Hey guys, I want to say thank you so much for all your amazing feedback on this video! I read every single comment and wish I could reply to all of you individually, but it would take me days. I want you all to know that I am in no way judging the German or New Zealand style of parenting and I believe that any child who is raised in Germany or New Zealand is extremely lucky! I'm also not implying that every German or Kiwi parent is going to raise their children in the way I’m describing. Also I want to say that most German parents DO teach their children to share but this doesn't mean the child has to automatically give the toy they are playing with to another child who wants it. As adults, we wouldn't be happy about someone taking our belongings off us, so why should children feel any different? I understand the logic behind this. P.s. lastly, I should have said ''cobblestone wall’’ and not ‘’cobblestone fence’’ during the playground story. I realised this when I was editing and it was too late to change it.

Ein Zeichen, dass du in Deutschland aufgewachsen bist: Du hast einen Fahrradführerschein gemacht. 😂

I am German and my mom always told me, when I was climing a tree and thought I couldn't make it down again: "when you can get up, you can get down" XD

I think the part about sharing toys or not has a lot to do with teaching kids that they can't just take things away from others but have to ask permission. They learn early on that not everything is there for them to take. I made sure early on to teach my son please and thank you when he wanted something. When he would ask for a cookie (with his limited vocabulary) I would say, cookie please. It irks me when I hear kids ordering their parents around. Mom, I'm thirsty and they run and get it. No please, no thank you. On multiple occasions the german in me would come through, I would look at my friends kids and say, can you ask nicely, she's not your maid. That's another thing in germany, other parents will tell your child to cut it out if they are doing something they shouldn't. They don't go to the parents to let them know. Yes mom might not have seen what you did but I did. I tell my friends all the time, if my son acts like a jerk or inappropriately you have the right to put him in his place. After all, I might not have seen or noticed what he did behind my back. I don't want him to think that as long as mom didn't notice it's ok for him to do. Takes a village to raise a child.

I mean, it is a difference between sharing and getting robbed^^

When a child hears that they "cannot do something" that other children obviously do with ease, it is a lesson that resonates their entire life. That there is something wrong with them, that they are not capable, and that they should never take risks. The moment you let your child walk that wall, it changed everything. It was huge. Congrats on making the right decision because even a broken arm is not as bad as a broken human that was never allowed to reach their full potential. Well done.

"Prepare for the weather(s)!" Yep, that definitely is German kid raising. :D

For me as a German it is refreshing to see people from other countries noticing the differences in lifestyles and reasonably picking their own way to deal with it. I think this is crucial for both, natives and newcomers, to question one's own habits and not to take them for granted but re-calibrate them to something even better (i.e. thought-through). Don't get me wrong: I explicitly mean that in both ways. "Integration" should be a two-way street and natives can learn a lot from immigrants as well. Your videos help us to become aware of the differences in habits in the first place. Thanks for that!

As a German, I fully agree with all of them, especially number 4. When I was younger, my mom took me to the playground once, a nice one with these metal climbing racks and the such. We were climbimg them up and down, pulling and pushing one another and no one said anything, but every mom in the vicinity was watching on like a cheetah. Well, of course, someone had go get hurt. Me. I fell down, hit my head on the metal bars, landed on the ground on my head/neck and had to go to the hospital (which was literally down the street). My mom kept completely cool, telling me stuff like "It's not that bad", "look, it's not bleeding.", "big boys don't cry." and the such. A doctor got to see me and I had to remain in hospital for about a week, because I lightly cracked a vertebra in my lower neck. I was totally fine with that. It hurt, but it didn't stop me from having fun with the other kids in the hospital. But it was weird, because my mom only brought me there and later my dad came over, hwile my mom was gone. I didn't see her for two or three days. Years later, we were talking about weird things that us kids were doing with my mom, aunt and grandma and I remebered that story. My mom remembered it as well and told me why she didn't come to visit me on the first few days. As it turns out, she had a complete nervous breakdown after my dad came over, puked her guts out and fainted on the floor. The hospital instantly took her into intensive care because no one knew what was going on at the time and she was unable to calm down and get out of bed for this time because of repeated panic attacks and because she was certain she would have another breakdown if she saw me so soon. But she never told me that. Nor did my dad. Why? Because "it's normal for kids to play around and get hurt from time to time" and "she didn't want me associating getting hurt with mommy feeling bad." I love my mom. :D

You can even breastfeed your toddler and no-one will say a bad word. Also we think in Germany a pregnant belly is absolutely adoring and beautiful! You sometimes have to fight old woman trying to touch 🤣

I am a german kindergarten teacher and I traveled with my au pair family to nz... First thing I realized in nz was that I often saw kids with socks outside. That was and still is so crazy for me and really the opposite from the german 8 pair of shoes situation (by the way, I worked in several kindergartens and they always gave the parents this list with things, what the children need, but it was never necessary to buy all that stuff... For winter I would say just snow boots and a snow suit, for spring and autumn the rain suit with rain boots and normal shoes with a light jacket - and you should be fine... If really something is missing they will tell you. But in my experience are most of this lists not up to date/realistic) and the other thing I realized in nz where the great, amazing playgrounds! I never saw so cool playgrounds and I am super jealous :) Haha and your point with the fence and that german parents let their children experience "dangerous" things: during my study to a kindergarten teacher I learned a sentence "every child has the right to fall down" which basically means that you need to let your children fall down, try dangerous things, let them try things where you know it's impossible... The important part is, that they experience it by themselves in their age... Because if they where always protected from everything and they are old enough to go out alone and then they climb up this fence, the possibility that they fail is much higher - they don't have the experience how to deal with the high, they didn't practice to balance and when they observed the other kids, it always looked so easy...and if they fall down then, it's even more possible that they hurt themselves more seriously, because they never practiced how to fall.

Bahahah. I grew up in Germany and your list is bang on! Taking risks was HUGE! I got hurt here and there but overall it was the best time ever ! Let your daughter explore and climb trees and take a skateboard or bicycle down a steep hill - it’s fun and will give her great memories.

Forced sharing in kids makes NO SENSE. I would be pissed off, too, if somebody came over and wanted the book I was reading. Why do we think it's OK that kids have to give up their toy things even if they are actively playing with them?

Elefanten-Schuhe! Always the first shoes! And there's nothing more beautiful than a pregnancy belly!

That was super interesting, awesome video. I'm a father of three (0y,2y,4y) and we just moved from Germany to the California. What you're explaining is exactly what I experienced here (but vice versa). When my kids climb at the playground there are often other parents who wants to 'help' in situations they evaluate as dangerous. That often really scares my kids when someone they don't know runs to them to 'help'. Also when we walk through the city, normally my son walks faster then we do. We can't always see him but he waits at every intersection or street until we arrive, not a big issue I would say. But here people are always searching for the parents or try to 'prevent' that he's walking onto the street (what he would never do). Thx for your video, like I said, it's super interesting to experience that from the other perspective.

When I was a child, I loved to climb on trees and walls, ride my bike without hands and so on :D And even though I hurt myself a few times my parents never stopped me. I think it's very beneficial for children to experience what they can and can't to with their body. It boosts their self esteem and helps them develop their motor skills.

I do remember when my daughter was little, she was trying to get another child to share their toy with her. I assumed that the parent would encourage their child to share, but to my surprise they said that this was their son's toy, and he can decide who plays with it. I was about to get a little miffed about it, but several seconds later the boy wanted to play with my daughter's toy, and the mom told my daughter she doesn't have to share her toy if she doesn't want to. I realized that it goes both ways. And really, it does make sense. A person shouldn't be pressured to share something if they don't want to. That wall is high!!! I would have been scared to let a little one climb and walk on that as well! But then I remember walking and climbing on things like that when I was little.

That was really interesting. I listened to things that seem just natural to me as a German and I had never thought about it. You always hear that the Germans are correct and stiff and the New Zealanders are chilled etc so I thought at first that the video could be a bit negative. But it was really refreshing 🤗

#4 is very important. My Mother is from South Italy and I could never "take a risk" in front of her. She was anxious immediately. So I grew up a little more scared than others. Instead my daughter was encouraged by me to don't being scared but being careful. That is a huge difference. So she grew up confidently :-) I can't blame on my Mother because her mentality is just that way having anxiety but for Child education it sets boundaries for a growing child which aren't real because the danger is only in her head.

just a small note on the freedom part: no, it‘s not easier for german parents to let go, and sometimes we flinch on the inside just as much as any other parent. we just learned from our childhood growing up in kindergarten and such, that less accidents occur if we let children „fall“ from earliest age on, so they experience and learn to know what they can and cannot already do, and that fear is a good point for noticing this. also if they fall early on, they also learn early on, how to react in this case. how to fall, what to protect. this is not a foolproof concept, but usually kitas have no real accidents except blue spots and few cuts or grazes. we also learned that we need to show support and no fear of our kids trying new things and not to stop them from exploring. however it‘s also not easy to watch sometimes and no one is perfect. in a way on playgrounds and such we kinda rely on other parents lending a hand if really necessary, stopping a swing if a kid walks through without watching, catching a child when accidently falling of a too high slide tower. i have done all of this and my kids have been rescued like this and other incidents, so my kids learned the limits and learned to trust. of course not any accident can be prevented but usually all goes well...

Wow. I noticed some of these points too n looking forward to raising my kids here. Thanks for this...

I'm a mom living in Norway, and the motto her is that there no such thing as bad weather just bad clothes. With other words I also buy a lot of protective clothing. You mentioned that you had to replace the clothing all the time? What we do in Norway is that we buy everything a size too big. From 1 year to 3 years everything should last one whole kindergarten year. From 4 to 5 years clothing should last for two seasons. I'm talking about the protective winter gear.

Dear Antoinette, raising kids in a dangerous environment and grown-ups freaking out - I can share a story. So I've got non-identical twin boys who don't like siblings and have totally different characters. We often went for walks with our dog in the community-forest and as a "treat" for walking the dog, we went to the forest-playground afterwards. This playground is not an adventure-playground but rather conventional with a sand-box, a merry-go-round, some swings, a play-pirate-ship and two metal-slides. The bigger one is about 3,5 meters high. So my boys loved to use the slides. First the small, later the big one. And with 2 and a half years one of my sons saw the big boys climbing up the slide (not the ladder, but the real slide) and he wanted to it like the big boys. First he didn't succeed (and he was a little afraid) but after some days of practising he finally reached the top and rewarded himself by sliding down head and arms first. About half a year later my mother-in-law nearly had a heart attack, when she saw him climbing the slide. She tried to stop him, but he declared "Oma, das mach ich immer so" (Granny, I'm always doing it like this) and wouldn't let her stop him. And was I proud of him, taking his stand. His brother attempted to climb the slide with 5 years for the first time. It is always a question of considering the actual risk and danger on one side and trusting your child and their abilities on the other. It starts with balancing on longs logs in the wood or big stones at the playground. First you offer to hold their hand, but after some time, they will refuse to take it. First you slide with your kid, then you'll hold their hand, while the're sliding, then they slide on their own and finally they walk up the slide and climb down the ladder. They can do it alone, a big step into independence and a boost for self-esteem. "Give your kids roots to grow and wings to fly." I don't know who said it, but it's my motto of raising kids. CU twinmama

thank you so much for this heads up!

Beautiful video, thanks so much for sharing 💗 it just makes you see how much more love there is in other countries 😊💗

I love the video and audio quality

I am German and as I heard you talking about a "really high fence" I really didn't expect... that... haha, but it's true, scientists found out that kids also get to know their limits and abilities better when allowed to test them. Also children are very fast at healing... they're not made of porcellain. At least the German ones... I enjoyed your video. Danke für's hochladen :D

Lovely video! And so true.

Thank you very much for talking so respectfully about the germans parenting style. And thank you for letting us know a little bit more about your way of raising your kids.

Hallo, ich komme aus Norddeutschland und hier ist es normal, das auch andere Kinder mit den mitgebrachten Sachen spielen dürfen. Nur einfach wegreißen ist nicht ok. Alle teilen, so lernen es die Kleinen. Lieben Gruß Katja

The sharing part I read in a German parenting guide textbook. The idea is, that kids learn, that it's not ok to take things away, that are not theirs. It prevents them from stealing when they get older. This is quite a new thing. I grew up sharing my toys and I know many Germans who teach their kids to share.

wow i never thought about those things as unusual

Meine Omma hat immer gesagt: "Kannst bei Allem sparen, aber nicht bei Schuhen für die Kinder! Nur das Beste!" Und wie so häufig hatte Omma Recht. (und für die Meckerfritzen: Bei uns im Ruhrgebiet heißt das "Omma" mit zwei "m")

We have pretty nice medieval town walls in my hometown and as kids we always climbed on them. One time a stranger told us to don't climb and we said we won't do it, then he walked away and we started to climb the walls again.

Kids need the opportunities to make their own mistakes and to fight their own fears. If they are positive about climbing a wall (and other kids of the same age do it and are fine), the fear is in the parents' heads. Also a childhood with no broken arm or leg, without any scar or concussion is really boring. I personally had no problem scolding any person who behaved badly towards a breastfeeding woman and I find it extremely outlandish to even think about it as an issue. I was taught to ask if I can play with someone else's toys (great opportunity to practice that bitte and danke thing, too) and to accept the answer. I was also taught that it is a nice thing to share my toys. And I learnt that kids don't want to play with me if I don't share.

Thank you for this refreshing and very amusing point of view :) You've put so much experience in it, people really recognise your former trouble with thid themes, i really like your positive attitude against an different parenting style and your oprness to (at least) try it (once) youself. Thank you, i hope you still have a good time in good ol'germany:)

Love it!!!

Nice vid! We have more in common with Germany then most dutchies think. PS: Love your accent. We've been to NZ for 2 months and we loved it. Just subscibred, greetings from the Netherlands.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Wonderful video, found this interesting born & living in UK, yes seems can be such differences. Refreshing to see hear. Learnt minimal German, still to visit Germany with my son 1 day. BTW nice friendly positive vibe.

Fascinating. I think in the US parents tend to be overprotective, but it's nice to know that German parents may be more open to letting their kids explore and take small risks.

I loved this video. I can't imagine who in the world would have given this a thumbs down. I thought it was delightful and it made me want to move to Germany!

Hi Antoinette Emily, what a fun video! I am am American Expat Mama living in The Netherlands and can relate to a lot of what you’re saying here. What a fun video idea too! When you showed that cobblestone wall with the kids on it, my reaction was 😮 “get down from there, kids!” So I totally get what you’re saying. Thank you for a lovely video!!

I love how you explain point 4, thanks for your honesty. Maybe you weren't the only one being scared😅 Point 5 also very refreshing! Much love♥️

Haha, didn’t know we in Sweden are so much the same as german parents😄!

It can be very stressful for a child to share a toy with a stranger. I understand. Where in our adult life do we do that? Would you share your car or phone with me?

We lived in Germany for 3 years. These are spot on - and also happen to be some of things I loved... the directness, the openness, the focus on play. Thank you for sharing!

Everything made Sense i agree with you Love your Content 🤗👌🏽

i just want to tell my opinion about 2 of your points: for the first point i think it is not a question of property of the toy ("this is the toy of my children don't let your children touch it..." and so on...). as i have children too, i've learned children have different phases of intelectual or mental development. for example studies have shown that very young children cannot see other children as playing partners. they literaly see them as another toy. and so it is with sharing. young children are not yet mentally developed to understand the notion of sharing. so why let the children get upset if it doesn't understand it anyway? the second point is clothing: yes we are prepared for evey weather and situation (we don't want black boot stripes on the gymnasium floor :-) but if i would have to buy all the clothes for my children i would have been bankrupt. many parents share their childrens clothing and everything that is not entirely broken is reused. so rain boots are from the cousins, the coat from a friend and so on. and we give the onesies to other parents/babies when they become too small for our kids.

Listen to the speech at google from sarah zaske. She's an American journalist who raised two children in Berlin and wrote a book "Achtung Baby".

I'm shocked you don't have more subscribers given the lovely content and genuineness

I love your videos.... i agree with you.... as a new mum in Germany i really have to cope with so many new different thing, but it really make fun

That was fun to watch. I am trying to remember if my mother made me share things or not. I really don't remember but I like the idea of deciding for yourself wether it is hugging or sharing toys. It is good to know that it is a choice. :)

I‘m German and I don‘t have kids of my own, but I think the stance about sharing depends on which kid is the owner. As a parent I can tell my own kid to share (or perhaps rather encourage them to share), but I can‘t expect other kids to share. That‘s their or their parents decision. So in my opinion this German mother was right.

5 for 5 for me as well. Every time you said one, I was like, "yep!" I am American here for 5 years, and not a mother, but YES to every one of your points. Checking more of your vids now. Fun channel!

the sharing thing is super interesting. i am from austria and we do not do this the same way as germany. kids are almost always encouraged to share their toys here. so interesting!

We were staying at one hotel right next to a school in Berlin and I could observe the kids coming to school in the morning from my breakfast table. I was surprised how many small kids came alone (without parent) or with friends to school.

The difference is that you did not make the experience of climbing on high walls yourself as a kid. I was allowed to climb almost everywhere and I had never fear and was very proud of my climbing skills. When seeing my kids on high walls now, I first also feared but then I remembered my childhood and this confidence so then I let them do it. A good thing which helps me is just to pray to God, he may protect them and take away my fear, so I have something to do while they are climbing😊

omg thank you so much for this video I just had forgotten in which country I was raising my kid in

Dear Antoinette , i really like how you said "making memories with my little girl", that is exactly what it is all about. Hats off ! I very much appreciate how open you are towards learning new things. And i am sure we in germany can learn a thing or two from New Zealanders, especially regarding recent events. I love you folks !

Yes I agree with the German way of sharing. Love from South Africa

I remember I loved to climb trees. I have one particularly memories were I was looking down from a tee and was surprised that my parents looked like ants. My dad showed me a picture once and the tree was like 15-20 meter and I was at the very top. Still super happy about it

This sounds very much like parenting in Finland. Loved listening to this.

I am German and I agree 100% with all Points you mentioned. This Video was very interesting and amusing. Thank you so much!

My family and I lived in many countries (7) and had our kids growing up essentially exposed constantly to different cultures. We learned a lot about how different cultures brought up their children. Nonetheless my wife maintained in core the "German" way of doing things, nonetheless picked up here and there trades that she was comfortable with. So in essence you are doing the right thing and you can look forward to raise your kids to be self aware and and kind. I believe trades anchored in the German (self aware) and New Zealand (kind) culture. Keep it up 👍🏻😉

The sharing the toy thing is really interesting! And omg when I was in Germany, I saw a little boy climbing some kind of fence, and I was surprised -- the parents were barely watching! Kinda shocking! haha

The sharing point made me laugh out loud because one of the kids I watched I always FORCED him to share and I would get side eyes from different parents :p This video was so nicely done! You go Antoinette :D

@Antoinette Emily : I enjoyed this video, and hearing what differences / speciallities caught your attention! 😃 ... About needing all those shoes & weather-gear - most people in my family & friends buy as much of those seccond hand! But not in seccond hand stores! I will add we live in Lower Saxony (North of Germany), so I don't know how that is done in your area. Here there are local seccond hand markets (a bit like a Fleamarket - "Kinderflohmarkt" / "Kinderbasar") 2, 3 or 4 times a year for childrens clothes & shoes, sometimes toys too. They are mostly held in the primary) school building or church hall during the weekend - and you have to know about them, so ask arround! A few are organised almost professionally, but the good ones are run by the parents, to different levels. Usually you know when the next market will be held, so you sort through your kids clothes & shoes. Those in good order, but not needed anymore, you wash & fold, decide how much money you would like to get for each piece. Then write your name, the size & price on a piece of paper and pin it to that object of clothing. Sonetimes there is a regulated price range - meaning no one can ask for ridiculus amounts (ore other ways to set even & fair prices). Sometimes those markets will be announced with flyers at the parents noticeboard, or for the kids to take home. Sometimes you have to tell beforehand, if you will bring clothes to sell. Then there are usually sign-in sheats for the different tasks needed for the market, e.g.setting up the "stalls" with the school tables, being there at a time-window set for the parents to drop off their priced clothes and sort them by size, items, etc., work the stalls on the market day for some time, bake a nice cake to bring in, work the cake & coffee-stall for some time, or chose a packing up or tidying up duty ... the point is - if you choose to do some kind of work for that market day, you are allowed to check out the market & buy things 1 hour before everyone els is allowed to enter. Sorry, this got a bit long, my English is rusty 🙃 Bottom line is, you get clothes for your kids that look mostly new (as you said - they grow so fast and cant wear them out) at a good price, locally 😃👍🏻 Thete are also much bigger ordinary flea-markets, but dedicatet just to kids clothes, shoes & toys ... search the internet for "Kinderflohmarkt" / "Kinderbasar" in your area - often held on big supermarket parkingplaces on weekends. But try to ask arround which are worth visiting. And they usually start really early, like 6 or 7 in the morning, so to make a bargin (Schnäppchen), you have to be thete early 😖

When my cousin was probably around 4 or 5 years old he climbed a tree and fell off. My aunt thought he might have broken his arm and took him to the doctor, thinking he would tell her off for letting her small child climb trees. Instead she received rave reviews as a parent for letting her kid do this, letting him test his boundaries and abilities and developing motor skills. The doctor was also impressed that he had an actual tree he could climb on. My cousin was fine by the way, I think he had sprained his wrist or just bruised it.

About the first point: Just to let you know, kids that young don't play socially yet, they don't understand the concept of sharing yet. It is just them and their surroundings. They also don't really play with other kids before the age of three, they play alongside ofc but not really together. I work in a kindergarten in Germany and we also have a section for the kids under 3 years and they have as many pieces of most of the toys as they have kids (eg. a ball for every child). If they enter the groups for three years and above they will start to learn playing socially, sharing etc.

6:30 About taking risks, as I was a child, my mother bought me an experiment fire construction kit. (With a lot of chemicals) and I played with it frequently in the garden. (without real supervision). One day I set a big part of the grass on fire. But I also extinguished the fire by myself with a garden hose. My mother just wondered why a big chunk of the garden was black XD

I relate to many of your experiences without any cultural differences - or even many cultural differences at times and I feel like this is all about people in general being different.

I like your accent :)

Those automatically generated subtitles are hilarious sometimes. Insted of "2nd hand clothes" it was "stick & hair clothes" XD There is a nicew book covering this topic: Sara Zaske - Achtung Baby

Just discovered your channel. I'm English in New Zealand and I absolutely LOVE the fact that no one need wear shoes here - bliss!

Lovely channel. Thanks! It's really nice learning about different parenting styles seen through your eyes. I went the other way - I'm a German living in New Zealand, now with two kids - and, not having been a dad in Germany, I wouldn't have guessed those differences at all. Best from Auckland, Toby / Ps: the risk-taking style, I would say, has a lot to do with where in Germany you are exactly. Berlin, for example, has lots of helicopter parents, who would never let their kids take the risks you've seen. I hate to admit it, but I'm one of those. I know all the advantages of encouraging your kids to take risks. Still, my own take on this is to assess the risks always, and keep in mind that it only takes one major head injury or similar for them to have problems for life. So, I for one know exactly where you're coming from.

This was really interesting, I’m a German mum raising my two kids in the UK and although things are different here in parenting customs I still find myself doing a lot of the things you described because that’s how I was raised. I laughed at the second point because I bought my kids some new quite pricy shoes yesterday 😊 now I can blame it on my German-ness :)

I wanted to touch a hot stove plate when I was about two years old. My mother said to me "No, don't touch it, it's hot!". I just smiled at her and teased her. She just watched me - until I touched the hot plate and got burned and shouted "Hot!"" My mother treated me, but I learned my lesson. German child raising about dangers...

You did good job teaching your kid to share.

Lovely video, so refreshing and interesting. Germans tend to be perfectionists, so please don‘t be intimidated. You have such a lovely personality and I am sure you are a wonderful mum. Although I believe that children should be allowed at taking risks I also believe that it is important that child and parent are comfortable. Be gentle on your fears as well 😊. Thank you and blessings for you and your family 💕

As a German I have to admit that German people in general always hesitate before sharing something with someone they don’t know.

The clothing gear for your children seems normal to me, but I’m Canadian.

Hey, I just found your channel and saw your video. I'm a 39 weeks pregnant living in the Netherlands. And even between Germany and the Netherlands there are some differences e.g. in pre-natal care and such. I think these differences really do give us the chance to reflect upon our believes, customs and habits. Once you're aware of the differences between your own and another culture you can consciously ask yourself where you're believes come from and decide what you do with them. Some things I find crazy about the Dutch, others I really appreciate and all differences teach me that there is no 1 right and wrong. Warm greetings from NL

I loved you video (and it's the first time I hear New Zealander accent) . I am in Ireland hoping to move to NZ and I love German style for parenting. The way you showed some points, even me being Brazilian seems I have similar attitudes like the German moms. Interesting to mention that all kids in Germany wear a beanie just in case to prevent cold wind, seriously all!

Haha the shoe thing! I can relate so much, my mum acted as if my feet would fall off when I 'd wear cheap or the wrong shoes xD

As an Icelander I totally feel like this is the same here and in Scandinavia as well. Same approach more or less 😃

My British mum followed similar patterns when it came to playground activities and proper fitting shoes❣️🇨🇦

There is nothing more beautiful and lovely than a highly pregnant or breastfeeding woman! It reminds me on how beautiful and nice life is! Why should this be hidden?? Life and love to hide? Just... why?

As a new (german) mum i am so happy to hear that you experienced positive breastfeeding moments.

Hey, im an aussie loving in austria, yoohoo! And I wanted to say that i also found the playgrounds here wildly different to auatralian ones. Theres plenty of playgrounds here that have high climbing areas or poles that you jump from the top of one to another that are above my head height, etc etc, and no nets but just bark to cushion any potential falls, whereas in Australia all playground are over the top ohs standard basically wrapped up in cotton wool (an expression for overly protective). At first i was shocked but now i love it, and that my kids get to assess the situation themselves and make choices as to whether they think they are capable or want to try.

Great video! I have encountered the not-sharing parenting method as being part of non-attachment parenting style which encourages grownups to see their child as an equal person and accept their childrens opinion and needs as much as possible. Which means if a kid doesn't want to share a toy they would say " its ok you dont have to share what belongs to you " , its a lessen for the child to value it's own needs and wants and for the other child it is a lesson to understand that not all is always available if we push a button. (Why to force to share if its against their personal will? How many times we do things we dont like just to please others? ) i think thats also a key message in this parenting style Thank you for uploading.

I am a brazilian retired kidergarden teacher . Here, people use to be so, but so protective that nowadays we have a whole generation of kids that don't know how to move themselves. I mean, kids came to school at 6, without knowing how to play in a slide by themselves. They run in front of a swing as if they don't know they might get caught in a bump. I think this is the result of a life in front of computer games and very protective moms . And the way they are taught to say "no" to share a toy is the same way Germans are so direct,.plain,when they say "no" to a boss that asks him to stay longer if it's time to leave. Or a boss that ask them if they can work in another day and they can't. They use the word "no" with that confidence that they've learned in their childhood and no guilty at all! It is a sign of individuality, that the way they think ou want to be is to be respected.

I have a nice Story to Tell: I‘m from Germany and have a Sisters who is three years older than me. We were on a playground in a sandbox and i was Little, probably like crawling but Not yet walking. My Sisters was Sitting and my mom put her Sandtoys in Front of her. Pretty quickly another kid came around and started to grab her stuff, while my sister was just watching. But here came little devil me, grabbing one of the toys, racing(crawling) after the kid, i hit it with my toy, grabbed my sisters one and brought it back to her. My mom told me of course that you can’t hit people. Years after she told me how proud she was in that moment when I protected my big sister and that it was very hard for her not to smile while disciplining me 😅 i Love my mom ❤️

I'm from Bangladesh. I'm currently following your youtube channel. Because my sister lives in german so I watch germany video. And I found interesthing thing about german in your channel. Keep it up.

You are totally right about the shoe situation... I remember that as a child I was often super annoyed from all the shoe-shopping and having ladies around me who told my mother what my size was and which colour of shoes to get and so on... It feels like I spent my childhood in shoe stores :D

I love your accent. :) Bevore you mentioned that you are from New Zealand I couldn't really tell where that accent is coming from. I thought maybe England or Ireland or Australia. I have never been to New Zealand.

I dint know that this was speacial for Germany. We are actually moving there in a couple of month, and for me, it sounds really good. I think, you made a good job, not get your fear overwhealm your child. No one said, that it will be easy to be a parent! :)

I love your New Zealander accent!

Antoinette, I completely agree with you on all of your points on this video and think you're a great mum. Your instincts are right on the money and though it maybe challenging at times being out of your cultural element with others judging you don't allow them to ever make you question your abilities as a parent. Your parenting is probably similar to how you were raised and you grew up to be a successful adult.

Awesome. Im from germany. Love the way you see those things. "Just do what you want and dont care what others could not like on you Like it :3