a glass happens to break, every single kid is extremely impressed and slightly shocked. Then we kind of mourn the broken glass we don't longer have lol :D cause and effect at it's finest
I was very surprised when they were using glass and ceramic at my 1yo son's krippe :D but in our time in Germany I absolutely loved my kids krippe and kindergarten, we just had to move away and I already miss it so much!! I want to move back!!
@@enemdisk6628 No, I was born and raised in Germany so I witnessed the hate and discrimination in the workplace first hand. All you know is what you know, and what they brainwashed you to think, and even that isn't much!
Yes, and in my Kindergarten we also visited a firestation and a firefighter teached us all about fire and how dangerous fire could be. That was really cool and also help kids to understand fire and it threats.
Yeah because if you don't (or maybe not enough) they sit behind a sofa(do they have this word?) And try to lit matches... I did this with two friends but my brother found us before something happened... also my brothers who I think learned more about matches tried to make a campfire when they were little in the forest but it was dry and everything and a Neighbor suspected they would do this and my parents asked them at dinner and they said that they coudn't light it so yeah even german kids can be stupid
@@jopa2589 Well I didn't get teached how to use knife/fork or Matches in Kindergarden, I defenetly learned that at home. But I'm pretty sure I learned a bit about fire safety in Kindergarden. And Especially in Elementary School, there were at least two or three weeks dedicated to basically safety in general, with a lot of the fire Stuff. Especially the burning oil thing. Boy, did we got tought that. Never put water onto burning oil, no matter what. We learned, how we should deal with that, if should ever come in contact with that. We've watched some films I believed, that demonstrated it. And of course the Highlight of it all: The Local Firefighters came almost every year and demonstrated the Burning Oil + Water thing on the schoolyard. Safe to say, you won't forget that fire Blast as Child. It's one of the coolest things I've ever seen as a child. And I haven't forgotten it ever since. Two years ago I've had the first and only incident, where some Oil burned in the pan. Instinct: Water. But since I knew better (and that fire Safety with the Firefighter was burned in my mind so deeply), I just calmed the fuck down, turned off the heat, grabbed some towels and therefore nothing really happened. Water would have most certainly ended badly...
Yeah, kids will do things they aren't supposed to, ESPECIALLY things they "can't" do. The best way to ensure a child won't do something dangerous is to de-mystify it, aka let them do it in a controlled environment first.
I also live in Germany. Originally from California. So I’m definitely use to seeing people ride their bikes or skateboard but here it’s a completely different culture when it comes to physical activity and raising kids. I work in a Kita and my young 1-3 year olds are expected to walk, put on shoes and jacket etc. All on their own. They are taught to be independent at a very young age.
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife Erzieher(in) is a profession with vocational training (Ausbildungsberuf) for several years. Both on the job and in a school, while the details vary from state to state. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erzieher#Ausbildung
Alice, do you also see a difference with using strollers/buggys? I always get the impression that American kids (or their parents) are using strollers much longer. When watching American movies or TV shows, I'm often a bit astonished at the big kids still sitting in a stroller. But ofc I don't know if this is typical of the whole of America.
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife we sent our kids to a bilingual school (youngest was in krippe, oldest in kindergarten), and in her vorschule year my oldest had an American teacher. She said in the US she would be an elementary school teacher, but because of the different country she had to teach in a kita. I assume being a private school and a monther tongue speaker in a bilingual school rules may be more relaxed?
As an American whose children were born here in Germany I've still had a hard time with the independence, remembering how it was when I was a kid. My wife (who is German) helps with this as she knows when to put limits on them and when to just let them go. It's a learning experience and in the end it is good for the kids.
I am originally from Taiwan, moved to Munich 2 years ago. One thing I noticed here is they have amazing nature/parks/mountains, I definitely become more outdoorsy here than in Asia.
Doesn't Taiwan have it's own nature attractions? I'm sure I've seen beautiful pictures. But perhaps you lived in a big city? It's true of course that in Germany nature can be experienced relatively close to home.
I could imagine that Taiwan's climate can get pretty hot/humid/wet (it's subtropical). Germany's temperate weather is, to be fair to "less outdoorsey" countries, practically made to be outside. It's rarely dangerous and pretty much consistently pleasant. It rarely gets so hot you wouldn't even think of hiking or biking. It rarely gets so cold you absolutely have to stay inside. There's little fear of massive typhoons, tornados, or whatever. Nothing in terms of dangerous animals or anything of that type either. ... obviously that doesn't mean it's always suited to be outside and that it never gets dangerous or just simply very uncomfortable but on balance, it's pretty perfect especially for hiking and biking.
Even in the last year of kindergarten there is the first safety education for walking to school. Mostly police officers teach the kindergarten kids how to cross streets safely and what is the safest way to go to school.
I still know when we did little trips in kindergarten like to the park or ice cream shop. We always had to hold hands and when we cross the street the teacher always said look left and right and made us do that, we also did got to supermarkets.
@@sane0matic Oh definitely! But in my area all of the bike lanes get turned into regular sidewalk again (for more space or something? idk, it worked fine before) and we have a lot of fast streets; so our policeman actually told us to ride on the sidewalk even if we were too old if we felt unsafe. Honestly, that was good advice - big streets are still scary when you are 11 - but the police fine anyone that's one the sidewalk so that's a bad idea even for older children.
I was 3,5 years old, when my Dad taught me to ride a bike.....I could swim 15 minutes nonstop at the age of 5, before school....I have got great childhood memories with lots of freedom, adventure, playing with plenty of kids...climbing high in trees, cutting wood with our own little knives., going for slay rides in weiter. ...for tue whole day ..feeling very independant......I would never want to miss that...and I tried to educate my kids similiar...both are adults now, ,doing well..
Thats it does Nowadays parents teach their Kids how to swim safely. No thats the duty of the state, of the school of the teachers but Not my one responsebiliy as a parent. The results we can See, ask die Life guard Organisations Wasserwacht and DLRG. How many Kids aren't able to sein safely
Compared to the 70 and 80s the childs are not independ at all anymore in Germany . Born 1968 when i was 6 years old i started sailing my boat every day without any adult supervision. Age 14 i had a job earning my own pocket money. Age 15 my girlfriend was allowed to sleep in my room. Age 16 i drove to all neighboring countries with my friends on vespa scooters for weekend trips or month long hollidays. My parents only expected me to give them a call, when i was sleeping else where and only missing school gave me real troubles. My parents drove me to school only three times in 13 years: First day of elementary school, last day of highschool and one day, when i had a broken leg and a cold at the same time. And, no i did not became a hobo or criminal, iam a acadamic and entrepreneur. All my friends survived too and nobody was ever raped, robbed or kidnapped. My parents teached me everything i needed to survive and so i did. My experience is nothing special. So its even more surprising how fearfull parents of my generation became this days. Freedom is absence of fear.
I'm very glad that I learned swimming at school. In my family, no one could swim, so my parents weren't able to teach me how to. My sister also never learned it because she was a bit older and swimming classes weren't established yet when she was in elementary school. Hadn't there been any obligatory swimming classes in fourth grade at my elementary school, I would have missed that, too. I'll never be a good swimmer because I didn't have the opportunity to practice it much during my childhood, but it's still important to be able to swim. I live at a lake now and we go canoeing occasionally. I would never do that without being able to swim. I climbed a lot of trees during my childhood, though, was responsible for milking my own goat every day from the age of 10 and had to do serious farm work using equipment like grown-ups' hay forks at the age of 8. So everyone learns to do the things the parents CAN teach you, I guess. I think it's good that the important things like swimming and riding a bike are taught at school, so children who can't learn that at home aren't at a disadvantage.
@@stefanweigl4608 We really tried to teach it. There must be a trick to it. As soon as we let go of the child it sank down like a stone, even with correct movement XD
I don't know how old your children are, but I have a suggestion on how to get them to be even more independent and experienced: All over Germany there are "Volunteer Firefighters", especially in rural areas. Most of those fire departments have a Youth Group (Jugendfeuerwehr), some even a "Kids Group" (Kinderfeuerwehr). To join the kids group, the kid has to be 6 years old. At 10 years, one can join the Youth group. At 17 years, the kids can join the "Active Firefighters". My three kids were all members starting at 10 years old (there was no "Kinderfeuerwehr" then). My sons continued being firefighters until they went to university. My daughter is still an active firefighter with 15 years of experience. As teenagers, they had "duty" once a week, were trained in First Aide, learned to responsibly deal with flammable objects, had friendly competitions with other firefighters, went to sports tournaments, summer camps and had an awesome time. Check your local fire station if you want to learn more. They might even recruit your husband. Btw: my daughter is now married to a firefighter. It was the first "double-firefighter" marriage in the 125 year history of our fire brigade. The comradeship among firefighters is unsurpassed. When my kids remodeled their house, all comrades pitched in - including the ladder... 😉
@@susischneiderbader5969 THW-Jugend as well, but some THW local chapters have specially trained coaches/caretakers and may accept younger children. That might be an alternative.
A popular phrase in (Northern) Germany is : "Es gibt kein schlechtes Wetter, es gibt nur schlechte Klamotten." "There is no such thing as bad weather, there is only bad clothes." I remember that I have to drive every day with my bicycle to school. Even when there is a lot of snow ore rain.
Re the cap: I suppose the Kindergarten is more worried about heat stroke. Protecting the scalp and eyes from the sun might just be a welcomed side effect.
They definitively are, because even though the legal systems is not as misused in Europe as it seems to have become in the United States, the kindergarten is still liable if any harm occurs to the kids and heat strike certainly can be considered harm.
I grew up in a very small german village. Almost every kid learned to swim, ride a bike or catch fish before learning to read and write. Usually without supervision of adults! We cut ourselfs and learned to handle a knife. We burned our fingers and learned to handle fire. We ate unripe fruit and found out why it is better to wait until apples are ripe. The list goes on. I never developed allergies. Growing up in a more "natural" way seems to have some profits. Stay healthy and enjoy your beautiful environment.
I agree with all of this expect for the allergies part. I grew up on a farm always helping out, getting my hands dirty. I still developed a bunch of allergies during puberty
@@kevinmcfall5285 Sure it was, but it was not only cake and cream. We had to help to pull vegetables, collect firewood and pinecones for the winter. Collecting berries and later in school we had to clear the forest of litter, at least once a year. All this builds up a certain responsability.
My son got his first balance bike at 18 months. He's now 22 months old and rides his balance bike to the playground or when we go for a walk. He is so proud of himself. I love balance bikes.
my nephew is 23 months now and he still refuses to try to ride his balance bike. His mother is impatient, she thinks he is a bit too late. His older brother is 3 years old and he rides his bicycle on the streets on his own ( not the busy streets of course ).
yeah, the same with us. Our little ones received their balance bikes at around 20 months and after we hammered the traffic light rules into their heads for a year they nowadays always drive their balance bikes to any playground we visit. It is just so much easier, they are so much faster, they dont become tired that quickly and they have fun already on the way to the playground.
@@henner7371 I think it also depends on the bike. Friends habe regular balance bikes (puky, kettler) and they are really heavy and diffult to balance. My son has a woom 1 and it is made for age 18 months and older. It's very light and my son has no problem with it all. However, he couldn't ride his friend's puky Laufrad yet.
Everything you just talked about are the reasons my husband and I want to move our family to Germany. I am so glad to have found a channel that I can relate to, since a lot of these moving/living in Germany channels are always young couples without kids. Great videos, keep it up…
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife actually the quote is much longer ... “Today’s professional parents; these obsessive diaper sniffers are over-scheduling and over-managing their children and robbing them of their childhoods. Even the simple act of playing has been taken away from children and put on mommy’s schedule in the form of play dates. Parents are burning these kids out on structure. I think every day all children should have 3 hours of daydreaming. Just daydreaming. You could use a little of it yourself, by the way. Just sit at the window, stare at the clouds. It’s good for ya. If you want to know how you can help your children: leave them the f-k alone!" just love George Carlin ... his forsightness is somehow uncanny, but more valid today than ever before
@@karstenbursak8083 So true. I still love to sit at the window, looking at my garden and daydreaming a bit. As a child, I think I spent hours in my own fantasy world.
What I liked in my Kindergarten we got asked whether we wanted to learn English and/or French the Kindergarten teacher actually said that it's our decision not our parents. I chose to learn English and French in my Kindergarten and I really appreciate the opportunity, because later on I was performing better in English comparedto my class mates who started learning English in 3rd grade. Also in Kindergarten we actually made a license for tying our shoes we actually had lessons on this. Many Germans make jokes that you can get a license for everything around here, I have the shoe tying, bike riding, cooking and a microscope license, also in Elementary school we had an extra curricular called "Streitschlichter" were we learned how to deescalate fights and how to prevent fighting, not the teacher stepped in but the classmates (I took the course), we also learned how to run the library and would take care of it of course there was an adult but it was mostly us. In Elementary school we made a cooking and bike license where we were taught how to cook and ride our bike (road safety). Also in Kindergarten we always got the choice the let us know that everything is up to us there have been only a few set things like PE classes every Friday in the morning or a day per month where we were allowed to bring one of our own toys (it was set to one toy so that we learn decion making and dealing with your choices). Also in my childhood I usually was outside with my friends all the time, since I'm a reader I got to pick certain days I would stay in to read, but other than that I was playing with my friends at playgrounds futher away from home. Not mentioned in this video, but again we got so many opportunities where we could make the decisions we were so involved. In Schools we actually could see the difference in the grades, children that get more decisio making opportunities usually had better grades. I was involved in the planning what we eat, we got to choose independently from our parents what we want to learn (instruments/languages in Kindergarten) I was allowed to pick days I could stay in. Also I learned with 4-5 to read on my own and if you don't learn it you learned it in first grade, we actually had reading competitions each year. Ps: In fifth grade I also made a dog licence. In Germany is a law stating that you aren't allowed to walk a big dog unless you are (Not sure whether it was 14 or 16) unless you have this license since you learn all about dog care and how to walk them and so on.
Try to visit one of these WALDKINDERGARTEN. The real ones are outdoor the whole day at any weather and any season.. Our 4 children enjoyed it very much.
Love it! Makes me Home-sick. I moved to the US from Germany and I am ready to move back to Germany, for sure. I enjoy your videos and have shared them with others. Keep them coming!
This whole video made me remember that when I was 8, my siblings (9 and 11 at the time) and I went on our first flight where we were completely on our own. We had to navigate the airport and when we arrived in Spain, find our grandparents after getting our luggage. It was kind of a terrifying experience, but it also felt really good after we made it. Before, we had been flying to our grandparents each year for 5 years in a row, but we always had our father with us. That specific year he wasn't able to take a vacation, so we went alone.
Were you not accompanied by a flight attendant? I know Lufthansa offers a service where they basically check in on a kid from time to time to make sure everything's OK and make sure they get picked up by the grandparents/other parent/whoever at the destination airport
@@millionsparks96 I know that this service exists, but apparently my parents thought it wasn't necessary? I think it would have been a lot more reassuring, exspecially since all the authority was basically thrown onto my 11 year old brother to get us through everything safely. We were also travelling with Iberia at the time, so maybe they didn't have that service? I'm not very sure.
@@lizardon8831 when was this? I didn't know it's even legal for kids that age to fly on their own. On another note, a friend of mine who studies in cologne was once visited by his 6 year old sister. The parents put her on the train and he picked her up from the train 3 hrs later in Cologne. I'm all for teaching independence but I was very surprised by the story 😅
@@millionsparks96 it was eleven years ago. And I'm pretty sure that as long as you have a parent's note giving the okay it's legal, but I'm not completely sure. oh wow, I consider riding the train way more dangerous than flying. More so since Cologne is such a big city. I'm very glad his sister was okay though.
20:55 What does that look like in practice? During the summer holidays, mom told us to be home at 12 noon for lunch and 8pm for dinner. The rest of the day was up to us. And yes we got money if money was involved. eg cinema or public swimming pool. And yes, we got hurt. Bike crashes when we raced with our bicycles. Without helmets ... Or falling out of 10-meter high tree and being lucky that my fall was slowed down by the tree branches and I did not break a bone. Only bruises. But I always learned a lesson. To be more careful next time. Or not to do X Y and Z.
When I was a child I walked several kilometers to school every day with two neighbour kids. When I got to 5th grade I went by bus to the Gymnasium in a nearby town on my own. At the age of 12 it was also the first time I went on my own by train to the Bodensee (Lake Constance) which is 250km away from where we lived. First I had to take a Regio-train to Stuttgart main station, then get on another train to Karlsruhe, switch again to another train down to the south to Salem and from there, I walked 10km to a small village. We also were outside almost every day for hours, building treehouses, digging caves in the woods, crafting bow and arrows, and so on. We also went to a nearby farm, got to pick a cow/goat we were responsible for from that moment on. We cleaned their stables, feed them and even took them for a walk in the village. This even got the attention of several newspapers who wrote reports about us. :D
I did my civil service in a Montessori Kindergarten in Berlin. I really liked the concept. Children are treated as individual characters. When the kindergarten teachers or we civil servants talked a bit to the kids we had to kneel or bow down so we would talk face to face and not from above literally down on them. Thus showing that we are taking them seriously. We were told to encourage them to do as many things on their own as possible. This included solving conflicts among themselves. New kids would come to us and wanted to tell the other kid to stop doing this, using our "adult authority" for that, for example when someone was teasing them or being mean. But we would just encourage them to do it themselves, told them what they could say so the conflict might be solved. After a few months, the kids hardly ever come to ask for help. Of course, sometimes that doesn`t work, because they are still kids. But the progress they made was always great to see. They also could ask to train lighting a candle or matches. They got instruction and then every time they wanted to play with fire, they would have to get a bucket of water, wear an apron, because wax on clothes is not fun for the parents, and sit at a separate little table, but then they were free to light matches and kindles and play with the wax as they liked. I've been there for 10 months and the great progress these children made really convinced me of the Montessori concept. PS: the Montessori concept includes much more, but this comment is already too long ;)
You really got the first class place to live here, I really envy you. I really wish you'll grow roots so deep that by the time your kids drive their own cars, you can't imagine living anywhere else anymore.
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife It definitely has way less nice places to live too, but your spot is definitely out of a picture book. Not only by the scenery, also the municipalities, the people, the infrastructure ... really, I'm envious.
I actually wish that their roots will grow so deep that by the time the kids turn 18 they prefer their bicycles above any car, which would lead to extensive shock waves among their American relatives ;)
We briefly lived in Connecticut. For me it was awkward that my highschooler needed us to get to friends, movies etc In Germany in much younger age they go to the public pools with their friends.
I was born and grew up near Rosenheim, the best thing you can give children is the experience in a club (scouts, youth fire brigade, youth group of the Federal Agency for Technical Relief, etc).
So nice to see how happy the Kids are, reminds me about my self. I moved to Germany with my family as a 8 year old from the US, and i loved it. We had so much fun out in the World on our own. Good that some things don`t change :)
Hi. To cut it short, you can say we keep a good amount of the Tom Sawyer, Hack Finn and Pippi Långstrump lifstyle in the more modern/digital childhood, too. Have a nice sunday
I don't think it's so much mountains and beaches vs anything, but more rural (loose definition) vs city that is the indicator of how much out door activity there will be. And even then there are cities with big recreational areas/parks and ones without. Like, even the old airport Berlin Tempelhof is now used for skating and biking and just walking even though it's basically just a big slab of tarmac. I guess one of the most important reasons German kids and people in general are more outdoorsy is that we have more time. Sundays off, less commute. And a big cultural emphasis on kids getting fresh air. 'Der Junge muss an die Luft!' is the title of the memoir of a German comedian and it's something a lot of us heard variations of growing up.
I must disagree with that and not just nowadays. We live now in Munich and yes, Munich is located in a very outdoorsey region and it is an amazingly green metropolis, given its very dense population. So, true, Munich is rather the exception than the standard. That said I was born and grew up in Magdeburg in the 1980s. An industrial city in those days, like really industrial. Still, I learnt sledging at 4, roller skating at 5, swimming at 6 and bicycle riding at 7. It was also possible to go hiking in the Harz mountains, even though it was tedious, given that cars were not as widely available in the 80s in Magdeburg as nowadays. Hence I don't buy the argument. Kids in cities can (and do) play outside as much as kids in the countryside. The only difference is that my kids are 3 years old and do know relevant traffic rules and of course the traffic light by heart and behave accordingly. That is simply part of life in a city, you can not just run over streets, period.
Montessori is one of the elements of German kindergarten education. An even bigger part usually is taken by the Reggio concept. Most kindergartens mix the best of all together into their own educational concepts to achieve their goal: preparing the kids to be valuable parts of society. Children are taught to be self-reliant but also be team players. They are taught to conquer their world but also to solve their problems in a fair way for everybody involved. They are encouraged to explore and ask questions and are given the tools necessary to find the answers themselves. Educators (Erzieher) are supposed to assist them and show them how to do things but never to do things for them. For example if a child can't climb up the swing the educator would show him how to do it. Maybe assist a tiny bit. The kid gains a success experience and through that the confidence to try something else by itself the next time it encounters a challenge. Kindergarten is all about learning basic life skills and above all social skills. Despite the stereotype of being cold and unfriendly, Germans actually are very community-centric and value the respect, "Höflichkeit" and thoughtfulness for other people.
I'm following a channel, called Not Just Bikes, recently that goes deeper into urban planning and what's actually going wrong in the US and Canada. I've never dived deeper into this subject but it opened my eyes on how nice we have it here in most European countries. It's not that only see it from an European viewpoint, I've driven all over the US. Greetings from Freiburg ✌️
when I read the title of the video and saw the thumbnail I immediatly thought of Not Just Bikes as well 😄 --- Though, sadly, it is not all down to infrastructure/urban planning. I remember the place I grew up in (Spielstraße with many houses (Reihenhaussiedlung) and a bunch of playgrounds and a small forest on one side and a small creek on the other side). The place remained the same; everything is still there. But the vast majority of kids growing up there now doesn't get out of their literal backyard. It's kinda sad that in some places parents apparently don't deem anywhere outside their literal backyard safe enough for their kids (and for no apparent reason at that).
@@eisbehr I think the main problem is that everything is spread out so wide in the US which makes it literally impossible for people to go places without a car. I am not sure if American's are actually willing to overcome something that is implemented in their lives since generations. For me personally I'm happily living in my apartment on the third floor not owning a car since years and stubbornly riding my bike all year around 🥶🥵😃. If I need a car I just do carsharing which of course doesn't work if you need a car everyday.
@@Anakianaj Yeah I know what you mean. I'm living in a Spielstraße as well and it was the same here since recently. They build a whole bunch of new houses around the corner which brought in new families, it's now a Spielstraße again 😃
I've been wondering about that strict separation of "living" and "shopping" in the US for a while: Why wouldn't someone just open up a bakery in a residential area... or a small store for daily things - I mean for me it sounds so obvious that like every single resident would instantly be happy to have a place to get sunday breakfast rolls just 200m from their house instead of having to drive to far away, right? This seems to be such an obvious great perk that I really wonder why it's so uncommon? I mean I understand there's zoning laws, but I mean: rules&laws follow culture, so if people would want to have it sooner or later it would happen. Question is: why don't they want it?
I strongly encourage you to go watch city beautiful and not just bikes, because their channels are answering these questions :3 But yeah, the answer is simply that after 70 years of suburuban experience, a lot of people don't even know it's possible in the US, simply because they don't really think about it. Furthermore, most us cities son't have urban planners/planning policies and so copy the model that is used everywhere, not having to think about it. And we see the results everyday.
I have heard in an other channel, that the USA has laws against it. Different areas like residential areas have to be just residential. And in some cases that is very good, as you don't like to have factories maybe with smell and noise in the residential are. But it was done too strict in the USA. So they have to change laws, to enable restaurants, bakeries or small shops also in residential areas.
@@marcbuisson2463 So basically Americans don't think, are stuck in their habbits, are not creative nor flexible? Don't think, your government does the thinking sounds familiar from another country during the cold war.
Never thought the experience of growing up in Germany vs. the US is so different. Great to hear all of you enjoy it over here. :) The shots of your children in the forest playing really reminds me of my childhood. During that time I really enjoyed reading adventure books, maybe your older ones will enjoy them to (I can really recommend “die fünf Freunde”, I think it’s the famous five in English) Enjoy your Sunday 😊
What wonderful memories, reading books in the forest! Two of the boys LOVE to read! Once their German is good enough we could recommend that series to them - thank you for the suggestion!
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife It is from a British author, so they do not need to read the German translation ;) BTW, stories embedded in British middle class life of the 1950s.
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife this is a Book Series from Enid Blyton - and she has actually written several different series. I did actually love „5 Freunde“ the best, but there’s also „Abenteuer“ (Adventures) and i think even more series, all with multiple to dozens of books. She’s British and yes, it’s under criticism because, being 50 years old, make/female roles in her books aren’t what you’d consider PC today. But those were my favorite books, I would read under the bench in school, under the blanket at night and even while riding the bike to school (And yes, resting on a bike often ended just as bad as you’d imagine). And I’ll make so sure my kids will have these books available.
Hi! I just subscribed to your channel. I am a german citizen living in the USA. I came here in the 80's and still live here. What you said about german childhood is so true. When my kids were little, I always told them yeah you can go there walk there.... My hsband always said, you can't let them go there by themselves. That's how I grew up. And then there isvthat thing with driving everywhere. I was used to walking everywhere. I still am. I love the US, don't get me wrong but it is a different life here. I love your stories from my homeland......keep posting them. Many greetings from Idaho, Heidi :-)
At my childhood balancing bikes didn't exist yet (50+ years ago). I remember we had small kids bikes where you could mount 2 additional small wheels next to the back wheel. So you learned some basic biking with pedals. After a week or so those support wheels were mounted a bit higher, so you started to learn how the bike reacts when biking - get comfortable with balancing especially in curves but still have some basic support. After feeling a bit more comfortable, the support wheels got removed and my father was just walking next to me biking, holding my saddle in the beginning and let go while I didn't notice it... Lots of memories came up by watching your video, so thanks for that.
they did exist in my childhood, but I learnt on a real bike at the age of 4. Went into the bushes once and within like 5 minutes I knew how to balance. Can still remember the situation and how afraid I was before doing it.
there's a quote that says : "Du lernst nicht für die Schule, du lernst fürs Leben". So, those things like traffic rules, handle matches and fire, knowing to use a fork and a knife, are also essential topics in life and should being taught at school.Especially in early years and not when the kids are already teenager.
Yeah but Seneca also said the reverse: non vitae sed scholae discimus (Not for life but for school we learn)…we mustn’t disregard that. And both the original complaint about school and later realisation that learning never ends are important.
@@ravanpee1325 Then it's too late already.... When they are old enough to use it, then they should learn about it, and about the dangers too. :) It works perfectly in Germany. - My mom also taught me how to hold a knife and a fork, when carrying it after doing the dishes, so in case I would fall, I would not hurt myself. - She did not only tell me once, but made sure I totally got this down. (Blade down always, same for the fork, so I could not poke an eye out or so, I was taught.) There always comes a thorough explanation in Germany, not just a "you aren't supposed to do it"... and when being asked, why not... Shrugging shoulders and the famous..." I don't know." It doesn't make sense to simply give restrictions without explanations. ❤️ We have a saying here... What small Jack doesn't learn, big Jack won't anymore, so we start very early to teach our kids all kinds of stuff.😀 I was taught and shown how to propperly clean the house when being 5 years old... All of it and also how to be efficient. 😀 At the age of 7 I cooked Champignon Gulasch under the supervision of my mom. 😅 I was sent to buy rolls at the next door bakery at the age of 3.... I believe that's important. :)
It‘s best said in Finding Nemo and I loosely quite Dory: „If you never let anything happen to your kids, nothing would ever happen to your kids.“ I‘m happy that your kids are gaining more independence and learning to become more self-reliant here in Germany! I unfortunately cannot say the same thing for my nephews and nieces who are of the same age and being raised currently in the USA. Your children are leaps and bounds ahead in terms of gaining independence and discovering the world on their own. Your videos are such a happy pill for me I get excited when you upload something! Euch einen schönen Sonntag! :-)
My favorite thing as a child in Germany was to just be able to take my bike whenever I wanted to and visit friends that lived 5 kilometres away in the city. I feel like everyone should be able to do that and whichever country you live in, they have to build safe bike lanes that make this possible.
The outdoor activities have nothing to do with the Bavarian Alps, the North German flatlands also go outside to do certain activities because you don't need mountains for that! Yes, we learn to ride a bike very early on, but we also learn to swim. We continue to ride bicycles well into old age.We don't do this primarily to stay healthy, but because we enjoy it. Now to get the knowledge imparted, to understand traffic signs and to follow rules are done very early and that is also child-friendly that it is logical. One of me also experienced it as a child. Personal responsibility for oneself is taught in kindergarten. Quite normal for us here in Europe. This also applies to making borderline experiences yourself, such as falling out of a tree and breaking your arm. You only do that once and never again through this experience. My opinion the dirtier my children came from playing again, the more fun and healthier they played. Dirt promotes the body's defenses. You're already doing it right here, maybe you, as parents, learn to trust your children more and to let them play alone without supervision. Maybe Germany is the land of freedom and unlimited happiness? What actually applied to the United States so far, but now I'm not sure whether that is the case. Schöne Grüße aus dem Nordwesten Deutschlands .........................................
Whenever I Take my Bike neighbours regard it as physical exercise. Or Walking..I normally don't See it that way, it was a necessity because one wanted to go somewhere..the train station about 3km away and no parents that would drive you.. workers in Hamburg Port walked far to save their money for house or Car.
For me it is so interesting to hear your view on our german childhood. Thank you so much for this video It brings back sooo much wonderful memories to me. I had the privilege to be a child, when it was much easier to let children be free. We where allowed to stay outside until the lanterns where lightend. ( in the winter, autum and spring. In summer we had to come earlier. Our parents didn't really know, where we played. We had ponies and we rode through the wood really far away, later we stayed outside with the ponies and traveled to other stables with them, where we slept in the hay. We didn't tell our parents how often we fell down. We built little houses in the wood. And we learned to repair our bicycles by ourselfs. We feeded the horses and helped to feed the little babysheeps, when their mother didn't nurse them. But also we where allowed to travell to the next city by train by outselfs and go to the horses store, where we could by some thongs for our horses. We where allowed to ride by bicicle though the village visit friends or buy ice cream, when we where small. I was bigger then, but my siblings where really small. When I was in the kindergarten my parents did live in the city of cologne. I was allowed to visit my friend by myself when I was in the kindergarten. I had to walk along a really big street. And I was allowed to cross this road by my own an by ice-cream an come back all alone, when I was in the first class of the goundscholl. My parents didn't bring us anywhere by car. So we had to do it all by ourselfs. Today the traffic is much more. And it is more dangerous. But I am so happy to hear from you, how much you like the freedom our kids still have.
Oh ja, der Fahrradführerschein. Generationen von Kindern haben ihn gemacht😊. The bicycle test is done everywhere in Germany. It's like a little driving license. There is a written exam and a practical exam. The police comes to school to do the exam whith the children, so it feels very formal and special for the children and they feel realy proud.
On one of my trips to the US probably in the 80s, I needed matches (smoking wasn't that frowned upon then) and tried to buy some at a store. They didn't have those as merchandise, just promotional for free. But what really took me by surprise was, when opening that little folder there was an extensive instruction for use and quite a few caution remarks printed in. Same on another trip for a lighter.
When my first School -day appeared... my dad showed me the way TO WALK to school ONE TIME and then he said: it's up to YOU and it worked PERFECTLY (my dad loved me) now i am 56... Greetings from Germany.... and i LOVE my dad..... (and i had to cross a busy street..... many kids were killed by car-drivers.... my dad told me BEFORE about that "humans"....)
i literally spend my whole childhood outside, now when i'm watching your videos I'm getting so thankful that i had this opportunity. My parents were always kind of worried, but they let me do whatever i wanted and trusted me. This year i had my 16th birthday and i'm determind to go back to the houses and little hides i've built in the forest with some friends when i was younger. Thank you so much for this youtube channel i really love your content
I don't know if they do this in year 8 in the US, but here in Germany, kids are also taught how to apply for a job in school. In year 8 or 9, all students have to do a 3 to 4 week internship at a company of their choice - they have to look up business and apply by themselves, but we teach them how to write a CV etc. and how to conduct themselves in a job interview in the German lessons in school beforehand. There is usually a professional from a job centre coming in especially to help them writing everything perfectly. Once they have gotten their placement, they have to go to work and experience what that is like...Quite a shock to some teenagers! :D
@@emilwandel ??? The internship program is compulsory in EVERY Bundesland. Except for last year because of Corona. If your school doesn't do it, they are going against the law
8:52 "Du sprichst ein großes Wort gelassen aus." This quote stems from a drama of Goethe, our German "Shakespeare". "You speak a great word calmly." is cited when someone makes a profound remark in a subordinate clause.
When i was three years old, my dad removed the support wheels from the bicycle, pushed me and told me: use the pedals, use the pedals! I did. And from that day on i went all around with my bike...
When I think of kids in the U.S., Helicopter Mom immediately comes to mind.... 10:39 The first thing I notice here is the American way of holding the fork in the right hand and eating. You do it all at the table, except for your daughter (and your husband)... :-D BTW: My childhood was already 40-50 years ago, but... I can still remember, we moved to our new house at that time, I was just 3 years old and the roads outside were not ready yet (the area was used for agriculture in the past) and the road had huge puddles / potholes filled with water from the rain. And that's when I met my best friend at the time. We argued at first and then both sat in one of the puddles, wet and dirty from top to bottom. My mother brought us in (dirty as we were.... she said still today, one could recognize us before dirt and mud hardly...), sprayed us off with a hose first (it was summer) and gave us new clothes. After that we brought my "new friend" home (2-3 streets away). We were best friends for 25 years since then. That was my childhood. Always outside, no matter where... in nature, or in the village (we lived in a village with almost 1,200 inhabitants). My parents were with us children from a very young age always out in nature. Hikes, etc. pp. I learned nothing else and my father and mother had grown up exactly the same way. My parents were also always happy when we kids were outside and not at home. Then they had more peace, because we were 5 children and I was the youngest.
leider gibt es auch in Deutschland eine immense Steigerungsrate der Helikopter Eltern und derer die ihre Kinder am liebsten mit dem Auto ins Klassenzimmer fahren würden. also auch hier ist nicht mehr alles so frei wie früher, das hängt aber natürlich stark von den Eltern ab und wie diese aufgewachsen sind. ein guter freund von mir ist Lehrer an einer Realschule und was der manchmal erzählt ist schon zum Haare raufen...
I totally agree about the independence of kids in Germany. We were such helicopter parents back home in Australia and had to really chill out when coming here. One thing that still shocks us to this day is that independence means different things to different parents... One example is our youngest (8 years) was invited to a b'day party. Usually when I think of kids b'day parties I think of planned events... games, food, cake...supervised by an adult....etc. but the parents of the birthday boy gave the group of 10 kids some money, sent them alone to walk to the public swimming pool, swim and get lunch and after 3 hours return home.
Yeah that would be a very unusual birthday party for an American! But one the kids probably enjoyed nonetheless. It’s fascinating to me how this is the culture in Australia also! Now I really want to know where it began…
I am German, grew up the independant way and raise my kids that way (and up until now never really thought about the fact that that's something special 🤣) but sending a group of 8yr olds to a swimming pool ALONE stretches that independant part a bit too much I think. And it's not even allowed - as far as I know kids under 10yrs of age must be supervised by an adult when being at a public pool. But maybe that differs from region to region.
I grew up in a small village in Germany with lots of nature around. It was normal for kids at the age of 7 or 8 to play in a radius of 5 km (maybe) around their homes. Our parents didn't exactly know where we were but as long as we were together, it was fine for them. And because we couldn't read the clock yet, we were told to be at home by the time the streetlights turn on. It was in the 90th and I don't know, if it's still possible there today but I loved my freedom and won't miss a single day. It is so fun to see how much your chlidren enjoy the nature - thx for sharing these beautiful impressions. You found a really nice place to live.
I love, love, love your video style with the intro always showing us snippets of your adventures! ♥️😍 It’s quite interesting what you said about the indoor lifestyle in the US. One of my mom’s rules is to always dress appropriately when driving somewhere especially in winter since you don’t know whether your car may break and you will have to stand outside the car and wait for help. I know very hypothetical but still 😅
In my childhood we were allowed to go out until the lanterns came on in the evening and it was great, we built booths and much more. Discovering the world from your own point of view was great.
I was bought up a similar way in the UK although for me I was bought a wristwatch as a birthday present which was a sign of being allowed to play out without supervision... With a set time to be home for... By secondary school (so age 10/11) I was often cycling 15-20 miles when I felt like it
Here in NRW the kindergarden-kids begin with a "Fußgänger-Führerschein" and the "Fahrradführerschein Teil 1" which is continued in elementary schol with "Fahrradführerschein Teil 2". They have a kind of document with a picture and official stamps on it - and it makes them very proud :-)
We are trying to teach our daugther to be independent as soon as possible. And ofc doing homeworks like cooking, cleaning and so on aswell. It is so important to spend time with your kids, especially during covid. Thank you for sharing the video.
Wie immer ein sehr unterhaltsames Video! 😍 Wie schön, dass euch das Leben fern ab eurer Heimat so gut gefällt. 😀 Aus selbstständigen und selbstbewussten Kindern werden autarke Erwachsenenpersönlichkeiten, die mit den Herausforderungen des Lebens gut zurecht kommen.
I grew up in Germany, and yeah riding my bike with friends throughout the whole city was totally normal (20km bike rides and such), spent so much time out if the house with my mom having no clue where I went. I also remember the bike "drivers license" test in 4th grade.
I also grew up in the bavarian alps in an active family. 3 years old? - sure you can go an a hike with 900 m elevation. It was also expected to ride your bike to kindergarten by the age of 3 (accompanied, something my parents were kind of annoyed about because they would have let me drive alone by like 4 or 5 years old but the kindergarten only allowed that if you lived closer), know how to swim before starting school at 6 years. That is also a good age to ride your bike to the bakery Sunday morning. I started walking to school with friends straight away. I felt do grown up. I practice with my parents before and was told where to be careful etc. I recently (so 17 years later) learned that my mom followed me the first two or three days to make sure I looked before crossing the streets etc. But I never knew that at the time. I was allowed to go to the swimming pool alone as soon as I did the "Freischwimmer" - a test you can take at the pool to make sure you can cross the pool alone etc. We also did a lot of climbing, canooying hiking etc. At 11 we rode our bikes to venice italy for almost a week (80-120 km/ day so not too crazy but it was still a cool experience). I really had an awesome childhood and hope that my future children will have similar experiences
for 3 year old kids to manage 900m elevation they would have to be trained in climbing, eg stairs or steep streets, from 1 years onwards and, yes, it is possible, but it would not come naturally to kids. Let the kids develop at their own pace. They dont need all to become little Trenkers, before they reach school age.
@@opag78 you are absolutely right. I grew up right at the foot of the mountains with older siblings. So I always tagged along to family activities like hiking and climbing early on and was very used to it.
My nephew got his first balance bike for his first birthday, has been glued to it for almost two years and learned how to ride a bike before his third birthday. It has helped a lot with his confidence and also is great for the mum because they can travel further without a car and without her ending up having to carry him. I absolutely love that and I am glad to hear that you think it's cool too.
I imagine that schools and teachers in the USA are afraid of getting sued out of house and home if a precious little girl falls and hurts her knees in kindergarten. Litigation gets you the fastest buck.
I‘ a father of two boys here in Germany. The boys are nearly 6 years old, they enter school this year after the summer holidays. I am very much into motorcycles so i bought a Motorcycle with a sidecar so i can take my boys with me. They ride in the sidecar since they were 3 years old. They love it. Recently they asked to skip the sidecar and ride with me on the back of my other Motorcycle, a Harley Road Glide. They love it. They hold tight, i ride very carefull when one of them is on the back. They love being taken home from kindergarden with the sidecar, all these other parents are staring. 🤣
Walk/bike to school with your buddies. that's FREEDOM... no "grown ups" around..... if you fall down you just have to stand up again YOURSELF (because no grown up is around) Greetings from Germany......
Yeah, kids in Germany learn to ride a bike and to swim quite early. :) In East Germany swimming lessons were even mandatory in Kindergarden. It's quite rare to see German kids who can't swim. When I entered second grade my mom also put me in charge of preparing my own sandwiches "Stullen" for school, which I would do in the morning right before we left. Because "you are capable and you know best what you want to eat today". It's these little things, which just push kids a little. My sister and I also had cat litter and dishwasher duties but those didn't really stick around. :D
So eine tolle Familie !!!!Alles gute in Deutschland :).richtig toll das ihr hier in Deutschland seid !!!!hoffe ihr bleibt für immer und eurer Kinder kommen hier klar mit der Schule und dem Leben !! Bleibt gesund :).
Hello and good morning 🌻 Explore things together, trust and believe in them. It's not possible to protect them against everything. They have to have their own experience and need the chance to figure things out and make some mistakes when doing it. Nobody is perfect, of course watch your kids but with a little more and more space coming with the age. Important is to know your area and what to do in different cases or having an issue. And you guys are a wonderful family, I'm so impressed and have so much respect for you and how you doing all these things. Alone or as a couple it can be difficult, but with four kid's and a cat 🐈, really cool!! 👍
How lovely to have discovered your channel. I have moved here in the mid-90´s and have never had any regrets. In fact it has been the best decision of my life. I am always curious how other expats experience Germany.
When I was 6 years old, I went to visit my friend’s parents (he was at his grandma’s house next to ours) with him being 7. We walked for 10 Km on the sidewalk along the main street full of traffic - cars, trucks, buses, all that stuff. We walked ~ for about 4 hours, nobody knew about it. We got there, drank some juice and phoned my parents. My father got there in the evening and took me home by car. I thought nothing about it, it was just a walk with my friend.
My mother-in-law recently told me that she and her brother once went to visit their grandparents who lived 25 km away - by foot! They were around 10/11 yrs old, I think, and they made it in the course of a day. Granted, this was around 1960, but still ... Plus, she lived in the middle of a big city as a child, so they had to start out where all the traffic was. Some kids are really tough!
@@roesi1985 No Mimimi at that time. You did it - and survived anyway. Parents weren‘t that concerned either. They knew about the abilities of their kids. I had to look after my little brother when he was 4, I was 7. He ran along a low wall (on our garden), I followed, did not see a sharp sheet metal piece on the surrounding fence. I cut my upper leg open, bleeding heavily. I ran to my mother inside our home. First I got a smack for not properly looking after my brother, then another smack for cutting my leg, another one for bleeding on the floor. She slapped on a big band aid, and sent me out on duty again. I cried for pain initially, but hadn‘t I stopped I would have been smacked again. BTW a phrase I heard from my mother quite often: Du willst weinen? Dann gebe ich dir auch einen Grund dazu... und ich bekam eine Ohrfeige, die sich gewaschen hatte. Those were the days my friend ....
@@darkredvan Yes, you're right. I was treated this way, too. But I am glad that these times are over, tbh. I don't believe in pampering a child, but I also think you should watch out for and fulfill their needs. That's your responsibility as a parent. When a child comes to you crying, there's nothing wrong in giving them some understanding and comfort, so they feel loved and secure. After that, they'll feel even stronger when you encourage them to go out again and conquer the world. The austere "Prussian" way of educating a child did serious harm, at least to my soul. I needed some years to heal and become healthy again after growing up, and I'm still not done yet. And as far as I can assess that, it also harmed the souls of my parents and their siblings.
i grew up in a big city, in Hamburg, but even in Hamburg, at outer districts of Hamburg we have parks and forests and that's where we spend almost all of our time - in the woods. from early age on like 7, 8, 9 years old we drove with our bicycles there and stayed until the street lamps geht on in the evening. we took no harm.
I love you, all six of you. I am Belgium and have been to the USA 8 times so I witnessed them on site. But the more I know, the more I read about the Americans, the more illusions and straightforward silliness I meet. And I think you prove it.
Living in the USA and seeing how kids grow up nowadays and the way I grew up in Germany us very very different for many reasons. I also think that if you raised kids here as they are being raised in Germany other people would call child protection services on you.
A friend of mine worked in the U.S. for a couple of years. He told me that one day the kids were brought home by the police. He was surprised to learn that kids are not allowed to walk to/from school by themselves.
@@nitka711 well most americans live in cardependet suburbian hell. No sidewalks, no bike lanes just huge cars. Its pretty dangerous for everybody who isnt in a car. And of course due to strict zoneing laws, you cant even build a school near to those kids, as they live in a single familiy home only area
I am German transplanted to America..when I was 12 i as traveling by plane to my aunts in Canada , I raised my kids and my granddaughter with as much independence as I can muster
I went to school in the 80s and 90s and have a 13yo now. My kid is not as self-reliant as I was that age. School lunch and afternoon care where they can do their homework under supervision - that wasn't a thing when I was young. So when kids come home after 4 p.m. they already ate and there are not that many chores left, which leaves only the weekends to learn how to cook, do the groceries, laundry and so on. I aspired to raise a self-reliant kid but as a working single-mom it's actually pretty hard, in Germany as much as anywhere else I presume. It was also easier to get a job at 16 and work after school back then. So a lot of young people I know don't really know how to run a household when they leave school and start university with very little work experience.
In my elementary school we had roads painted on one of the schoolyards so when the police came for the bicycle training they could put up road signs and we could practice traffic rules to get our approval to be fit for the street traffic. That‘s how I got my first „driver license“ when I was eight. 🙂 I remember that I had my own silverware especially made for kids with a slightly smaller fork and spoon and a knife that wasn‘t as sharp as those for the adults. But I don‘t remember at what age or until what age I used it. There is an old German nursery rhyme: „Messer, Gabel, Schere, Licht, sind für kleine Kinder nicht!“, which translates to „Knife, Fork, Scissors, Light (like in lighter) aren‘t made for children“. So there‘s that. On the other hand we know that forbidden fruits taste much better. But I didn‘t remember being taught about knifes forks and matches in Kindergarten.
The school took the whole elementary school class to bicycle training once a week by bus to another location. It was roughly two acres in area, had both rough gravelly paths, as well as paved streets with road signs. During the official part we had to show the trainer that we knew how to clearly signal with one hand while still riding our bikes one-handed. Brake, stop at stop signs, acknowledge the "Rechts vor links" law / "Right before left law" in Germany's road rules, understand street signals and how they pertained to bikers, cars, and pedestrians, how to stop at a cross-road, and at a pedestrian crossing. At the end of training we even had to pass a biking test, both theoretical and practical. So that last bit hasn't changed in the last 40 years or so; nice to see. Obviously we as kids always craved the 'now the official part is over, have fun riding like crazy' part. Where we took the bikes dirt biking off the beaten paths, racing each other in complete safety, etc.
I'm 45 years old now but I still got my children silverware which was a birthday present for my fifth birthday (got a photograph with all my presents) :D The knife is sharp like normal knives for adults. The difference between adult sets and my set of children silverware is the decoration - on the children silverware are some children. That's it. Same size, same "sharpness".
@@KitsuneHB There are some differences in mine. Not just the decoration, but mine was a little bit smaller and while the knife was sharp, neither the knife nor the fork were quite as "pointy". In fact, I nowadays use the knife as additional butter knife from time to time.
I get the impression that you are exactly at the place you are supposed to be! Your educational style and your lifestyle seems to fit German perfectly. So good to see your kids being happy and the parents too. Btw: Tell Peanut not to be shy! We want to see her carrying the tomato! (Does she really carry it around like a dog? So funny!)
One practical thing about going to school: I went to school for 14 years, I went there alone (or with friends my age) from the second day on. Except for the very first day, I was only with one of my parents on special occasions, maybe four or five times in all these years. It just wasn't a thing.
One of my favourite memories is me and my friend playing in the steep woods behind the house and rolling down the hill on wet loam. And we came home covered in mud, my dad looked at us, took us by the back of our clothes and directly into the bathtub. Also I spent hours and hours in a cherry tree enjoying the blossoms and later the cherries, also I could hide there, when I was supposed to do chores. I sat up there and read comic books and squinted through the leaves while my mom was looking for me to make me do stuff. Walking home from school our street was hardly driven on, so we sometimes laid flat on the warm asphalt and enjoyed the sun, we also came late to school often due to a well we found a little off the street where you could watch the sand being moved by the groundwater flowing from below. Building "cabins" in the woods, sliding down hills, riding my bike all the time and being outside like 90 % of the time. We also hiked a lot with my family. I have the feeling, at least where I live, that this way of a childrens life isn't possible anymore. In the countryside it hopefully still is, if somebody knows, let me know :-)
Oh, yeah. Table manners. It’s apparently a bit different in Europe. I heard in the US before one begins eating you cut your food, put aside the knife and then eat with only your fork while in Europe we simply cut as we go. Actually it may be useful to brush up on etiquette. No need to go super deep but it’s still a useful life skill since there are plenty of folks around who intentionally or unintentionally are judgy about stuff like that…
I should have clarified that table manners are not universal in their definition but depend on whom one asks… Let’s talk for example about slurping noodles: to some it is a faux pas to do so, to others it is a faux pas to not do so. To be truly well-mannered means that one should try to adapt to one’s surroundings as best as possible. Anything else wouldn’t be being well-mannered, but being an arrogant fool.
A big part of giving children independence is knowing what you can trust them with. My little sister was allowed to cross streets on her own younger than I was, because I'm terrible at judging distances and speeds and my parents knew that (I'm 16 now and still bad at that). I was allowed into the woods alone earlier than her - because I begged endlessly, yes, but also because I don't loose my way in the woods (especially since no child stays on the paths if they aren't in a nature preservatory zone). We were both pretty independent, but every child is different, and everyone has different skills even at the same age.
I love to hear how much fun your kids, and you with them, have 😊 when I was around 8, I was aloud to go outside of our neighborhood to a little river with lots of fields around, and it was so much fun. Of course I often fell into the river by trying to jump over it and I came home completely wet 😂🙈 so my mum always had me strip down all my clothes in front of our house and then get right under the shower. It was such an amazing time, we built treehouses from things we found laying around. I live in the middle west of Germany and we also were outside all the time, so I think that maybe some areas of Germany are more outdoorsy than others, but I think especially kids, are outside everywhere in Germany 😊
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We got videobombed by Griffin and the cat this time! Haha! We've really enjoyed having a lifestyle here in Germany where our kids have more freedom and indpendence!
There is also a other difference in Germany - Kids and money. German kids usually get very early their regular pocket money. Many kids above 12 have also usually their own bank account (Sparbuch + Giro) wich is by most German Banks for kids without fees. So many get their pocket money transfered to the bank account and have a bankcard for payment and ATM´s.
@@Rick2010100 yeah its to learn spend money wisely and save some cash and not the typical " american way " to ask dad or someone to buy u someting , like if u want a pc or something like that u save ur money u get and buy it urself and i did in the german summer when we had free " Sommerferien " a part time job (Ferienjob) in the industry to get some money and earn it and not to rely on my parents to buy it for me and u learn to appreciate the things u bought
@@Schrippe05 *save
Im so happy for you.
That’s awesome!
I was born in GERMANY, and spent the first eight years of my life there. When we had to move back to U.K., my brother and I were constantly asking our parents when we were going “home” again. In 2018 I took my youngest daughter to Nurnberg for a week as a reward for getting good GCSE results, including German. Had a wonderful time. It may say “British” on my birth certificate and passport, but I identify as European and in my heart, I am German.
Love it!
Herzlich willkommen!
I had a similar experience both of my parents are born and raised in Germany however when I was 9 my parents needed a break from the German School system at least for the most part and now at the age of 18 I miss the opportunitys that I could have had if my family stayed in Germany
I'm half British and half German and the 5 years of my childhood I spent in Germany were the best, mostly because of all the independent mobility. School finished at 12.30 and there was no uniform so we could get the u bahn straight into town with our friends without having to go home and get changed first. There was so much to do. Freibäder, Jugenzentren, local mountains and woodland. It was all really accessible to us. British kids don't know what they're missing.
We have a saying here: There is no bad weather, there is just the wrong clothing.
Exactly! How is that written in German? The Swedes have the same saying and it rhymes: det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder.
In German: Es gibt kein schlechtes Wetter, es gibt nur schlechte Kleidung
@@carsten5740 nicht schlechte Kleidung - falsche Kleidung.
@@HH-hd7nd eher: unzweckmäßige Kleidung
Tell that to the people of Ahrweiler.
The best thing about traffic education in schools is that it improves the children's safety not only by making sure the kids themselves are aware of the rules and signs. It also works on the parents, as the kids are so proud of their new knowledge, they will keep pointing out any mistake their parents make.
I had a fun time with my mother when we are driving around. Like tell her about every traffic rule that she broke.
Yea, as soon as they learn the rules, they understand how many of them are constantly broken by us parents... ^^
It's called indoctrination of children!
@@tannenbaumgirl3100 Nothing wrong with that, if the doctrine is keeping those children safe.
I'm a kindergarten teacher in Germany and "my" kids are between 1 and 3 years old. And we use glass cups as well! They're break-safe (they CAN and WILL break eventually but not as easy) and the heavier glass makes them great to handle for kids that age. They don't fling them off the table because they make a sudden movement, but if they do it's a great opportunity to learn cause and effect. We talk about being careful and gentle and they can actually see and hear what happens when they are not. No need to scold - if a glass happens to break, every single kid is extremely impressed and slightly shocked. Then we kind of mourn the broken glass we don't longer have lol :D cause and effect at it's finest
I was very surprised when they were using glass and ceramic at my 1yo son's krippe :D but in our time in Germany I absolutely loved my kids krippe and kindergarten, we just had to move away and I already miss it so much!! I want to move back!!
YES !!!!!
Lala land....holding a funeral, over a glass!
@@tannenbaumgirl3100You skipped reading comprehension in school, right?
@@enemdisk6628 No, I was born and raised in Germany so I witnessed the hate and discrimination in the workplace first hand. All you know is what you know, and what they brainwashed you to think, and even that isn't much!
Learning to light matches in kindergarten in part is so they do not do it in secret, unsupervised and panic possibly causing a house fire or wildfire.
Yes, and in my Kindergarten we also visited a firestation and a firefighter teached us all about fire and how dangerous fire could be. That was really cool and also help kids to understand fire and it threats.
Yeah because if you don't (or maybe not enough) they sit behind a sofa(do they have this word?) And try to lit matches... I did this with two friends but my brother found us before something happened... also my brothers who I think learned more about matches tried to make a campfire when they were little in the forest but it was dry and everything and a Neighbor suspected they would do this and my parents asked them at dinner and they said that they coudn't light it so yeah even german kids can be stupid
@@jopa2589 Well I didn't get teached how to use knife/fork or Matches in Kindergarden, I defenetly learned that at home.
But I'm pretty sure I learned a bit about fire safety in Kindergarden. And Especially in Elementary School, there were at least two or three weeks dedicated to basically safety in general, with a lot of the fire Stuff.
Especially the burning oil thing. Boy, did we got tought that. Never put water onto burning oil, no matter what. We learned, how we should deal with that, if should ever come in contact with that. We've watched some films I believed, that demonstrated it.
And of course the Highlight of it all: The Local Firefighters came almost every year and demonstrated the Burning Oil + Water thing on the schoolyard. Safe to say, you won't forget that fire Blast as Child. It's one of the coolest things I've ever seen as a child. And I haven't forgotten it ever since. Two years ago I've had the first and only incident, where some Oil burned in the pan. Instinct: Water. But since I knew better (and that fire Safety with the Firefighter was burned in my mind so deeply), I just calmed the fuck down, turned off the heat, grabbed some towels and therefore nothing really happened.
Water would have most certainly ended badly...
Miau mio! Zu Hilf‘! Das Kind brennt lichterloh!
Yeah, kids will do things they aren't supposed to, ESPECIALLY things they "can't" do.
The best way to ensure a child won't do something dangerous is to de-mystify it, aka let them do it in a controlled environment first.
The hat is not about skin cancer, it is about avoiding a heat stroke.
I would prefer a real hat not a baseball cap
And skin cancer too 🤷
@@kevinp7682 That's what sun blocker is for.
@@swanpride yes, too 😁
I also live in Germany. Originally from California. So I’m definitely use to seeing people ride their bikes or skateboard but here it’s a completely different culture when it comes to physical activity and raising kids. I work in a Kita and my young 1-3 year olds are expected to walk, put on shoes and jacket etc. All on their own. They are taught to be independent at a very young age.
Wow that’s awesome! And so cool you’re an American living in Germany. How did you get a job at a kita? Did you attend university here in Germany?
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife Erzieher(in) is a profession with vocational training (Ausbildungsberuf) for several years. Both on the job and in a school, while the details vary from state to state.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erzieher#Ausbildung
Alice, do you also see a difference with using strollers/buggys? I always get the impression that American kids (or their parents) are using strollers much longer. When watching American movies or TV shows, I'm often a bit astonished at the big kids still sitting in a stroller. But ofc I don't know if this is typical of the whole of America.
@@roesi1985 strollers/buggies are a convenient way of constraining and controlling your kids.
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife we sent our kids to a bilingual school (youngest was in krippe, oldest in kindergarten), and in her vorschule year my oldest had an American teacher. She said in the US she would be an elementary school teacher, but because of the different country she had to teach in a kita. I assume being a private school and a monther tongue speaker in a bilingual school rules may be more relaxed?
As an American whose children were born here in Germany I've still had a hard time with the independence, remembering how it was when I was a kid. My wife (who is German) helps with this as she knows when to put limits on them and when to just let them go. It's a learning experience and in the end it is good for the kids.
I love the way you are studying our culture. 🤣
It's lovely to have you here in Germany with us. ❤
Thank you!
I want to go to Germany
I am originally from Taiwan, moved to Munich 2 years ago. One thing I noticed here is they have amazing nature/parks/mountains, I definitely become more outdoorsy here than in Asia.
Oh that’s interesting to know they’re more outdoorsy here than in Taiwan!
Doesn't Taiwan have it's own nature attractions? I'm sure I've seen beautiful pictures. But perhaps you lived in a big city? It's true of course that in Germany nature can be experienced relatively close to home.
I could imagine that Taiwan's climate can get pretty hot/humid/wet (it's subtropical). Germany's temperate weather is, to be fair to "less outdoorsey" countries, practically made to be outside. It's rarely dangerous and pretty much consistently pleasant. It rarely gets so hot you wouldn't even think of hiking or biking. It rarely gets so cold you absolutely have to stay inside. There's little fear of massive typhoons, tornados, or whatever. Nothing in terms of dangerous animals or anything of that type either.
... obviously that doesn't mean it's always suited to be outside and that it never gets dangerous or just simply very uncomfortable but on balance, it's pretty perfect especially for hiking and biking.
Even in the last year of kindergarten there is the first safety education for walking to school. Mostly police officers teach the kindergarten kids how to cross streets safely and what is the safest way to go to school.
Oh that’s great! So important for them to learn.
I still know when we did little trips in kindergarten like to the park or ice cream shop. We always had to hold hands and when we cross the street the teacher always said look left and right and made us do that, we also did got to supermarkets.
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife - and riding a bike in public space ("Verkehrserziehung") is also taught at school, supported by local police.
@@agn855 and we were so proud of getting a bike license (Fahrradführerschein) at the end!
@@sane0matic Oh definitely! But in my area all of the bike lanes get turned into regular sidewalk again (for more space or something? idk, it worked fine before) and we have a lot of fast streets; so our policeman actually told us to ride on the sidewalk even if we were too old if we felt unsafe.
Honestly, that was good advice - big streets are still scary when you are 11 - but the police fine anyone that's one the sidewalk so that's a bad idea even for older children.
I was 3,5 years old, when my Dad taught me to ride a bike.....I could swim 15 minutes nonstop at the age of 5, before school....I have got great childhood memories with lots of freedom, adventure, playing with plenty of kids...climbing high in trees, cutting wood with our own little knives., going for slay rides in weiter. ...for tue whole day ..feeling very independant......I would never want to miss that...and I tried to educate my kids similiar...both are adults now, ,doing well..
Thats it does Nowadays parents teach their Kids how to swim safely. No thats the duty of the state, of the school of the teachers but Not my one responsebiliy as a parent. The results we can See, ask die Life guard Organisations Wasserwacht and DLRG. How many Kids aren't able to sein safely
Compared to the 70 and 80s the childs are not independ at all anymore in Germany . Born 1968 when i was 6 years old i started sailing my boat every day without any adult supervision. Age 14 i had a job earning my own pocket money. Age 15 my girlfriend was allowed to sleep in my room. Age 16 i drove to all neighboring countries with my friends on vespa scooters for weekend trips or month long hollidays. My parents only expected me to give them a call, when i was sleeping else where and only missing school gave me real troubles. My parents drove me to school only three times in 13 years: First day of elementary school, last day of highschool and one day, when i had a broken leg and a cold at the same time. And, no i did not became a hobo or criminal, iam a acadamic and entrepreneur. All my friends survived too and nobody was ever raped, robbed or kidnapped. My parents teached me everything i needed to survive and so i did. My experience is nothing special. So its even more surprising how fearfull parents of my generation became this days. Freedom is absence of fear.
I'm very glad that I learned swimming at school. In my family, no one could swim, so my parents weren't able to teach me how to. My sister also never learned it because she was a bit older and swimming classes weren't established yet when she was in elementary school. Hadn't there been any obligatory swimming classes in fourth grade at my elementary school, I would have missed that, too. I'll never be a good swimmer because I didn't have the opportunity to practice it much during my childhood, but it's still important to be able to swim. I live at a lake now and we go canoeing occasionally. I would never do that without being able to swim.
I climbed a lot of trees during my childhood, though, was responsible for milking my own goat every day from the age of 10 and had to do serious farm work using equipment like grown-ups' hay forks at the age of 8. So everyone learns to do the things the parents CAN teach you, I guess. I think it's good that the important things like swimming and riding a bike are taught at school, so children who can't learn that at home aren't at a disadvantage.
@@dummermitmensch7197 Yeah, thats very true. I was outside all day and my parents didnt know, where. Thats not common anymore nowadays.
@@stefanweigl4608 We really tried to teach it. There must be a trick to it. As soon as we let go of the child it sank down like a stone, even with correct movement XD
6 km and big? You have to hike with my father (he always says: ohh it’s just 10 kilometers and then we end up walking 16 km😂)
🤣🤣 Kevin has done that to us many times, and the kids hate him for it afterwards!
I don't know how old your children are, but I have a suggestion on how to get them to be even more independent and experienced: All over Germany there are "Volunteer Firefighters", especially in rural areas. Most of those fire departments have a Youth Group (Jugendfeuerwehr), some even a "Kids Group" (Kinderfeuerwehr). To join the kids group, the kid has to be 6 years old. At 10 years, one can join the Youth group. At 17 years, the kids can join the "Active Firefighters". My three kids were all members starting at 10 years old (there was no "Kinderfeuerwehr" then). My sons continued being firefighters until they went to university. My daughter is still an active firefighter with 15 years of experience.
As teenagers, they had "duty" once a week, were trained in First Aide, learned to responsibly deal with flammable objects, had friendly competitions with other firefighters, went to sports tournaments, summer camps and had an awesome time.
Check your local fire station if you want to learn more. They might even recruit your husband.
Btw: my daughter is now married to a firefighter. It was the first "double-firefighter" marriage in the 125 year history of our fire brigade. The comradeship among firefighters is unsurpassed. When my kids remodeled their house, all comrades pitched in - including the ladder... 😉
They are probably too young. Minimum age for Jugendfeuerwehr in Bavaria is 12 years.
@@susischneiderbader5969 THW-Jugend as well, but some THW local chapters have specially trained coaches/caretakers and may accept younger children. That might be an alternative.
They could always join the Wölflinge in the BdP (or one of the several other associations) if they are too young for the fire fighting.
A popular phrase in (Northern) Germany is :
"Es gibt kein schlechtes Wetter, es gibt nur schlechte Klamotten."
"There is no such thing as bad weather, there is only bad clothes."
I remember that I have to drive every day with my bicycle to school. Even when there is a lot of snow ore rain.
Another phrase: "Whats doesnt kill you, makes you harder"
We've got the same saying in southern Austria too. :)
*or "ore" with an e is used for raw materials like iron ore
In central east Germany we have that as well. Tbh I think it's a universal German saying.
Another Northern phrase:
"Storm is only when the sheep have no more curls."
"Sturm ist erst, wenn Schafe keine Locken mehr haben."
Re the cap: I suppose the Kindergarten is more worried about heat stroke. Protecting the scalp and eyes from the sun might just be a welcomed side effect.
They definitively are, because even though the legal systems is not as misused in Europe as it seems to have become in the United States, the kindergarten is still liable if any harm occurs to the kids and heat strike certainly can be considered harm.
@@opag78 yes, perhaps it’s because they fear liability.
But perhaps they just genuinely want what’s best for the kids.
Just a thought…
But most german parents are very cautious about sun exposition of children and danger of cancer, too.
I like seeing the beauty of my home country through your eyes
You truly have a beautiful country!
I grew up in a very small german village. Almost every kid learned to swim, ride a bike or catch fish before learning to read and write. Usually without supervision of adults! We cut ourselfs and learned to handle a knife. We burned our fingers and learned to handle fire. We ate unripe fruit and found out why it is better to wait until apples are ripe. The list goes on. I never developed allergies. Growing up in a more "natural" way seems to have some profits. Stay healthy and enjoy your beautiful environment.
I agree with all of this expect for the allergies part. I grew up on a farm always helping out, getting my hands dirty. I still developed a bunch of allergies during puberty
@@VormPCbinichnackt I am sorry to read that. I just spoke on my behalve.
Such a great way to grow up!
@@kevinmcfall5285 Sure it was, but it was not only cake and cream. We had to help to pull vegetables, collect firewood and pinecones for the winter. Collecting berries and later in school we had to clear the forest of litter, at least once a year. All this builds up a certain responsability.
I did nearly the same but I developed allergies.
My son got his first balance bike at 18 months. He's now 22 months old and rides his balance bike to the playground or when we go for a walk. He is so proud of himself. I love balance bikes.
That’s awesome!
my nephew is 23 months now and he still refuses to try to ride his balance bike. His mother is impatient, she thinks he is a bit too late. His older brother is 3 years old and he rides his bicycle on the streets on his own ( not the busy streets of course ).
yeah, the same with us. Our little ones received their balance bikes at around 20 months and after we hammered the traffic light rules into their heads for a year they nowadays always drive their balance bikes to any playground we visit. It is just so much easier, they are so much faster, they dont become tired that quickly and they have fun already on the way to the playground.
@@henner7371 I think it also depends on the bike. Friends habe regular balance bikes (puky, kettler) and they are really heavy and diffult to balance. My son has a woom 1 and it is made for age 18 months and older. It's very light and my son has no problem with it all. However, he couldn't ride his friend's puky Laufrad yet.
Everything you just talked about are the reasons my husband and I want to move our family to Germany. I am so glad to have found a channel that I can relate to, since a lot of these moving/living in Germany channels are always young couples without kids. Great videos, keep it up…
Yes! I watched a lot of Antoinette Emily’s videos since she also has kids.
the great late George Carlin once said:
"If you really want to help your children ... leave them alone !"
Ha! Good point!
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife actually the quote is much longer ...
“Today’s professional parents; these obsessive diaper sniffers are over-scheduling and over-managing their children and robbing them of their childhoods. Even the simple act of playing has been taken away from children and put on mommy’s schedule in the form of play dates.
Parents are burning these kids out on structure. I think every day all children should have 3 hours of daydreaming. Just daydreaming. You could use a little of it yourself, by the way. Just sit at the window, stare at the clouds. It’s good for ya. If you want to know how you can help your children: leave them the f-k alone!"
just love George Carlin ...
his forsightness is somehow uncanny, but more valid today than ever before
@@karstenbursak8083 another prophetic quote from my homie George is: it’s a big club and you ain’t in it!
@@karstenbursak8083 So true. I still love to sit at the window, looking at my garden and daydreaming a bit. As a child, I think I spent hours in my own fantasy world.
What’s the best thing about Sunday morning ? Yeah right, a new video by my messy life 🥳😃😃
Yaay! 🥳
😍😍❤️❤️
What I liked in my Kindergarten we got asked whether we wanted to learn English and/or French the Kindergarten teacher actually said that it's our decision not our parents. I chose to learn English and French in my Kindergarten and I really appreciate the opportunity, because later on I was performing better in English comparedto my class mates who started learning English in 3rd grade. Also in Kindergarten we actually made a license for tying our shoes we actually had lessons on this. Many Germans make jokes that you can get a license for everything around here, I have the shoe tying, bike riding, cooking and a microscope license, also in Elementary school we had an extra curricular called "Streitschlichter" were we learned how to deescalate fights and how to prevent fighting, not the teacher stepped in but the classmates (I took the course), we also learned how to run the library and would take care of it of course there was an adult but it was mostly us. In Elementary school we made a cooking and bike license where we were taught how to cook and ride our bike (road safety). Also in Kindergarten we always got the choice the let us know that everything is up to us there have been only a few set things like PE classes every Friday in the morning or a day per month where we were allowed to bring one of our own toys (it was set to one toy so that we learn decion making and dealing with your choices). Also in my childhood I usually was outside with my friends all the time, since I'm a reader I got to pick certain days I would stay in to read, but other than that I was playing with my friends at playgrounds futher away from home. Not mentioned in this video, but again we got so many opportunities where we could make the decisions we were so involved. In Schools we actually could see the difference in the grades, children that get more decisio making opportunities usually had better grades. I was involved in the planning what we eat, we got to choose independently from our parents what we want to learn (instruments/languages in Kindergarten) I was allowed to pick days I could stay in. Also I learned with 4-5 to read on my own and if you don't learn it you learned it in first grade, we actually had reading competitions each year. Ps: In fifth grade I also made a dog licence. In Germany is a law stating that you aren't allowed to walk a big dog unless you are (Not sure whether it was 14 or 16) unless you have this license since you learn all about dog care and how to walk them and so on.
I remember failing the shoe tying license, can't do it the way they wanted me to to this day
This is inspiring. Never reflected like that on my German childhood....
It sounds as if you found the right place at the right time for you to grow individually and as family. Sounds awesome! And I’m very happy for you!
Try to visit one of these WALDKINDERGARTEN.
The real ones are outdoor the whole day at any weather and any season..
Our 4 children enjoyed it very much.
Yes! They’re so awesome!
Love it! Makes me Home-sick. I moved to the US from Germany and I am ready to move back to Germany, for sure. I enjoy your videos and have shared them with others. Keep them coming!
Thank you so much for your support!
You’re literally giving your children the best childhood.❤️ they’re going to have a big future.
This whole video made me remember that when I was 8, my siblings (9 and 11 at the time) and I went on our first flight where we were completely on our own. We had to navigate the airport and when we arrived in Spain, find our grandparents after getting our luggage. It was kind of a terrifying experience, but it also felt really good after we made it. Before, we had been flying to our grandparents each year for 5 years in a row, but we always had our father with us. That specific year he wasn't able to take a vacation, so we went alone.
Wow that’s amazing!
Were you not accompanied by a flight attendant? I know Lufthansa offers a service where they basically check in on a kid from time to time to make sure everything's OK and make sure they get picked up by the grandparents/other parent/whoever at the destination airport
@@millionsparks96 I know that this service exists, but apparently my parents thought it wasn't necessary? I think it would have been a lot more reassuring, exspecially since all the authority was basically thrown onto my 11 year old brother to get us through everything safely. We were also travelling with Iberia at the time, so maybe they didn't have that service? I'm not very sure.
@@lizardon8831 when was this? I didn't know it's even legal for kids that age to fly on their own.
On another note, a friend of mine who studies in cologne was once visited by his 6 year old sister. The parents put her on the train and he picked her up from the train 3 hrs later in Cologne. I'm all for teaching independence but I was very surprised by the story 😅
@@millionsparks96 it was eleven years ago. And I'm pretty sure that as long as you have a parent's note giving the okay it's legal, but I'm not completely sure. oh wow, I consider riding the train way more dangerous than flying. More so since Cologne is such a big city. I'm very glad his sister was okay though.
20:55 What does that look like in practice?
During the summer holidays, mom told us to be home at 12 noon for lunch and 8pm for dinner. The rest of the day was up to us. And yes we got money if money was involved. eg cinema or public swimming pool.
And yes, we got hurt. Bike crashes when we raced with our bicycles. Without helmets ... Or falling out of 10-meter high tree and being lucky that my fall was slowed down by the tree branches and I did not break a bone. Only bruises. But I always learned a lesson. To be more careful next time. Or not to do X Y and Z.
When I was a child I walked several kilometers to school every day with two neighbour kids. When I got to 5th grade I went by bus to the Gymnasium in a nearby town on my own. At the age of 12 it was also the first time I went on my own by train to the Bodensee (Lake Constance) which is 250km away from where we lived. First I had to take a Regio-train to Stuttgart main station, then get on another train to Karlsruhe, switch again to another train down to the south to Salem and from there, I walked 10km to a small village.
We also were outside almost every day for hours, building treehouses, digging caves in the woods, crafting bow and arrows, and so on.
We also went to a nearby farm, got to pick a cow/goat we were responsible for from that moment on. We cleaned their stables, feed them and even took them for a walk in the village. This even got the attention of several newspapers who wrote reports about us. :D
I did my civil service in a Montessori Kindergarten in Berlin. I really liked the concept. Children are treated as individual characters. When the kindergarten teachers or we civil servants talked a bit to the kids we had to kneel or bow down so we would talk face to face and not from above literally down on them. Thus showing that we are taking them seriously. We were told to encourage them to do as many things on their own as possible. This included solving conflicts among themselves. New kids would come to us and wanted to tell the other kid to stop doing this, using our "adult authority" for that, for example when someone was teasing them or being mean. But we would just encourage them to do it themselves, told them what they could say so the conflict might be solved. After a few months, the kids hardly ever come to ask for help. Of course, sometimes that doesn`t work, because they are still kids. But the progress they made was always great to see. They also could ask to train lighting a candle or matches. They got instruction and then every time they wanted to play with fire, they would have to get a bucket of water, wear an apron, because wax on clothes is not fun for the parents, and sit at a separate little table, but then they were free to light matches and kindles and play with the wax as they liked. I've been there for 10 months and the great progress these children made really convinced me of the Montessori concept. PS: the Montessori concept includes much more, but this comment is already too long ;)
I just love the Montessori approach! So cool to hear your experience, thank you for sharing.
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife My pleasure!
You really got the first class place to live here, I really envy you.
I really wish you'll grow roots so deep that by the time your kids drive their own cars, you can't imagine living anywhere else anymore.
We are so happy to be living here. Germany is a beautiful country!
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife It definitely has way less nice places to live too, but your spot is definitely out of a picture book. Not only by the scenery, also the municipalities, the people, the infrastructure ... really, I'm envious.
I actually wish that their roots will grow so deep that by the time the kids turn 18 they prefer their bicycles above any car, which would lead to extensive shock waves among their American relatives ;)
We briefly lived in Connecticut. For me it was awkward that my highschooler needed us to get to friends, movies etc
In Germany in much younger age they go to the public pools with their friends.
I was born and grew up near Rosenheim, the best thing you can give children is the experience in a club (scouts, youth fire brigade, youth group of the Federal Agency for Technical Relief, etc).
I absolutely second that and add the Red Cross and the "Alpenverein" - see what is available in your area
Scouts for sure! One of the best part of my life for the last 17 years!
So nice to see how happy the Kids are, reminds me about my self.
I moved to Germany with my family as a 8 year old from the US, and i loved it.
We had so much fun out in the World on our own.
Good that some things don`t change :)
Oh so cool you also went through this move!
Hi.
To cut it short, you can say we keep a good amount of the Tom Sawyer, Hack Finn and Pippi Långstrump lifstyle in the more modern/digital childhood, too.
Have a nice sunday
I don't think it's so much mountains and beaches vs anything, but more rural (loose definition) vs city that is the indicator of how much out door activity there will be. And even then there are cities with big recreational areas/parks and ones without. Like, even the old airport Berlin Tempelhof is now used for skating and biking and just walking even though it's basically just a big slab of tarmac. I guess one of the most important reasons German kids and people in general are more outdoorsy is that we have more time. Sundays off, less commute. And a big cultural emphasis on kids getting fresh air. 'Der Junge muss an die Luft!' is the title of the memoir of a German comedian and it's something a lot of us heard variations of growing up.
Even adults need fresh air too!
Yes I would imagine that having Sundays off helps to create more of an outdoor culture in Germany. Love it!
@@kevinmcfall5285 Of course!
(she says, sitting on her couch. 😅)
I must disagree with that and not just nowadays. We live now in Munich and yes, Munich is located in a very outdoorsey region and it is an amazingly green metropolis, given its very dense population. So, true, Munich is rather the exception than the standard. That said I was born and grew up in Magdeburg in the 1980s. An industrial city in those days, like really industrial. Still, I learnt sledging at 4, roller skating at 5, swimming at 6 and bicycle riding at 7. It was also possible to go hiking in the Harz mountains, even though it was tedious, given that cars were not as widely available in the 80s in Magdeburg as nowadays.
Hence I don't buy the argument. Kids in cities can (and do) play outside as much as kids in the countryside. The only difference is that my kids are 3 years old and do know relevant traffic rules and of course the traffic light by heart and behave accordingly. That is simply part of life in a city, you can not just run over streets, period.
Becoming more independent in the case of your kids to some degree might also just have to do with the experience of living in a foreign country.
Montessori is one of the elements of German kindergarten education. An even bigger part usually is taken by the Reggio concept. Most kindergartens mix the best of all together into their own educational concepts to achieve their goal: preparing the kids to be valuable parts of society.
Children are taught to be self-reliant but also be team players. They are taught to conquer their world but also to solve their problems in a fair way for everybody involved. They are encouraged to explore and ask questions and are given the tools necessary to find the answers themselves. Educators (Erzieher) are supposed to assist them and show them how to do things but never to do things for them.
For example if a child can't climb up the swing the educator would show him how to do it. Maybe assist a tiny bit. The kid gains a success experience and through that the confidence to try something else by itself the next time it encounters a challenge. Kindergarten is all about learning basic life skills and above all social skills. Despite the stereotype of being cold and unfriendly, Germans actually are very community-centric and value the respect, "Höflichkeit" and thoughtfulness for other people.
I'm following a channel, called Not Just Bikes, recently that goes deeper into urban planning and what's actually going wrong in the US and Canada. I've never dived deeper into this subject but it opened my eyes on how nice we have it here in most European countries. It's not that only see it from an European viewpoint, I've driven all over the US. Greetings from Freiburg ✌️
when I read the title of the video and saw the thumbnail I immediatly thought of Not Just Bikes as well 😄
--- Though, sadly, it is not all down to infrastructure/urban planning. I remember the place I grew up in (Spielstraße with many houses (Reihenhaussiedlung) and a bunch of playgrounds and a small forest on one side and a small creek on the other side). The place remained the same; everything is still there. But the vast majority of kids growing up there now doesn't get out of their literal backyard. It's kinda sad that in some places parents apparently don't deem anywhere outside their literal backyard safe enough for their kids (and for no apparent reason at that).
@@eisbehr I think the main problem is that everything is spread out so wide in the US which makes it literally impossible for people to go places without a car. I am not sure if American's are actually willing to overcome something that is implemented in their lives since generations.
For me personally I'm happily living in my apartment on the third floor not owning a car since years and stubbornly riding my bike all year around 🥶🥵😃. If I need a car I just do carsharing which of course doesn't work if you need a car everyday.
@@Anakianaj Yeah I know what you mean. I'm living in a Spielstraße as well and it was the same here since recently. They build a whole bunch of new houses around the corner which brought in new families, it's now a Spielstraße again 😃
Also, the word for what's causing residential and shops being separated is "Euclidian zoning".
Oh cool, we can check that channel out. Yeah the planning is much much better here in Europe. In America you have to have a car.
I've been wondering about that strict separation of "living" and "shopping" in the US for a while:
Why wouldn't someone just open up a bakery in a residential area... or a small store for daily things - I mean for me it sounds so obvious that like every single resident would instantly be happy to have a place to get sunday breakfast rolls just 200m from their house instead of having to drive to far away, right? This seems to be such an obvious great perk that I really wonder why it's so uncommon?
I mean I understand there's zoning laws, but I mean: rules&laws follow culture, so if people would want to have it sooner or later it would happen. Question is: why don't they want it?
I strongly encourage you to go watch city beautiful and not just bikes, because their channels are answering these questions :3
But yeah, the answer is simply that after 70 years of suburuban experience, a lot of people don't even know it's possible in the US, simply because they don't really think about it. Furthermore, most us cities son't have urban planners/planning policies and so copy the model that is used everywhere, not having to think about it. And we see the results everyday.
@@marcbuisson2463 haha, such a small world. I also wanted to recommend the _not just bikes_ channel 😂
I have heard in an other channel, that the USA has laws against it. Different areas like residential areas have to be just residential. And in some cases that is very good, as you don't like to have factories maybe with smell and noise in the residential are. But it was done too strict in the USA. So they have to change laws, to enable restaurants, bakeries or small shops also in residential areas.
Reminds me of when we had a Schlecker right in the middle of this suburb, one floor above, people lived.
@@marcbuisson2463 So basically Americans don't think, are stuck in their habbits, are not creative nor flexible?
Don't think, your government does the thinking sounds familiar from another country during the cold war.
Never thought the experience of growing up in Germany vs. the US is so different. Great to hear all of you enjoy it over here. :)
The shots of your children in the forest playing really reminds me of my childhood.
During that time I really enjoyed reading adventure books, maybe your older ones will enjoy them to (I can really recommend “die fünf Freunde”, I think it’s the famous five in English)
Enjoy your Sunday 😊
What wonderful memories, reading books in the forest! Two of the boys LOVE to read! Once their German is good enough we could recommend that series to them - thank you for the suggestion!
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife It is from a British author, so they do not need to read the German translation ;)
BTW, stories embedded in British middle class life of the 1950s.
@@Henning_Rech The author's name is Enid Blyton - I read many of her books in the seventies
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife this is a Book Series from Enid Blyton - and she has actually written several different series. I did actually love „5 Freunde“ the best, but there’s also „Abenteuer“ (Adventures) and i think even more series, all with multiple to dozens of books.
She’s British and yes, it’s under criticism because, being 50 years old, make/female roles in her books aren’t what you’d consider PC today. But those were my favorite books, I would read under the bench in school, under the blanket at night and even while riding the bike to school (And yes, resting on a bike often ended just as bad as you’d imagine). And I’ll make so sure my kids will have these books available.
Hi!
I just subscribed to your channel.
I am a german citizen living in the USA. I came here in the 80's and still live here. What you said about german childhood is so true. When my kids were little, I always told them yeah you can go there walk there....
My hsband always said, you can't let them go there by themselves. That's how I grew up. And then there isvthat thing with driving everywhere. I was used to walking everywhere. I still am. I love the US, don't get me wrong but it is a different life here.
I love your stories from my homeland......keep posting them.
Many greetings from Idaho, Heidi :-)
Hallo Heidi! So glad you enjoyed this video. And yes, such a different life between the two countries. I enjoyed reading your comment!
your kids are looking happy most time and thats most important.
At my childhood balancing bikes didn't exist yet (50+ years ago). I remember we had small kids bikes where you could mount 2 additional small wheels next to the back wheel. So you learned some basic biking with pedals. After a week or so those support wheels were mounted a bit higher, so you started to learn how the bike reacts when biking - get comfortable with balancing especially in curves but still have some basic support. After feeling a bit more comfortable, the support wheels got removed and my father was just walking next to me biking, holding my saddle in the beginning and let go while I didn't notice it... Lots of memories came up by watching your video, so thanks for that.
Okay that sounds like what we refer to as tricycles in the USA. They’re very popular there.
they did exist in my childhood, but I learnt on a real bike at the age of 4. Went into the bushes once and within like 5 minutes I knew how to balance. Can still remember the situation and how afraid I was before doing it.
there's a quote that says : "Du lernst nicht für die Schule, du lernst fürs Leben". So, those things like traffic rules, handle matches and fire, knowing to use a fork and a knife, are also essential topics in life and should being taught at school.Especially in early years and not when the kids are already teenager.
that quote even comes from the Romans : 'non scholae sed vitae discimus' and it's still relevant more than ever.
Yeah but Seneca also said the reverse: non vitae sed scholae discimus (Not for life but for school we learn)…we mustn’t disregard that.
And both the original complaint about school and later realisation that learning never ends are important.
That is not part of the school, but should be taught by the parents the kids are old enough for school
@@ravanpee1325
Then it's too late already.... When they are old enough to use it, then they should learn about it, and about the dangers too. :)
It works perfectly in Germany. - My mom also taught me how to hold a knife and a fork, when carrying it after doing the dishes, so in case I would fall, I would not hurt myself. - She did not only tell me once, but made sure I totally got this down. (Blade down always, same for the fork, so I could not poke an eye out or so, I was taught.)
There always comes a thorough explanation in Germany, not just a "you aren't supposed to do it"... and when being asked, why not... Shrugging shoulders and the famous..." I don't know."
It doesn't make sense to simply give restrictions without explanations. ❤️
We have a saying here... What small Jack doesn't learn, big Jack won't anymore, so we start very early to teach our kids all kinds of stuff.😀
I was taught and shown how to propperly clean the house when being 5 years old... All of it and also how to be efficient. 😀
At the age of 7 I cooked Champignon Gulasch under the supervision of my mom. 😅
I was sent to buy rolls at the next door bakery at the age of 3.... I believe that's important. :)
It‘s best said in Finding Nemo and I loosely quite Dory: „If you never let anything happen to your kids, nothing would ever happen to your kids.“
I‘m happy that your kids are gaining more independence and learning to become more self-reliant here in Germany! I unfortunately cannot say the same thing for my nephews and nieces who are of the same age and being raised currently in the USA. Your children are leaps and bounds ahead in terms of gaining independence and discovering the world on their own.
Your videos are such a happy pill for me I get excited when you upload something! Euch einen schönen Sonntag! :-)
Dory, such a wise sage!
Awe we love that our videos are a happy pill for you! ❤️❤️
My favorite thing as a child in Germany was to just be able to take my bike whenever I wanted to and visit friends that lived 5 kilometres away in the city. I feel like everyone should be able to do that and whichever country you live in, they have to build safe bike lanes that make this possible.
The outdoor activities have nothing to do with the Bavarian Alps, the North German flatlands also go outside to do certain activities because you don't need mountains for that!
Yes, we learn to ride a bike very early on, but we also learn to swim. We continue to ride bicycles well into old age.We don't do this primarily to stay healthy, but because we enjoy it.
Now to get the knowledge imparted, to understand traffic signs and to follow rules are done very early and that is also child-friendly that it is logical. One of me also experienced it as a child.
Personal responsibility for oneself is taught in kindergarten. Quite normal for us here in Europe. This also applies to making borderline experiences yourself, such as falling out of a tree and breaking your arm. You only do that once and never again through this experience.
My opinion the dirtier my children came from playing again, the more fun and healthier they played. Dirt promotes the body's defenses.
You're already doing it right here, maybe you, as parents, learn to trust your children more and to let them play alone without supervision.
Maybe Germany is the land of freedom and unlimited happiness? What actually applied to the United States so far, but now I'm not sure whether that is the case.
Schöne Grüße aus dem Nordwesten Deutschlands .........................................
Yes Germany does have a lot of freedom and happiness, especially for children! And it’s great to hear that cycling is popular all over Germany. ❤️
@@MyMerryMessyGermanLife i think all over Europe, Denmark and The Netherlands are big bike countries
Whenever I Take my Bike neighbours regard it as physical exercise. Or Walking..I normally don't See it that way, it was a necessity because one wanted to go somewhere..the train station about 3km away and no parents that would drive you.. workers in Hamburg Port walked far to save their money for house or Car.
@@charpost62 the dutch drivers respect Bikers.
@@susannabonke8552 i know the same here in Denmark
For me it is so interesting to hear your view on our german childhood.
Thank you so much for this video
It brings back sooo much wonderful memories to me.
I had the privilege to be a child, when it was much easier to let children be free.
We where allowed to stay outside until the lanterns where lightend. ( in the winter, autum and spring.
In summer we had to come earlier.
Our parents didn't really know, where we played.
We had ponies and we rode through the wood really far away, later we stayed outside with the ponies and traveled to other stables with them, where we slept in the hay.
We didn't tell our parents how often we fell down.
We built little houses in the wood.
And we learned to repair our bicycles by ourselfs.
We feeded the horses and helped to feed the little babysheeps, when their mother didn't nurse them.
But also we where allowed to travell to the next city by train by outselfs and go to the horses store, where we could by some thongs for our horses.
We where allowed to ride by bicicle though the village visit friends or buy ice cream, when we where small. I was bigger then, but my siblings where really small.
When I was in the kindergarten my parents did live in the city of cologne.
I was allowed to visit my friend by myself when I was in the kindergarten. I had to walk along a really big street. And I was allowed to cross this road by my own an by ice-cream an come back all alone, when I was in the first class of the goundscholl.
My parents didn't bring us anywhere by car. So we had to do it all by ourselfs.
Today the traffic is much more. And it is more dangerous.
But I am so happy to hear from you, how much you like the freedom our kids still have.
Ella is such an adorable, happy child! I hope she's having a good time, in Kindergarten too, by now.
Our daughter went to the bakery on her own in the age of 4 in Sunday to get us fresh bred and Croissants
I guess I don't need to go to the bakery anymore on the weekends! I have four kids 4 and older... 😂
@@kevinmcfall5285 I heard Sara has 5 kids so she may sent you ;)
@@Henning_Rech Hahaha! I better get more serious then...
Oh ja, der Fahrradführerschein. Generationen von Kindern haben ihn gemacht😊.
The bicycle test is done everywhere in Germany. It's like a little driving license. There is a written exam and a practical exam. The police comes to school to do the exam whith the children, so it feels very formal and special for the children and they feel realy proud.
On one of my trips to the US probably in the 80s, I needed matches (smoking wasn't that frowned upon then) and tried to buy some at a store. They didn't have those as merchandise, just promotional for free. But what really took me by surprise was, when opening that little folder there was an extensive instruction for use and quite a few caution remarks printed in. Same on another trip for a lighter.
When my first School -day appeared... my dad showed me the way TO WALK to school ONE TIME and then he said: it's up to YOU and it worked PERFECTLY (my dad loved me) now i am 56... Greetings from Germany.... and i LOVE my dad..... (and i had to cross a busy street..... many kids were killed by car-drivers.... my dad told me BEFORE about that "humans"....)
That was merry. Again. And not messy. Again. Great fun to watch.
🤣🤣❤️
i literally spend my whole childhood outside, now when i'm watching your videos I'm getting so thankful that i had this opportunity. My parents were always kind of worried, but they let me do whatever i wanted and trusted me. This year i had my 16th birthday and i'm determind to go back to the houses and little hides i've built in the forest with some friends when i was younger. Thank you so much for this youtube channel i really love your content
Happy Sweet 16, as we say in the USA! Thank you for your kind comments. I hope you have a wonderful birthday and enjoy being outside.
Your kids are so lucky to have you as their parents. The video was really well produced. Good luck moving forward
Thank you!
I don't know if they do this in year 8 in the US, but here in Germany, kids are also taught how to apply for a job in school. In year 8 or 9, all students have to do a 3 to 4 week internship at a company of their choice - they have to look up business and apply by themselves, but we teach them how to write a CV etc. and how to conduct themselves in a job interview in the German lessons in school beforehand. There is usually a professional from a job centre coming in especially to help them writing everything perfectly. Once they have gotten their placement, they have to go to work and experience what that is like...Quite a shock to some teenagers! :D
we had a Cooking class in school which was verry helpful and tought us the basics and how to eat healthy
@@emilwandel ??? The internship program is compulsory in EVERY Bundesland. Except for last year because of Corona. If your school doesn't do it, they are going against the law
Nur durch eigene Erfahrungen und diese Freiheiten sowie Vertrauen lernen die Kids Selbständigkeit. Das ist Freiheit für alle.
Your kids learn earlier to be a productive member of society as an adult when you learn such skills and independence from an early age.
8:52 "Du sprichst ein großes Wort gelassen aus." This quote stems from a drama of Goethe, our German "Shakespeare". "You speak a great word calmly." is cited when someone makes a profound remark in a subordinate clause.
When i was three years old, my dad removed the support wheels from the bicycle, pushed me and told me: use the pedals, use the pedals! I did. And from that day on i went all around with my bike...
I never used support wheels, I just learned riding the bike instantly within 3 days. But I think I was a bit older... about 4 or 5
When I think of kids in the U.S., Helicopter Mom immediately comes to mind....
10:39 The first thing I notice here is the American way of holding the fork in the right hand and eating. You do it all at the table, except for your daughter (and your husband)... :-D
BTW: My childhood was already 40-50 years ago, but... I can still remember, we moved to our new house at that time, I was just 3 years old and the roads outside were not ready yet (the area was used for agriculture in the past) and the road had huge puddles / potholes filled with water from the rain. And that's when I met my best friend at the time. We argued at first and then both sat in one of the puddles, wet and dirty from top to bottom. My mother brought us in (dirty as we were.... she said still today, one could recognize us before dirt and mud hardly...), sprayed us off with a hose first (it was summer) and gave us new clothes. After that we brought my "new friend" home (2-3 streets away). We were best friends for 25 years since then. That was my childhood. Always outside, no matter where... in nature, or in the village (we lived in a village with almost 1,200 inhabitants). My parents were with us children from a very young age always out in nature. Hikes, etc. pp. I learned nothing else and my father and mother had grown up exactly the same way.
My parents were also always happy when we kids were outside and not at home. Then they had more peace, because we were 5 children and I was the youngest.
Yeah there are definitely those kids of parents, but also there are parents who let their kids be more independent.
Yeah there are definitely those kids of parents, but also there are parents who let their kids be more independent.
Haha! Well I lived long enough in Europe to learn the European way. Ella is just left handed so she gets it for free!
leider gibt es auch in Deutschland eine immense Steigerungsrate der Helikopter Eltern und derer die ihre Kinder am liebsten mit dem Auto ins Klassenzimmer fahren würden. also auch hier ist nicht mehr alles so frei wie früher, das hängt aber natürlich stark von den Eltern ab und wie diese aufgewachsen sind. ein guter freund von mir ist Lehrer an einer Realschule und was der manchmal erzählt ist schon zum Haare raufen...
@@ChildofFlames666 Ja, wahrscheinlich hast du Recht. Leider, muss ich sagen... ich bin halt ganz anders aufgewachsen und so gebe ich das auch weiter.
Watching your video was a sweet childhood throwback, best wishes from Munich
I totally agree about the independence of kids in Germany. We were such helicopter parents back home in Australia and had to really chill out when coming here. One thing that still shocks us to this day is that independence means different things to different parents... One example is our youngest (8 years) was invited to a b'day party. Usually when I think of kids b'day parties I think of planned events... games, food, cake...supervised by an adult....etc. but the parents of the birthday boy gave the group of 10 kids some money, sent them alone to walk to the public swimming pool, swim and get lunch and after 3 hours return home.
Yeah that would be a very unusual birthday party for an American! But one the kids probably enjoyed nonetheless. It’s fascinating to me how this is the culture in Australia also! Now I really want to know where it began…
I am German, grew up the independant way and raise my kids that way (and up until now never really thought about the fact that that's something special 🤣) but sending a group of 8yr olds to a swimming pool ALONE stretches that independant part a bit too much I think. And it's not even allowed - as far as I know kids under 10yrs of age must be supervised by an adult when being at a public pool. But maybe that differs from region to region.
I grew up in a small village in Germany with lots of nature around. It was normal for kids at the age of 7 or 8 to play in a radius of 5 km (maybe) around their homes. Our parents didn't exactly know where we were but as long as we were together, it was fine for them. And because we couldn't read the clock yet, we were told to be at home by the time the streetlights turn on. It was in the 90th and I don't know, if it's still possible there today but I loved my freedom and won't miss a single day.
It is so fun to see how much your chlidren enjoy the nature - thx for sharing these beautiful impressions. You found a really nice place to live.
I love, love, love your video style with the intro always showing us snippets of your adventures! ♥️😍
It’s quite interesting what you said about the indoor lifestyle in the US. One of my mom’s rules is to always dress appropriately when driving somewhere especially in winter since you don’t know whether your car may break and you will have to stand outside the car and wait for help. I know very hypothetical but still 😅
That’s true! Your mom was smart. And I’m glad you like the intro, thank you!
In my childhood we were allowed to go out until the lanterns came on in the evening and it was great, we built booths and much more. Discovering the world from your own point of view was great.
Love it!
I was bought up a similar way in the UK although for me I was bought a wristwatch as a birthday present which was a sign of being allowed to play out without supervision... With a set time to be home for...
By secondary school (so age 10/11) I was often cycling 15-20 miles when I felt like it
6:21 Oh yes, every child in Germany has a Fahrradführerschein xD
That is awesome!
Here in NRW the kindergarden-kids begin with a "Fußgänger-Führerschein" and the "Fahrradführerschein Teil 1" which is continued in elementary schol with "Fahrradführerschein Teil 2". They have a kind of document with a picture and official stamps on it - and it makes them very proud :-)
@@nothingspecial123Q So cool!
We are trying to teach our daugther to be independent as soon as possible. And ofc doing homeworks like cooking, cleaning and so on aswell. It is so important to spend time with your kids, especially during covid. Thank you for sharing the video.
Yes teaching them to cook, clean and wash their own clothes is so important, too!
Wie immer ein sehr unterhaltsames Video! 😍 Wie schön, dass euch das Leben fern ab eurer Heimat so gut gefällt. 😀
Aus selbstständigen und selbstbewussten Kindern werden autarke Erwachsenenpersönlichkeiten, die mit den Herausforderungen des Lebens gut zurecht kommen.
I grew up in Germany, and yeah riding my bike with friends throughout the whole city was totally normal (20km bike rides and such), spent so much time out if the house with my mom having no clue where I went. I also remember the bike "drivers license" test in 4th grade.
I also grew up in the bavarian alps in an active family. 3 years old? - sure you can go an a hike with 900 m elevation. It was also expected to ride your bike to kindergarten by the age of 3 (accompanied, something my parents were kind of annoyed about because they would have let me drive alone by like 4 or 5 years old but the kindergarten only allowed that if you lived closer), know how to swim before starting school at 6 years. That is also a good age to ride your bike to the bakery Sunday morning.
I started walking to school with friends straight away. I felt do grown up. I practice with my parents before and was told where to be careful etc. I recently (so 17 years later) learned that my mom followed me the first two or three days to make sure I looked before crossing the streets etc. But I never knew that at the time.
I was allowed to go to the swimming pool alone as soon as I did the "Freischwimmer" - a test you can take at the pool to make sure you can cross the pool alone etc.
We also did a lot of climbing, canooying hiking etc. At 11 we rode our bikes to venice italy for almost a week (80-120 km/ day so not too crazy but it was still a cool experience).
I really had an awesome childhood and hope that my future children will have similar experiences
Awe love this! Love that you had such a great childhood and had so much freedom!
for 3 year old kids to manage 900m elevation they would have to be trained in climbing, eg stairs or steep streets, from 1 years onwards and, yes, it is possible, but it would not come naturally to kids. Let the kids develop at their own pace. They dont need all to become little Trenkers, before they reach school age.
@@opag78 you are absolutely right. I grew up right at the foot of the mountains with older siblings. So I always tagged along to family activities like hiking and climbing early on and was very used to it.
My nephew got his first balance bike for his first birthday, has been glued to it for almost two years and learned how to ride a bike before his third birthday. It has helped a lot with his confidence and also is great for the mum because they can travel further without a car and without her ending up having to carry him. I absolutely love that and I am glad to hear that you think it's cool too.
I imagine that schools and teachers in the USA are afraid of getting sued out of house and home if a precious little girl falls and hurts her knees in kindergarten. Litigation gets you the fastest buck.
someone falls in
in Germany he looks, who can help me up,
in America he looks, who can I sue
i hope your parents are proud of you with your change of way
I‘ a father of two boys here in Germany. The boys are nearly 6 years old, they enter school this year after the summer holidays. I am very much into motorcycles so i bought a Motorcycle with a sidecar so i can take my boys with me. They ride in the sidecar since they were 3 years old. They love it. Recently they asked to skip the sidecar and ride with me on the back of my other Motorcycle, a Harley Road Glide. They love it. They hold tight, i ride very carefull when one of them is on the back.
They love being taken home from kindergarden with the sidecar, all these other parents are staring. 🤣
How fun! I love that you’ve involved them in what you love since they were very young. That’s a sign of a great father!
Walk/bike to school with your buddies. that's FREEDOM... no "grown ups" around..... if you fall down you just have to stand up again YOURSELF (because no grown up is around) Greetings from Germany......
Yeah, kids in Germany learn to ride a bike and to swim quite early. :) In East Germany swimming lessons were even mandatory in Kindergarden. It's quite rare to see German kids who can't swim. When I entered second grade my mom also put me in charge of preparing my own sandwiches "Stullen" for school, which I would do in the morning right before we left. Because "you are capable and you know best what you want to eat today". It's these little things, which just push kids a little. My sister and I also had cat litter and dishwasher duties but those didn't really stick around. :D
Especially empowering kids to make their own food is awesome!
So eine tolle Familie !!!!Alles gute in Deutschland :).richtig toll das ihr hier in Deutschland seid !!!!hoffe ihr bleibt für immer und eurer Kinder kommen hier klar mit der Schule und dem Leben !! Bleibt gesund :).
Hello and good morning 🌻
Explore things together, trust and believe in them. It's not possible to protect them against everything.
They have to have their own experience and need the chance to figure things out and make some mistakes when doing it.
Nobody is perfect, of course watch your kids but with a little more and more space coming with the age.
Important is to know your area and what to do in different cases or having an issue.
And you guys are a wonderful family, I'm so impressed and have so much respect for you and how you doing all these things. Alone or as a couple it can be difficult, but with four kid's and a cat 🐈, really cool!! 👍
How lovely to have discovered your channel.
I have moved here in the mid-90´s and have never had any regrets. In fact it has been the best decision of my life. I am always curious how other expats experience Germany.
When I was 6 years old, I went to visit my friend’s parents (he was at his grandma’s house next to ours) with him being 7. We walked for 10 Km on the sidewalk along the main street full of traffic - cars, trucks, buses, all that stuff. We walked ~ for about 4 hours, nobody knew about it. We got there, drank some juice and phoned my parents. My father got there in the evening and took me home by car. I thought nothing about it, it was just a walk with my friend.
Wow, at 6!
My mother-in-law recently told me that she and her brother once went to visit their grandparents who lived 25 km away - by foot! They were around 10/11 yrs old, I think, and they made it in the course of a day. Granted, this was around 1960, but still ... Plus, she lived in the middle of a big city as a child, so they had to start out where all the traffic was. Some kids are really tough!
@@roesi1985 No Mimimi at that time. You did it - and survived anyway. Parents weren‘t that concerned either. They knew about the abilities of their kids. I had to look after my little brother when he was 4, I was 7. He ran along a low wall (on our garden), I followed, did not see a sharp sheet metal piece on the surrounding fence. I cut my upper leg open, bleeding heavily. I ran to my mother inside our home. First I got a smack for not properly looking after my brother, then another smack for cutting my leg, another one for bleeding on the floor. She slapped on a big band aid, and sent me out on duty again. I cried for pain initially, but hadn‘t I stopped I would have been smacked again. BTW a phrase I heard from my mother quite often: Du willst weinen? Dann gebe ich dir auch einen Grund dazu... und ich bekam eine Ohrfeige, die sich gewaschen hatte. Those were the days my friend ....
@@darkredvan Yes, you're right. I was treated this way, too. But I am glad that these times are over, tbh. I don't believe in pampering a child, but I also think you should watch out for and fulfill their needs. That's your responsibility as a parent. When a child comes to you crying, there's nothing wrong in giving them some understanding and comfort, so they feel loved and secure. After that, they'll feel even stronger when you encourage them to go out again and conquer the world. The austere "Prussian" way of educating a child did serious harm, at least to my soul. I needed some years to heal and become healthy again after growing up, and I'm still not done yet. And as far as I can assess that, it also harmed the souls of my parents and their siblings.
It’s so interesting to look at my own culture through someone else’s eyes ❤️😊
I’m sure it is!
i grew up in a big city, in Hamburg, but even in Hamburg, at outer districts of Hamburg we have parks and forests and that's where we spend almost all of our time - in the woods. from early age on like 7, 8, 9 years old we drove with our bicycles there and stayed until the street lamps geht on in the evening. we took no harm.
Love it! The best parts of childhood.
I love you, all six of you. I am Belgium and have been to the USA 8 times so I witnessed them on site. But the more I know, the more I read about the Americans, the more illusions and straightforward silliness I meet. And I think you prove it.
Living in the USA and seeing how kids grow up nowadays and the way I grew up in Germany us very very different for many reasons. I also think that if you raised kids here as they are being raised in Germany other people would call child protection services on you.
A friend of mine worked in the U.S. for a couple of years. He told me that one day the kids were brought home by the police. He was surprised to learn that kids are not allowed to walk to/from school by themselves.
@@compuholic82 wow, really? So strange
@@nitka711 well most americans live in cardependet suburbian hell. No sidewalks, no bike lanes just huge cars. Its pretty dangerous for everybody who isnt in a car. And of course due to strict zoneing laws, you cant even build a school near to those kids, as they live in a single familiy home only area
I am German transplanted to America..when I was 12 i as traveling by plane to my aunts in Canada , I raised my kids and my granddaughter with as much independence as I can muster
I went to school in the 80s and 90s and have a 13yo now. My kid is not as self-reliant as I was that age. School lunch and afternoon care where they can do their homework under supervision - that wasn't a thing when I was young. So when kids come home after 4 p.m. they already ate and there are not that many chores left, which leaves only the weekends to learn how to cook, do the groceries, laundry and so on. I aspired to raise a self-reliant kid but as a working single-mom it's actually pretty hard, in Germany as much as anywhere else I presume. It was also easier to get a job at 16 and work after school back then.
So a lot of young people I know don't really know how to run a household when they leave school and start university with very little work experience.
In my elementary school we had roads painted on one of the schoolyards so when the police came for the bicycle training they could put up road signs and we could practice traffic rules to get our approval to be fit for the street traffic. That‘s how I got my first „driver license“ when I was eight. 🙂
I remember that I had my own silverware especially made for kids with a slightly smaller fork and spoon and a knife that wasn‘t as sharp as those for the adults. But I don‘t remember at what age or until what age I used it. There is an old German nursery rhyme: „Messer, Gabel, Schere, Licht, sind für kleine Kinder nicht!“, which translates to „Knife, Fork, Scissors, Light (like in lighter) aren‘t made for children“. So there‘s that. On the other hand we know that forbidden fruits taste much better. But I didn‘t remember being taught about knifes forks and matches in Kindergarten.
There was an extra place for this in my city, where all the schools went.
The school took the whole elementary school class to bicycle training once a week by bus to another location. It was roughly two acres in area, had both rough gravelly paths, as well as paved streets with road signs. During the official part we had to show the trainer that we knew how to clearly signal with one hand while still riding our bikes one-handed. Brake, stop at stop signs, acknowledge the "Rechts vor links" law / "Right before left law" in Germany's road rules, understand street signals and how they pertained to bikers, cars, and pedestrians, how to stop at a cross-road, and at a pedestrian crossing. At the end of training we even had to pass a biking test, both theoretical and practical. So that last bit hasn't changed in the last 40 years or so; nice to see.
Obviously we as kids always craved the 'now the official part is over, have fun riding like crazy' part.
Where we took the bikes dirt biking off the beaten paths, racing each other in complete safety, etc.
I'm 45 years old now but I still got my children silverware which was a birthday present for my fifth birthday (got a photograph with all my presents) :D The knife is sharp like normal knives for adults. The difference between adult sets and my set of children silverware is the decoration - on the children silverware are some children. That's it. Same size, same "sharpness".
@@KitsuneHB There are some differences in mine. Not just the decoration, but mine was a little bit smaller and while the knife was sharp, neither the knife nor the fork were quite as "pointy". In fact, I nowadays use the knife as additional butter knife from time to time.
I get the impression that you are exactly at the place you are supposed to be! Your educational style and your lifestyle seems to fit German perfectly. So good to see your kids being happy and the parents too.
Btw: Tell Peanut not to be shy! We want to see her carrying the tomato! (Does she really carry it around like a dog? So funny!)
Thank you! Yes Peanut really does carry around a toy tomato, just like a dog!!
One practical thing about going to school: I went to school for 14 years, I went there alone (or with friends my age) from the second day on. Except for the very first day, I was only with one of my parents on special occasions, maybe four or five times in all these years. It just wasn't a thing.
One of my favourite memories is me and my friend playing in the steep woods behind the house and rolling down the hill on wet loam. And we came home covered in mud, my dad looked at us, took us by the back of our clothes and directly into the bathtub. Also I spent hours and hours in a cherry tree enjoying the blossoms and later the cherries, also I could hide there, when I was supposed to do chores. I sat up there and read comic books and squinted through the leaves while my mom was looking for me to make me do stuff.
Walking home from school our street was hardly driven on, so we sometimes laid flat on the warm asphalt and enjoyed the sun, we also came late to school often due to a well we found a little off the street where you could watch the sand being moved by the groundwater flowing from below.
Building "cabins" in the woods, sliding down hills, riding my bike all the time and being outside like 90 % of the time. We also hiked a lot with my family.
I have the feeling, at least where I live, that this way of a childrens life isn't possible anymore. In the countryside it hopefully still is, if somebody knows, let me know :-)
Oh, yeah. Table manners. It’s apparently a bit different in Europe. I heard in the US before one begins eating you cut your food, put aside the knife and then eat with only your fork while in Europe we simply cut as we go.
Actually it may be useful to brush up on etiquette. No need to go super deep but it’s still a useful life skill since there are plenty of folks around who intentionally or unintentionally are judgy about stuff like that…
Table manners do matter....wishing Americans would improve in that direction a bit.
I should have clarified that table manners are not universal in their definition but depend on whom one asks…
Let’s talk for example about slurping noodles: to some it is a faux pas to do so, to others it is a faux pas to not do so. To be truly well-mannered means that one should try to adapt to one’s surroundings as best as possible. Anything else wouldn’t be being well-mannered, but being an arrogant fool.
A big part of giving children independence is knowing what you can trust them with. My little sister was allowed to cross streets on her own younger than I was, because I'm terrible at judging distances and speeds and my parents knew that (I'm 16 now and still bad at that).
I was allowed into the woods alone earlier than her - because I begged endlessly, yes, but also because I don't loose my way in the woods (especially since no child stays on the paths if they aren't in a nature preservatory zone).
We were both pretty independent, but every child is different, and everyone has different skills even at the same age.
Umso mehr Videos ich von euch sehe, umso mehr möchte ich in eure neue Heimat ziehen!
Es ist sicher auch ein toller Ort um Urlaub zu machen :D
Hehe, die sechs (plus Katze) wohnen da, wo andere Urlaub machen. 😁
Moin alle zusammen, es freut das ihr euch hier in Deutschland wohlfühlt, ein Herzliches Willkommen🥰
Das ist sehr nett! Vielen dank!
I love to hear how much fun your kids, and you with them, have 😊 when I was around 8, I was aloud to go outside of our neighborhood to a little river with lots of fields around, and it was so much fun. Of course I often fell into the river by trying to jump over it and I came home completely wet 😂🙈 so my mum always had me strip down all my clothes in front of our house and then get right under the shower. It was such an amazing time, we built treehouses from things we found laying around.
I live in the middle west of Germany and we also were outside all the time, so I think that maybe some areas of Germany are more outdoorsy than others, but I think especially kids, are outside everywhere in Germany 😊
Yes it does seem like German kids are outdoors no matter where they are from.
I'm impressed with this video. So many things kids in Germany that american kids aren't taught. I never knew.