Es ist so selbstverstaendlich fuer uns die Mahlzeiten gemeinsam mit der Familie einzunehmen ( ohne Fernsehen und Smartphone), dass ich garnicht auf die Idee kam, es koennte auch anders sein.

I am German. With us it was always the case that we ate together in the evening, but also on the weekends. That was very important to my parents to talk about what we experienced throughout the day. To stay up to date and stay in touch with us. I have always found this to be very important and valuable. Family time is so wonderful ❤

I was born in 2002 and we ate together every night. The TV and mobile phones were always switched off. Mealtime is family time. Btw, that also applied to the coffee and cake time on Sunday afternoon.

German man here. Nudity: In my experience it’s also quite common for fathers to take their little kids to the public men‘s shower. I’ve seen it everywhere and I did it myself. Sometimes this showers have curtains for more privacy and often there are also single cabins and „dad & child cabins“. But there you sometimes have to wait until it’s free. And all parents know: that may last a while - especially in the „Terrible Twos“ (Trotzalter) and waiting in the draughty hallway with a hungry, tired, freezing, wet child (in the same age) may not always the best idea.

I'm a German mom and the only thing I do different is homework. I tried it to establish a routine to do them right away when coming home but we are living a five minutes walk from school and my child is that mentally drained when coming from school, we do a pause first and before screentime they have to be done. And yes family time, bonding, reflecting the day, planning the coming days is precious. I see us as a team.

as a German mom, I can attest that all these things are true 😂 I love talking with my kids, listening how their day was and what they are thinking and how they’re feeling. Also, working before partying is very true in Germany. There even is a common saying “erst die Arbeit, dann das Vergnügen”. This way, you can concentrate on each thing better. When you work, you work and then you’re free and relaxed to enjoy free time. Regarding nudity, I love that my children see different bodies and types just in normal life while in a changing room or at the beach. The pictures we see on social media construct unrealistic pressure, that no one can fulfil in real life. My daughters see normal bodies in normal light, bumpy, slim, flabby whatever and they know that this is normal and beautiful. sometimes I wish we were more relaxed and feel very strict, so thank you for reminding me that structure also means safety and reliability ❤ Also, I would very rarely share pictures of my children online and I also teach my daughter very strict rules about what to share. The rule here is: We only share what we would put on a poster to our neighbour’s wall. Everything else is not to be shared apart from close family and friends.

As a German mother: 1. Check 2. Check 3. Check 4. Check 5. Check You described my family pretty well. Regarding the structure: I think that structure gives a feeling of safety, that allowed the children to really enjoy their freedom to roam and try things.

I'm Austrian and it's very common here too that everyone sits down for evening dishes, at least on Weekends!

Everytime I watch a vlog of yours I'm helplessly falling in love with your kiwi english

Yes, we always had dinner around the same time (when our dad came home from work) and together. Sunday breakfasts were celebrated (usually a bit brunch style) as well as Sunday afternoon cake and coffee. Definitely family times.

I found my child could concentrate better on the homework if there was an hour of playtime after lunch first. They have to sit still and concentrate for 4 or 5 hours in school, sit again during lunch, so it’s good to get some relaxation in. Thereafter several hours spent on homework - and then it’s time for serious play, mostly outside. With the other points I agree completely.

As a german "Kid" I can say that the structure helped a lot. Especially if I compare myself to a friend of mine that didn't grew up with a lot of structure and "control" from her parents. When you grow older it really helps a ton. Also the not showing kids on the internet part is super important. Many parents underestimate the danger of putting their Childs pictures online. That's exactly where pedophiles get their pictures and videos from and they end up on the dark net. With modern technology like AI these innocent pictures and videos can be transformt to ponografic videos and things like that. It can also of course lead to higher risk of kidnapping and things like that. There is a ton of documentrys and speeches about this topic online if you want to look into that more. For my englisch class in school I had to do a speech on an important topic and this was the topic I chose. While doing my research I cried so many times because it is a topic that is hardly talked about and needs so much more attention. The things going on every day are terrible but society keeps looking away from disturbing things...

I am a French mom living in the UK, and I agree with the Germans on quite a few things. If I can complement what you say about children's faces on social media: yes, most British parents are not careful enough about that. I have seen pictures of my daughters' friends that were probably not too risky, but some really should be nowhere on social media. There are the baby pics in the bath, sometimes even on the potty (!) and another thing that I notice are the group pictures (during b-day parties for ex). There is no way all the parents, let alone the kids themselves, have been asked for consent. I myself have had to deal with people who posted pictures of my own kids without asking me. Someone even uploaded a picture of my elder daughter looking a bit grumpy and then she was attacked for it in the comments. So for that, yes I am 100% with the Germans!

We always had dinner together at the table during my childhood in Germany. That was very important for us so we could share things that happened that day. I fell lucky because we didn't have mobile phones then and parents that would constantly fiddle with it while our family time together.

My parents are German and I grew up in Australia and we always had family dinner at the table together. Even lunch and breakfast we always sat together for meals.

I am German and when I grew up it was normal to have breakfast and dinner together at the kitchen table. When my brother and I were younger we also had lunch with our Mom together because she used to do Homeoffice. In our early teens we had lunch at school or with our grandparents and later only at school. Most of our friends grew up like this as well. With my son we had the same routine with one difference. From the age of three he had lunch with my parents because at that time I was a single Mom and had to work at lunchtime. One day my son came home and told me, that at his friend's home they did not eat at the dinner table together but at the coffee table in front of the TV. Since I didn't want to change our habits I told him, that it was probably an exception to the rule, because he was visiting his friend. But I have noticed that not every family ate at the dinner table together. We liked to spend the time together and talk about the day. My son studies in a different town now, so it is only us, his step father and me. Mobile phone time and tablet time were monitored by us. We generally don't post photos online where family members or friends are recognizable. Nudity is no big deal. Yes, a good school back pack is important, because they have to carry a lot.

Structure is necessary to allow freedom and self reliance but prevent them from being overwhelmed. A structure sets expectations on what to do at certain points and foster healthy habits. Toddlers love to sort, so daycare had little bins were they could sort the trash. ❤ it was so sweet.

Ergobags are the schoolbags I have seen the most often in the elementary school of my daughter.

When I was a kid lunch and dinner were always "all the family together around the table". Here in Italy this is quite normal, at least for dinner if both parents work, and don't come home for lunch. My father did come home, and my mother didn't work then, so me and my brother always had lunch and dinner with them. After lunch we did our homework, and AFTER that we were allowed to go play.

I grew up in Australia (still live here) My father was from Germany. We always ate dinners together as a family, and lunches as well on weekends. There was never any question about doing it differently 🤔 I still eat meals together with my husband and adult daughter. (mostly) Nudity, however, we didn’t do the German way 😅 I was an exchange student in Norway for a year, when I was 16 😍 It sounds like Norway has some things in common with German culture, such as structure in family life, structure in society, appreciation of good quality products, very practical, and even openess about nudity 😀

How things were/are for me 1. Do have a specific place for jacket/shoes etc. ,homework wasn't a thing for my school, so usually would be dinner and then free time. We don't have a planner or similar though, for a while we did always switch when someone goes out with the dog and when someone emptys the dishwasher. 2. Saving energy and recycling wasn't a thing for me! Recycling was more a thing at school but most kids failed terribly. Ofc we do keep our bottles for Pfand though ;) 3. Changing rooms ,yep ,how it is ,embarrassing for me. Also more normal for me personally to walk around in underwear at home, but also usually walk around in pajamas now. 4. Online privacy ,no one cares in my family, but for sure some classmates familys really really cared. My mom never wanted me to show my face to strangers online though. Also a lot of kids have a phone earlier than 5th grade! Once again safety/regulations there wasn't a thing for me ,but some classmates. 5. Family time sadly was never a thing for my family. According to my mom, because my dad would start arguments with my brothers, so we stopped eating together. Whenever I do eat breakfast with my dad I can tell though why we never did that together. Was always kinda awkward when I stayed over at friends place to eat. They did also enjoy eating alone though at my place xD

German here. Regarding the meals, there were times we even had up to four meals a day together: breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. It is nice to connect but as a teenager I got a bit sick of it. As a mom myself now I also value family meals - but it doesn't have to be every meal. Sometimes work or appointments get in the way. We don't like having the TV running though - we will have a pizza while watching a movie once in a while but that's definitely an exception. We deliberately put the TV in a separate room from the dining room so that wouldn't be the focus. Thanks for sharing your perspective :)

Oh, this is so good. I'm a German mum living in New Zealand and I value most of these, especially the meal times. But with school here in NZ finishing at 3pm, I am not a fan of homework at all. After 6 hours at school I don't expect my children to sit for another hour doing homework, maybe it would be different if we'd live in Germany 🤔 I've also been out with the kids many times collecting rubbish but I do wonder, if the attitude about picking up rubbish to keep the environment clean would come from the German society in general then there shouldn't be any rubbish to be picked up 🤔😅 And the nudity 😂 that's sooo on point, definitely quite different here in NZ 🤣

I am German and dinnertime together was selbstverständlich. There was never even a thought about the idea to not eat together. My best friends (half Brits) don't eat together in the evening and I find this terrible, the young child doesn't really know how his parents have dinner. The early evening there is always a chaotic atmosphere, not nice at all. By the way: (I think psychologists found this out) if you grow up and experience nudity as something normal and especially also something you can talk about, find words, this has the psychological side effect, that you get a better and more intuitive "connection" to your body so that you earlier than others notice and feel more precisely, when you are adult and somewhere it develops a small or bigger illness, and you find easier words to describe your ill health.

In my family we always ate together at the table on the weekend and then for late breakfast and dinner. During the week we couldn't do that because my dad would come home to late for me and my siblings to have a family dinner together. Therefore, my mum made us "Abendbrot" that we were allowed to eat while watching a film. We even are still doing dinner or breakfast together at my parents house on the weekend now and then, even though me and my siblings don't live there anymore. We love doing that, because like you said, it is so much fun to sit together and talk about our lives and random topics and laugh together. 😍

Great tips.

German here. I'm almost 50 years old, now. In my childhood and youth, we always had dinner together as a family. Also, on weekends, we had lengthy breakfast and hearty lunches together. One had to have a good excuse not to be there. It's been good times! My father, who has to commute to work with a 1 hr drive, he even stood up extremely early to make to be able to be back for coffee and cake with the family during the afternoon. Of course, during meals, TV is switched off and mobile phones, nowadays, as well. Meals are considered family time and it's a sign of respect to the others, but also to the cook not to be staring at screens during those times. When we meet today, we still celebrate our common time accordingly. With good food and conversation. I had very few friends, where that was different.

Great sharing

Cool fun space backpack. Stylin cool

I am Austrian and grew up eating together as a family at the table. When I had children I kept it that way. No electronis at the dinner table was and is an iron rule. How else are children expected to learn table and conversation manners?

I just looked at the backpacks and sadly, they only have shades of blue/grey and shades of pink/purple. That's kinda sad. Although the designs are nice.

This was interesting! 10:35 I wonder about this often. Technology is new and we are all still trying to figure it out

It's been a while. I'm happy you change your sponsor 😊 Thanks for the video ❤ we do everything exactly as you said

I am a north American and my husband is German. We both always ate dinner with our families when we were children and then later when we had children, we always had family dinners too. Now our daughter continus to have family dinners with her husband and children. However, our son does not have family dinner. They eat whenever and wherever they want to.

It definitiv is. Its the only time where we all sit together and can chat about the day, life, plans, etc. ❤

For my family eating together is something that happens, whenever our scedules allow us to, but nothing that happens everyday, maybe once or twice a week. Now it's more often Lunch we All are home at the same time and able to eat together. (I'm 22 now but still living with my brother and parents)

As a German mom living in Belgium nudity was normal until my son was a pre-teen and needed his privacy. Even now when he visits , he is 29, he can theoretically walk into my bathtime while I would not barge into his. As far as internet privacy for your children I had to to learn very quickly to never show nieces and nephews and consequently not my own son. I despise the way mostly US parents monetize their children on the internet. It has been proven that many children get bullied over their internet history. I always had breakfast and dinners at the table with my son and lunches at the weekend and during school vacations. This could be with or without television. His Belgian 0eers had playstation and mobile phones long before he did. And unlike Belgian children he was allowed to play around the entire neighbourhood together with k8ds of many nationalities. They played in each other's houses and gardens and on the streets, in fields and in parks. That is the least I could do in this suburbs of Bruxelles.

Top 3. Many Children also learn to say no when other people want to touch them, kiss them or tease them. Grandma, grandpa, uncle, aunt etc also learn "if the child says no, that means no" and is generally respected. Strangers are allowed Do not touch children at all, unless in dangerous situations or, for example, in a medical emergency... ​

I am from germany as well. I remember, back in time when we were in school we used to collect rubbish from our neighborhood. Back in the bushes of the sports ground we used to find a lot of used condoms and needles. I don't know if we knew what these were used for, but I remember it was kind of funny.

Both lunch and dinner always were sit down together meals at my house. My dad worked in shifts, so he wouldn't be there for either dinner or lunch depending on the shift of the week, but my mom usually was. On very rare occasions work would pull her in and she'd miss lunch with me, but NEVER dinner :D On the weekends we actually would do all 3 meals together until I hit my teenage years and morning ceased to exist for me on weekends.

German here. When I hear you talking about nudity being so normal here but not in anglo-saxon countries, that makes me wonder: if you don't ever see naked bodies, even in books (in non-sexual ways of course) how do you learn about the body parts and later on then puberty and changes and so on?

Bei uns waren die Essenszeiten auch so geregelt 😂 und meine Mutter hat immer so gute Braten gemacht, dass oft noch Freunde meiner Schwester da waren. Aber Abendessen wurde später oft im Wohnzimmer mit Fernseher gegessen. Mein Mann ist auch so aufgewachsen und wir haben es weiter so gemacht. Gegessen wird immer gemeinsam, wir reden, schauen gemeinsam was im Fernsehen. Ich als Kind war aber bei weitem nicht so verplant wie die Kinder heute. Ich hab meine Hausaufgabe wirklich gemacht wie und wann ich wollte. Manchmal auch im Stall bei den Pferden. Ich war viel draußen unterwegs, aber ich wollte die Hausaufgaben erst erledigt haben 😅

I'm German and my familiy didn't eat together very often and the TV was always running, almost 24/7. My parents were usually way too tired from work to have conversations at the dinner table.

eatintg together was very important toour family as well...

I am german. I eat nearly every Day with my family breakfast, Lunch and dinner. And now, with my Kids i do the same for breakfast and dinner, Lunch only with my first daughter bevause the little one get Lunch in Kindergarten. My husband eat dinner with us (because of his work) and in the beginning he was annoyed that i say he has to eat with us but with the time je begin to like it

In my childhood attending to dinner table was non-negotiable. As parent we occasionally allow the kids to eat when it is convenient, but that only happens - if at all - at weekend

I had an old leather case with straps on it so I could carry it on my back. No comfort at all. And the thing was heavy, weighing over 25 lbs.! In the early 1960s, no one really cared.

In Belgium most kids use schoolbags on wheels.

Really cool great ur kids willing to pick up garbage in ur area

All you said applies to my family, I still remember this two times we didn’t have any meal together, when my mom broke her leg and was in hospital. But one differs: I wish they had been stricter in homework and school tasks. They were to „freedomish“ torwards that topic and I kinda failed at school. I wanted to become a doctor but I’ll never be. I’ll be more German to my kids in that matter.

How common is corporal punishment in the home there?

Im german an we never had dinner together but we ate lunch together every day. Now that i am older, me an my husband eat dinner together every day. And on weekend lunch as well. I never liked eating in front of the tv and would want my kids to grow up and eat as a family as well.

It is always the functional nudity, because of an examination, sweating in the sauna or in a changing room. Just natural. Yes, the privacy of children is so important. It should be cared about more often. Every morning and every evening we sat together at the kitchen table to eat together. When I was young also at noon, but a bit later the parent was at work, so we were not always together for lunch in the week, but then I often was with my uncle and aunt. Even today, we have breakfast and dinner together, only lunch depends on the time, when the kids have school out.

Looking forward to the first reports of English classes when the kids talk about their "parents" in your accent and teachers won't know what they mean... :-)

As a german parent I am very aware that it is possible to use even clothed pictures of my kids, to create child p*rn and that they might appear on dark net websites, so I was furious, when our daycare mother posted pics of my kids on facebook, although their faces were hidden by emojis. If that is a feature of facebook, the original photo can be found. Scary. For the food: We try to eat at the very least supper together. I grew up with my grandparents and it was very important to my grandmother, that she would sit down after school with us, eat, talk, relax and then do our homework. And in the evening and at weekends every meal was taken together.

This is pretty much the way it works for me as a working mother of three kids in Germany. BUT I really have many NOT German friends and it is actually same for many of them. So I really don‘t think that this way of life is a special German way. But yes I totally grew up that way either…

Hi, i am not a parent yet.. but i am a teacher (Mittelschule/Hauptschule) in germany and i disagree with point 1 and 2, i don´t think all german parents are like this, i think i depends on the educational background, how they interact with their children..

No bulletproof satchels, thank God.

1. YES 2. YES 3. YES 4. YES 5. YES I am german

German parents won’t show their kids face online but let that kid get addicted to tablet games really early on. I think the other way round makes more sense.

The intro is a bit long.

@8:11 As soon as a critical mass of muslims is reached in this country, that might change for better or worse, depending on your point of view. 🤔

💙💛💚