Achtung baby
"When Sara Zaske moved from Oregon to Berlin with her husband and toddler, she knew the transition would be challenging, especially when she became pregnant with her second child. She was surprised to discover that German parents give their children a great deal of freedom--much more than Americans. In Berlin, kids walk to school by themselves, ride the subway alone, cut food with sharp knives, and even play with fire. German parents did not share her fears, and their children were thriving. Was she doing the opposite of what she intended, which was to raise capable children? Why was parenting culture so different in the States? Through her own family's often funny experiences as well as interviews with other parents, teachers, and experts, Zaske shares the many unexpected parenting lessons she learned from living in Germany. Achtung Baby reveals that today's Germans know something that American parents don't (or have perhaps forgotten) about raising kids with 'selbstandigkeit' (self-reliance), and provides practical examples American parents can use to give their own children the freedom they need to grow into responsible, independent adults." -- Amazon.com.
Stats for nerds
4recommend
5mentions
5people
2018–2025years
80% recommend20% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- In Figure 13, there are some Western countries listed for how much children can roam, and Ireland is indeed near the bottom.
But the Netherlands, Nordics and Germany are still very much on the other side of the spectrum in these studies.
See for instance the books "The Happiest Kids in the World", "Achtung Baby" and "There is No Such Thing as Bad Weather" about raising children in the Netherlands, Berlin and Sweden respectively.
Those places are very much not like the USA yet. Though as the article points out, they are definitely going in that direction.
- not a dad, or parent - but i randomly read "Achtung Baby: An American Mom on the German Art of Raising Self-Reliant Children" - by Sarah Zaske on a whim:
https://www.amazon.com/Achtung-Baby-American-Self-Reliant-Ch...
thought it was a really great book on something i'm completely oblivious to.
- Factfullness - Hans Rosling [Highly Recommended! My favorite book this year]
How to Change Your Mind - Michal Pollan [Thumbs up]
Why We Sleep - Matthew Walker [Two Thumbs Up]
Creative Selection - Ken Kociend [Neutral. Blog post in book form. ]
Achtung Baby - Sara Zaske [Thumbs Up]
The Reason I Jump - Naoki Higashida [Been in my queue for years. Two thumbs up]
Small Fry - Lisa Brennan-Jobs [Neutral]
Gut - Giulia Enders [Two thumbs up]
Born a Crime - Trevor Noah [Two thumbs up. Learned more about the nuances of apartheid than I thought]
I'm Proud of You - Tim Madigan [Thumbs down]
Night - Elie Wiesel [Thumbs up]
- I recommend this book. https://www.amazon.com/Achtung-Baby-American-Self-Reliant-Ch...
Mostly I’m trying to model good behavior. My kid mimics me a lot better than he can follow my directions. He’s going to be his own person, and nothing I can do will change that, I’m just a caretaker to help him grow into himself.
- The article "Letting Kids Light Matches and 9 other seemingly scary things that German parents do" [1] provides the point of view of an American mother on parenting and schooling in Germany. (I can't check the link from France, hope it works.) Otherwise, it's all about Sara Zaske's book "Achtung Baby", anyway [2].
1. http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/parenting/sc-fam-ge...
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