Parenting: Denmark vs US

“[T]he biggest thing is that Danish parents think of their children as adults much sooner than American parents. When a child is sixteen, or even younger, they are trusted to begin parenting themselves. It is no longer a question if the kid can do something, but instead just telling the parents what they are doing. They respect that their children have begun their adult lives, if they are in a relationship with someone it is normal for the boyfriend/girlfriend to stay the night at each others’ houses. Parents understand that teenagers can feel love, and they support them experiencing it as long as they are safe in terms of their sexual relations with each other. This is much different in the US, where teenage relationships are often looked down on as “young love” and teenagers are told that they don’t understand what real love is. Teenagers must still ask for permission to do things often up until they move out of the house, regardless of if they are over 18 or not. Parents in America often talk about how they struggle to realize that their child is “all grown up”. As if them getting older means that they are losing something. In my whole time in Denmark I have not heard one parent say that about their kid. They do not view growing up as losing their child, but instead as a normal thing, the journey from childhood to adulthood is just a journey, not a loss of innocence.

Commenter on Reddit, Parenting in Denmark?


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