5 CONTROVERSIAL THINGS THAT GERMAN PARENTS DO 🇩🇪

hey guys welcome back to my channel and if you're new here it is so great to have you I'm at T in New Zealander living in the beautiful wine region of lower Franconia Germany so I thought it was about time for another raising kids in Germany video I know you guys really enjoy these types of videos and I was actually talking the other day with a good friend of mine from the United States and she recommended a book called akong Baby an American mom on the German actart of raising self-reliant children the book was written by an American exp mom in Germany called Sara zaski so apparently this book is basically the holy grail for exper parents in Germany and I have absolutely no idea why I had never heard of this book but I know about it now and I'm definitely going to read it but I thought do you know what I am going to react to an article I found based on the book so this article is by the website Reading Eagle and it's titled some seemingly scary things that German parents do if you watch my videos you all know that I love to talk about German parenting or parenting the German Way so I read through this article and it was really interesting and there were things that I really agreed with and other things that I maybe didn't agree with so much and it's quite a long article so I've actually picked out five of the points listed in this article so in no particular order the first point letting kids play out of sight in a big city park at the age of three so I have a lot to say about this actually I don't live in a big city I live in a small town I don't agree with this entirely I definitely would not let my child or I don't see a lot of children here in Germany at the age of three playing you know at parks and playgrounds with no parents inside this may have been the experience for the author of the book but for me personally this is not something I have experienced or I have seen here in Germany but from my experience I definitely see children here in Germany not as young as three but as young as six I would say at the playground on their own or just walking around on their own with no parent in sight and this was definitely a shock to me when I first moved to Germany I definitely agree with the fact that German parents give their children a lot more freedom and Independence at a much younger age than parents in New land and this is very much a German parenting thing this is part of the German parenting style Germans raise their children to be you know confident and independent and they give them so much freedom and this is something I actually really love about German parenting but at the same time I struggle with it and I'm getting better at it but it's something I still struggle with a little bit so a little example of this the other day I was in the supermarket I was in leader and I saw a little friend of my sons he is seven and he was alone in the supermarket with his little backpack on and a shopping list I was expecting to turn around and see his mom but she was nowhere to be seen at first I was a little bit taken back but at the same time he just looked so cute he was so confident and proud of himself I know for a fact that he lived not too far from the supermarket like the next block over and he was very well behaved he had everything under control and that's just a classic example of how much you know freedom and Trust German parents put in their children and you know I think this is great so before I jump into the next point I would like to take a moment to introduce you to today's sponsor IMO if you're a parent living in Germany especially an exet parent like me I think you're really going to like this product as a New Zealander living in Germany it is a constant struggle for me trying to find a healthy balance between giving my child Independence and freedom like other parents here in Germany and keeping my child safe this is why I'm so excited to have discovered the IMO z7 kids Smartwatch which combines safety 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children at the age of like three or four to cut food with a sharp knife but now that I have seen that this is what they do in Germany I completely agree with this beneficial for a child to learn proper safety skills at a very young age and so once a week at my son's kindergarten they have a healthy breakfast where all the kids help to prepare the breakfast the teachers are supervising of course teaching the children the correct safe way to use a sharp knife this is why German kids are so confident and capable because they are given the opportunity to do these things in a safe way they're taught properly how to use a knife instead of you know being curious and picking up a knife and not knowing what to do with it and I think a lot more accidents are caused in this way another point is leaving a sleeping baby in a stroller outside a restaurant this one for me it doesn't surprise me but I actually haven't seen this in Germany I've lived in Germany for so many years I don't think I've seen this I've heard about this and I've heard that a lot of Scandinavian parents do this I haven't really heard about this with German parents maybe this is more of a big ciss concept or maybe this happens all the time in Germany I just haven't noticed it but it definitely doesn't surprise me I don't think it would be unsafe to do that in Germany um so if you're a German parent and you're watching this please let me know is this something relatively normal in Germany have you done this with your baby the next point is allowing an overnight preschool campaign trip this one is really interesting I have definitely experienced something similar here in Germany my children two of my children have slept over at kindergarten but it wasn't on a camping trip maybe that is something that they do in Berlin I live in lower Franconia but it's definitely a tradition in the area of Germany where I live for kindergarten children at the very end of their kindergarten journey to stay overnight have a sleepover with the kids at kindergarten and their kindergarten teachers and this is something that my daughter and my son have both done and I found this a little bit just different it's not something that I was used to but my children both really enjoyed this and I see absolutely no problem with this I don't think it's shocking or anything like that I very much trust their teachers you know they are staying over with a big group of their friends from kindergarten and I think it's just something really fun and exciting for them and I must say children in Germany they finished kindergarten when they're six so they are that much older especially in a safe environment it is at the kindergarten and you know they're all sleeping on mattresses all together in one room and they have dinner together and you know they do activities together and in the morning the parents are invited to a big group breakfast and I think it's really cool so the overnight camping thing I have not experienced it but I think it's really cool and I'm sure my children would really enjoy doing that the next point is letting little kids climb a 20ft high play structure guys if you have been watching my videos about raising kids in Germany you'll know that this is 100% true and it's definitely something that shocked me when I first became a parent in Germany or even before I was a parent and I saw little kids doing what I would consider really dous things now for me it is very very normal because this is just part of the relaxed German parenting style letting children take risks so they can build confidence and when a child is confident climbing up a really high playground structure then they're less likely to fall and injure themselves I made a video a long time ago when my daughter was maybe four or five I talked about how shocked I was when I saw small children at our local playground walking along this really really high brick wall it was super super high and I was so scared that they were going to fall off and my daughter wanted to do that too and I just I didn't want her to I was so so scared I ended up letting her in the end but I felt very uncomfortable letting her do this I was looking around and the German parents were so calm about this and they were not worried in the slightest and the fact that they were so chilled about this put me at ease and it made me sort of think you know maybe I should just chill out it would have been pretty bad if one of the children had actually slipped and fallen off this really high brick wall but no one did I mean it's just something very normal here in Germany to see children climbing up really really high playground equipment or trees or just yeah things that I would consider dangerous or people from other Anglo-Saxon countries would consider dangerous so anyway guys I have come to the end of this video I really hope you enjoyed it before I go I just wanted to remind you if you are interested in checking out the amazing IMO z7 Smartwatch I will leave a link for where you can do so in my description below if you use my link you also have access to a 10% discount off your purchase thank you so much for watching guys if you enjoyed this video then don't forget to give it a big thumbs up it really helps out my channel if you haven't already subscribed to my channel I would love you to consider subscribing that would mean so much to me feel free to connect with me on Instagram and I will see you again really soon bye