Happy, Happy Dutch Children

Posted by: Lauren Young on May 11, 2009

This item was written by Savita Iyer-Ahrestani. She is a freelance financial journalist now living in The Netherlands who guest blogs for Working Parents.

The happiest children in Europe, according to results of a recent study, are right here in my own backyard.

Dutch children, researchers at York University in the UK have concluded, are for a host of reasons far happier than children in other European countries. This study was undertaken for the UK-based Child Poverty Action Group, and was based on criteria ranging from infant mortality to obesity, poverty and housing. The Netherlands ranked first out of 29 countries studied; the UK ranked a low 24th.

Why are Dutch children so happy? The material quality of their lives aside, the study states that Dutch children expressed the greatest amount of “subjective well being” in response to questions about whether they like school, feel pressured by school work, and how they rate their own health. Dutch kids also enjoy the best relationships with their parents, this judged by the ease with which children can talk to their parents about various topics.

I’ve lived two years in The Netherlands and I would say there is much that industrialized nations can learn from it with respect to children, their upbringing, education and parent-child relationships.

There are of course some things in the Dutch way of life that I haven’t been able to come to terms with, such as the reluctance of doctors to medicate children (see my former post on antibiotics – but Dutch children, according to this study, are the second healthiest in Europe, after the Swedes). But overall, I can say that I really admire the way in which children here live.

Let’s take food. Almost of all of us who contribute to this blog have written about it at some point or other, and healthy eating is an obsession for Americans. Here in Holland, it’s just life. Cheese sandwiches with brown bread and Granny Smith apples is what it’s all about. Go to a playground or ride the train in Holland: You’ll see Dutch children snacking on cucumbers and drinking strawberry yoghurt.

Sure, they also eat fries and greasy sausages called Frikandel. But from the age of four, a Dutch child can ride a bike without stablizers, and for the rest of his or her school going years, will ride to school and back, sometimes going for many kilometers. Families visit other families on bicycles regardless of the weather, which is often inclement here, to say the least. I have seen no obesity here.

Work/life balance also seems quite harmonious. To give just one example, I take my daughter to a dance class on Wednesday afternoons and I am one of the few mothers there: Most of the girls come with their dads.

“I take Wednesdays off so I can be with my daughters,” one father told me.

“My wife and I share a job – she works on Wednesday so I can come to this class,” another said.

I doubt I would see this in other countries.

I will be leaving The Netherlands at the end of July. While I’m looking forward to moving on, I will also miss this way of life and I am glad that my children had the opportunity to experience it. We have learned a lot.

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