If one would want, one could make Danes look like a horrible parents. (DISCLAIMER: this is a composite of different educational practices of parents in Denmark I have come across separately. I do not think that Danish parents are bad, but I do find it amusing when you compile it this way that they can sound so.)
As
I wrote last week, very shortly after children are born, they are being
tucked away at the baby-strawlers and put outside in the cold and rain
to sleep at least once per day. Kindergartens have a whole baby parking installations outside where children are put to sleep.
Six
to nine months after childbirth, mothers go back to the working market
and children are left full time in daycare institutions. Even Danes
acknowledge that because children are taken care of by professionals a
lot, parents often miss on their children's important development steps
like when they start to crawl, walk, talk etc.
From the age of two, danish children are starting to get education in kindergartens. First through play,but by the age of six or seven children are expected to sit and pay
attention to their teachers for 45 minutes straight. If we take into
consideration that attention span of an average adult is 15 minutes, I
guess you can imagine that this is a very demanding task for children.
But I have to be fair and say that this is a problem of education in
general. If children fail at this they will be diagnosed with ADHD and
treated for it. Couple of pedagogues I talked to told me that ADHD
diagnosis is given out way too lightly in Denmark and that a number of children who actually have ADHD is low.
As
children continue to develop, they should feel super lucky if their
teeth and jaw develop as they should. If they don't, they will get external braces and they will walk around looking as space-man. With
that, every shred of self-confidence they may have developed is completely
ruined.
When they turn 13
they join the labor market and ofc they are being exploited. When
children in Denmark start to work, they are being paid only half of what
adults would be earning for the same position.
When
puberty kicks in and hormones start raging, when kids start to mature
and ask questions about life, meaning, purpose and all other kinds of
philosophical questions, their parents point them to the psychologists.
Why? Because there is only so much personal problems with which parents
can't be bothered, for everything else there are professionals who are
there to help children to grow up. Did I say problems? Sorry, I meant to
say normal part of development. Yes, for normal part of development,
children in Denmark are sent to the psychologists.
Hmm...
but maybe they do need professional help, after all from 13 to 18 they
are expected to develop working habits and go to school and excel at
both because in Denmark you can't be less then perfect. At the same time
they are constantly being reminded that they are nothing special, that
they shouldn't stand out, that is the way of the Jante Law that is deeply ingrained in Danish culture. And as an icing on the cake
children are supposed to take their emotions and bury them deep down and
never show them, because that is also deeply ingrained in Danish
culture. All of that is expected from them while nothing in life makes
sense and hormones are raging. And just at the moment they got the hang
of their emotions, answered some of the questions, finished school,
their loving parents thank them for cooperation and ditch them out of the
apartment because that is expected when you turn 18.
Of
course they can visit from time to time, but only if announced a month
in advance. After all, parents have their lives as well.
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