Why are Dutch children so happy?

[GeorgeGist]

Dutch children have been rated the most fortunate children in Europe. Their parents go out of their way to please them, and teachers expect less of them than some of their European counterparts.

The Netherlands has come top of a league table for child well-being across 21 industrialised countries.

The study by the UN children's organisation, Unicef, looked at relative poverty, educational and health standards, sexual behaviour and the children's relationship with friends and parents.

"The Netherlands has always been a very child-centred society," says Paul Vangeert, professor of developmental psychology at the University of Groningen. "In particular, there is a lot of focus on young children."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6360517.stm

Sadly note where the US and UK rank.

[nebenaube]

1. easy..

Nobody in the Netherlands worries about having their door kicked in....

[smirkymonkey]

2. Because they don't live here?

Seriously though, notice that the countries at the top of the list are the most liberal, democratic countries in Europe, or the world for that matter.

Kind of flies in the face of what conservatives say liberal permissiveness breeds in children.

[LiberalFighter]

3. They are happy that bush is not their president/leader.

[mainer]

4. I question this, somewhat

Dutch kids may be happy as children, but they grow up to find a lack of jobs and a large number of them end up on public support. And it seemed to me that a huge number of them smoke.

[Bonobo]

9. Maybe smoking represents a carefreeness and a lack of morbid attention

to death?

[rug]

5. They just put little wheels in their wooden shoes.

[leftyladyfrommo]

6. It's the tulips. And wooden shoes.

Tulips by the thousands would really cheer me up about now.

[The Straight Story]

7. Less diversity and smaller size

:evilgrin:

give it time and you will see the skinheads and RW'ers saying countries with less racial diversity and diversity in general are more happy.

[Bonobo]

10. I didn't know they were smaller than us...

But Americans do tend to be be pretty big...:P

[BlooInBloo]

11. And you agree, apparently, with the implicit assertion of causality.

[The Straight Story]

15. Not really, personally

I think the bigger and more diverse the better - the numbers on that site say I am wrong, but then they may be biased and promoted by people who hate diversity.

Happiness though can be relative depending on what they base it all off of.

I think this is ammo for people like those I used to work with who were militia members - their view was a smaller, whiter, less diverse country makes for a better life.

Me, I can't stand the stagnation, which is why I would prefer to live in a more diverse city than I do (and I am moving soon to a more diverse place).

But, as noted, give it a week and check out the RW blogs and you will see what I said above as a reason why america has went downhill, etc.

Stats are a two-edge sword, and how one interprets them is always interesting.

[The2ndWheel]

18. Funny thing about diversity

"their view was a smaller, whiter, less diverse country makes for a better life."

"which is why I would prefer to live in a more diverse city than I do"

If everyone wanted to live in a diverse city/country, would that be an example of less diversity?

I'm not saying that's what you're saying,. just a question that popped into my head as I read.

[mainer]

24. No, Holland is VERY diverse. And changing.

Within a few decades, if current population trends continue, the average Dutch voter will be muslim.

This has led to a great deal of social unrest and uncertainty. The murder of Theo Van Gogh has led a number of Dutchmen to question the future of their very liberal society. Especially when many recent immigrants seem determined to change Dutch law to Sharia law. This is why Holland now requires new immigrants to watch a video depicting footage of liberated women and gay pride parades, just to make sure they understand that Holland is a liberal country and they'd better be ready for it.

Alas, many Dutchmen seem to be leaving their country because they feel it's rapidly becoming foreign to them.

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Dutch chocolate. Dutch licorice. The Dutch sound like very indulgent people.

But "teachers expect less of them" is not such a good thing.

[RaleighNCDUer]

32. That would depend on the expectation --

for instance, here the expectation is that kids will take home hours of homework every night. The fact that the vast majority of it is useless make-work doesn't seem to matter. If the school system is open enough to let the kids find their own paths, less homework would not be a handicap as the kids will pursue what is engrossing to them and not be stuck in an administrator's curriculum.

That said, I have no idea what the educational system there is like.

[eppur_se_muova]

35. OK, "expect" is good, "demand" is bad. nt

[dysfunctional press]

12. because they know that they can legally smoke weed when they're of age.

nt.

[Seedersandleechers]

34. Weed is not legal there, it's tolerated, big difference..

[Ganja Ninja]

13. Legal Pot.

:smoke:

[dogday]

19. Meaning more parents are happy and they

spread the love to the kids maybe?

[Ganja Ninja]

27. At least they aren't drunk and beating them.

That in itself is a big plus. They probably get fed better too when mom and dad have the munchies.

[dogday]

31. I totally agree nt

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. gay marriage.

n/t.

[The2ndWheel]

16. Why is happiness a competition?

We have got to find a better way to exist on this planet.

You have a ranking of happiness(whatever that word means). Now you have all other countries trying to catch whoever is #1. However, if you catch #1, then what? Can you be more happy than the most happy(which is yourself)? Then some other country passes you for #1. Now you have to catch up again in happiness. Is there ever a perfect state of happiness? If so, when do we get there? If we get there, then what?

No wonder we're all nuts. Chasing happiness is killing the planet. I don't know what happiness is, but the constant needing it, demanding it, it just can't be good. A goddamn happiness ranking. We're so fucked up.

[bleedingheart]

17. you're just mad because I am happier than you..

:evilgrin:
:sarcasm:

I have to agree, ranking happiness seems really goofy.

[dogday]

20. My child is happier than your child

my child is happier than yours...

My child is happier cause they live in Holland...

My child is happier than yours.....

[RaleighNCDUer]

33. I don't know - it seems to me that if you get caught up in an ever

escalating spiral of happiness competition, that everyone will wind up pretty happy.

This is a bad thing?

Perhaps, being from a country that is at the bottom of the list, there is a good reason why you "don't know what happiness is".

[The2ndWheel]

36. For a period of time

Yet never satisfied. We'll need more and more happiness just to be happy as we spiral upwards. I'm as guilty as anyone with that. It might be for and about different reasons, but basically the same context.

"Perhaps, being from a country that is at the bottom of the list, there is a good reason why you "don't know what happiness is"."

Does anyone know? Is happiness only what the Dutch think happiness is? They are the most happy, so they must have a monopoly on the issue. Is there anything unhappy within the Dutch culture? Is there a perfect state to happiness? If not, then how do we know when we're as happy as we can get? If we ever reach that point of happiness, do we stop? Can we stop? If we stop, does unhappiness start to come back? If it does, that means we can't stop. So we'll never be perfectly happy. But if there is no perfect state to happiness, how can we rank it? We don't even know where we're going, but we can somehow rank our efforts to get there.

[RaleighNCDUer]

42. Unless, that is, a prime ingredient of happiness is contentment -

then once you find your level of happiness all you do is maintain.

Happiness is not fun. It's not having toys. It's not even great sex. Those can all contribute to happiness, like all the other material goodies we are programmed to pursue, but they are not in and of themselves, happiness. If they were, you'd never hear of rich suicides. It isn't even being insulated from hardship - there are plenty of people who are living out hardscrabble lives who are happy.

Happiness would have to be different for each individual, but we have constructed a society that generally rewards only a certain majority. The advertisers say you can be happy if you just buy our product, and society accepts that proposition, though there are plenty of people who cannot buy that product or who are really not interested - they are made to feel worth less for not having it. Society rewards the 75% extroverts, and disparages the 25% introverts - salesmen are more highly thought of than thinkers - the gregarious are more appreciated than the loners. At the same time, the extrovert, gregarious, goal-oriented salesmen are made to feel they just need a little more...

IMO, if your needs are met and your wants are few, you are on the road to happiness. I think I'm about halfway there - my wants are few, but paying my bills is sometimes problematical.

[The2ndWheel]

43. That's the key

Contentment. Not every individual has it though. Mass society certainly doesn't have it, or else we never would have had AN empire in human history, let alone the countless empires that have come and gone.

[madrchsod]

21. they grow up in a society that does not glorify death .

[mainegreen]

22. The dutch are an *extremely* social and family oriented group of people.

[Coventina]

23. The Dutch have a long history of tolerance, learned the hard way in the 16th century

The Netherlands suffered greatly in their 80 year war of independence from Spain 1568-1648.

The Reformation was very popular in the Netherlands, and their Spanish overlords were devoutly Catholic. The Spanish put the Inquistion in the Netherlands, and there were many people tortured and executed. The Spanish would show no mercy in taking a rebel town. Sometimes the entire population would be slaughtered.

By the time independence was won, the Dutch had learned not to care what religion someone was. The important thing was to tolerate each other and keep the peace. Although Calvinism was the Dutch Republic's official religion, they welcomed other Protestants, Catholics and Jews.

This set a tradition that made the Netherlands the most open and tolerant society on earth. But recently it has backfired. That open-ness and tolerance allowed for a great influx of hard-core INTOLERANT Muslim community to take root, and now there is almost a civil war going on in the country.

Sadly, in response to this intolerant Muslim community, a right-wing, Neo-Nazi element has sprung up to "defend" the "Dutch lifestyle". So now there are TWO intolerant segments of society at war with each other. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. I am hoping that ultimately saner heads will prevail, but it won't be easy.

[mainer]

25. The Dutch are actually terrified of criticizing muslims

That's the impression I get whenever I'm there. They don't want to seem intolerant -- but they have horror stories they'll murmur in private, about how many "honor killings" have occurred in Holland recently.

[Coventina]

26. I know, it's really sad.

I'm hoping to be there in a month or so, I'm looking forward to getting an "on the street" update.

My personal feeling is, that they should start deporting people who violate their laws and refuse the Dutch tradition of tolerance. Intolerant? Well, I think intolerance of intolerance is acceptable.

[mainegreen]

28. It's scary the view the dutch have about moroccans now.

All you have to do is say 'Morocco' around my family and these normally nice tolerant pleasant people will all start on a rampage about how Moroccans are nothing but lazy vile filthy animals who need to 'be kicked the hell out of Nederland before the whole country looks like Amsterdam'. These people are normally super liberal, open minded people, but a siege mentality has definitely taken hold over there. I can't imagine things will end well with the way things are going.

[Coventina]

29. Well, there is definitely blame on both sides.

But I think if "the Moroccans" had made more of an effort to integrate themselves into their adopted country, things would have been a lot better.

[Phoonzang]

38. True, but also the Dutch

Should have looked more carefully at who they are letting into their country. Being an extremely open-minded, tolerant, and liberal country it was somewhat foolish of them to let in large numbers of people who didn't share those values and obviously wouldn't assimilate into that culture. Now it's too late and all the close-minded fundamentalists they let in are going to cause a right-wing backlash in Holland. :(

[Coventina]

39. No argument from me. And the right wing backlash is already happening

It's really a tragedy.

:cry:

[Burma Jones]

30. Dutch Bands

Well, I really liked Hocus Pocus, by Focus

and I like just about everything Gruppo Sportivo put out....

They're Prosperous and Tolerant, what's not to like......

[leftofthedial]

37. because the Netherlands has never let its right wingnut minority

seize power

[noonwitch]

40. It's because their parents spend tons of money on stupid clothes (Olilly)

I think Olilly is a dutch company, but they could be scandinavian or something.

their clothes are so expensive and they don't match. At least garanimals were easy to match and didn't cost much!

[Coventina]

41. Ahhh Garanimals!!! :-)

You've just brought back a flood of childhood "rememberies"!

:-)