Why are Dutch children so happy?

[Dyz]

belle g wrote:

Why is their "happiness" considered more important than their intellectual development, their consideration for others, and their ability to make their way in the world when they become of age?

Where in the article does it say that the Dutch consider "happiness" as more important than intellectual development?

belle g wrote:

Sounds from the article that they're a bunch of spoiled brats who have a tough time dealing with adult life once they become of age.

That would mean that the adults are unhappy because they have a tough time dealing with adult life. This is not the case.

[Aryan]

The dutch may be polite but when you are as stupid as them you would have to be in order to avoid a good kicking. The nation who invented the daf variomatic lg philips (electronics firms whos goods are worse than the japaneese rubbish) are owned by them tramways where its perectly unnecessary to use them, most of the land is below sea level and so can flood at any time when they could use landfill waste from rest of europe to raise the ground level above sea level/ ridiculous cycle schemes (nothing wrong with bicycles but government interference is just socialism) Drugs AND prostitution are actually leagal and then they try to say its just the tourists who use them. BULL SHIT

[Dutchfan]

The Dutch for the most part have traditional values when raising children and spend time with their families.

[MrRd]

Glad to hear the Dutch kids are doing well.

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[Nico van Dijk]

TurkProtestan wrote:

i wish every children were happy but unfortunately most of them is unhappy

who said that?

[Tulip2439]

Squance wrote:

@belle g
Sounds a bit like if you are jealous. What the hell can be wrong with being happy? It is the most important thing in the world. You work, make money and develop yourself in order to BE happy.
It has no use to develop yourself if you cannot be happy with it.

You are so right on!

[swissyg]

Hate to be commenting on this so late but, the children in The Netherlands are happy because THEY ARE SPOILED by their parents!!

[Frankie G]

It really depends on where you live. There are kids in the middle class, who are usually spoiled. But there are also kids just below the middle class, who live in one-parent families, or just disfunctional families, who are being treated like shit. Hell, I know this kid who has rich parents, lives in a great house and stuff, his dad is an asshole who probably fucks his secretary, and his mom looks and acts like she is going to have a nervous breakdown every second now. He is totally abandonded by them, but he is still (kinda) happy. It's not just the parents spoiling their kids. It's the environment. My parents gave me everything I wanted when I was little.
I got a bass guitar with amplifier for my birthday, I even got a PS3 last year together with my brother. Still I felt like something was missing. Life was really dull. Then I started to smoke weed, and now I see the brighter side of live, the grass is really green again, etc.
A lot of peers are happy with going out every friday, getting that Vespa, talking shit about each other behind their backs. And they don't smoke weed. I really don't know why we are so happy here, but I think that it's the way we are being raised. In America you live a real consuming live, everything on a short term. Just consuming consuming consuming. IMO that's how the crisis started. Instead of saving money for later people just kept buying and buying, and lend money to buy more. It's an unsatisfying way of live.
My parents thought me to never buy stuff unless you really want it, and you have the money for it.
That way you savour the things you have, IMO. but ofcourse that's just one example. And I don't want to be starting a flame war here
Sorry if that didn't make any sense..I'm really tired right now.

[lowflyingdutch]

Born and raised. The secret lies not in the quality of toys or chemicals or the parental framework upon which these kids rely. It lies in simple geography. Holland is tremendously compact. Most cities/town are compact enough for kids to live near at least a handfull of other kids with parents that have a far more "live and let live" attitude than in most other places i've been. I was free to go outside after school and fall off off stuff, get beat up by bullies, but also experience an all in all great childhood with friends and laughter. We would walk over to friends houses and spend entire days there. Parents would either feed you or kick you home to mommy. either way.

Seems to me that most parents nowadays have become completely paranoid and do not (or in the case of the US, cannot) allow their kids to wander off to anywhere. Theyre caged canaries. Puddingbrains in puddingbodies beeing raised by television and playdates. That may have something to do with it?

[Random dutch guy]

Don't say it's the weed, it's a common known fact that drug usage is higher in America than in Holland. And still America is in 20th place. You guys know why? America is slowly becoming a 3rd world country. The dutch economy is much stronger than America's and so more dutch government funding goes into children's welbeing than in America.