Some cultural differences...

[Skaukraft]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21537988

Some cultural differences..., I find it a bit amusing.
A few norwegian newspapers are comenting on this today.

 

[mountainm]

We used to do this in the UK - kids would be left outside in prams to sleep. But the fear isn't against them getting cold - it's of them being stolen, a general public distrust fueled by the red top tabloids and there sensationalist journalism.

 

[Dreadhead]

nice! I think there is too much fear in this country to leave your child outside, but it's a great idea. and good to see it reccommending wool clothing and a decent sleeping bag etc

 

[Man of Tanith]

The older I get the more jealous I am of nap time

 

[mountainm]

The older I get the more jealous I am of nap time

You start off eating mush, drooling and wearing nappies - you end up that way too - naptime is calling you..

 

[Skaukraft]

nice! I think there is too much fear in this country to leave your child outside, but it's a great idea. and good to see it reccommending wool clothing and a decent sleeping bag etc

Wool is absolutely essential.
Cotton or synthetics are very often prohibited as a base layer in many kindergartens during the winter months, meaning you will be told to keep your kid at home until you got some decent wool baselayers.

How many babies are stolen in the UK each year?

 

[mountainm]

How many babies are stolen in the UK each year?

I would guess very few - but reality doesn't really come into it.

 

[Paul_B]

I agree that the fear is not of the cold but of other people. Although child kidnapping is such a rare occurrence the fear of it is not in the UK. I am not sure about Scandinavian countries but some friends of ours from Scandinavian countries don't see a problem with that the same way we do.

We've discussed this with family and friends a lot recently since we have a new baby and Scandinavian friends too. Among the older generation in both our parents' generation the baby sleeping in the pram outdoors was pretty much universal. One gran used to see prams on the pavement in her street where there were no front gardens only back yards which were not as nice as the front. I think I used to get put out in the pram and my sister too. It is not just a Scandinavian thing just that as a nation we have a different feel to our society and there is more mis-trust and fear over here I think.

Basically I don't think it is the cold that is the fear keeping kids indoors. Mind you the damp we get over here compared to Sweden is different. I mean we have wet winters they have cold ones that feels different. IME cold weather (sub-zero) feels healthy but just above zero and damp it just doesn't. I think it could be better indoors then.

 

[Mesquite]

How many babies are stolen in the UK each year?

Not as many as people think.

Apart from when a child was strapped in a car seat and the car was stolen the last one I can remember, and it wasn't a baby, was little April Jones in Wales.

In all the cases where the car was stolen either the car was abandoned or the child put on the side of the road when the theif realised he had the child in with them.

 

[boatman]

Our two were outside most days. Remember the fuss because a Danish woman left her baby outside a coffee shop in New York? Charged with abandonment etc but I don't know the outcome Oprah even congratulated the citizen that reported her, in many ways Americans are more foreign than Continentals but obviously we are getting as hysterical as the States in the UK.

 

[Man of Tanith]

You start off eating mush, drooling and wearing nappies - you end up that way too - naptime is calling you..

I work in care mate. Painfully aware of that.

 

[RonW]

Yep, quit normal here.
And I totally agree, too.

 

[santaman2000]

Wool is absolutely essential.
Cotton or synthetics are very often prohibited as a base layer in many kindergartens during the winter months, meaning you will be told to keep your kid at home until you got some decent wool baselayers.

How many babies are stolen in the UK each year?

I did a quick web search and the answers were anything but consistent. Near zero on at one end and near 300 on the high end. It appears that the high end figure includes abductions by opposing parents in a custody battle.


Several of my friends from my days back in school (elementary and high school) had lived in Germany as military brats and remembered how aweful the Germans thought their parents were because they didn't do the same thing.

 

[mountainm]

Our two were outside most days. Remember the fuss because a Danish woman left her baby outside a coffee shop in New York? Charged with abandonment etc but I don't know the outcome Oprah even congratulated the citizen that reported her, in many ways Americans are more foreign than Continentals but obviously we are getting as hysterical as the States in the UK.

I think there's something to this - it's more a fear of being seen to be irresponsible - labled a bad parent, than a fear of having a baby stolen.

 

[santaman2000]

I think there's something to this - it's more a fear of being seen to be irresponsible - labled a bad parent, than a fear of having a baby stolen.

No it's real. Not neccessarily in the sense of the risk of abductions being real (or even "fear" as such) But the instinct to protect the baby is. As is the danger from coyotes, alligators, and other wildlife in the country (and to a large extent the suburbs) as well as dangers from traffic, etc.

Even inside a mother here won't tolerate someone other than family stepping between her and her baby.

 

[Swallow]

I think there's something to this - it's more a fear of being seen to be irresponsible - labled a bad parent, than a fear of having a baby stolen.

and the fear of being seen as irresponsible can lead to the fear of having your kids taken from you perhaps?

 

[Bumbler]

Yet there seem to be som cultural differences as well...

[video=youtube;mIi1WkFhGvc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIi1WkFhGvc[/video]

[video=youtube;d8bqISOTsCE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8bqISOTsCE[/video]

 

[Graham_S]

Where I grew up it's still fairly common to see a pram outside with a baby sleeping in it.
Both myself and my sister had outside nap time, We were born in October and November so we would have been outside in the winter.
Neither of us suffered any harm from it.

 

[Paul_B]

I think it is just down to the fact you hear more about child kidnappings more now. It probably happened more in the distant past but you hear about it. That and in the UK we are more likely to overreact. What I mean is it has become the culture to overprotect children here, a lot more than in the past. I grew up getting muddy and falling in ditches and cutting myself on barbed wire because I went where I wasn't supposed to. A lot of kids now can't do that some still do but the parents get condemned for allowing it.

We also don't have the same view on access here (Scotland aside) as Scandinavia. I think that has coloured our views of being outside in many ways. But it still comes down to our attitude to risk. Not risk of the cold but risk of other bad things happening.

BTW we also have the saying about no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing. It's been something that has reflected on my whole outdoors life. I find I don't mind the bad weather if I'm equipped for it. And my Mum used to use the phrase " A little fresh air never hurt anyone" a lot. Ususally just before shoving us outdoors into the cold and the snow for a bit of fresh air. It is how I hope to be with my lad when he's older (only 10 weeks now). It's just in the UK most aren't really like that so much nowadays. Although I suspect rural people are the last bastions of this attitude.

 

[Swallow]

Yet there seem to be som cultural differences as well...

Good Grief! 5-7 year olds that have to be asked what saw and hammer are? :yikes: On the plus side they seem to know what's in their lasagne.