Are Playgrounds BETTER in GERMANY than in the USA? 🇩🇪 Our American Kids LOVE Them!

Our family of six loves German playgrounds (Deutsche Spielplätze)! They were one of the first things we went to when we moved to Germany from America. In this video, we share with you how they're different from playgrounds in the USA and why we love them! There's even a lot of research that's been done on German playgrounds, and countries all over the world have been inspired by them. We also discuss the culture of German self-reliance and how children are raised to be much more independent at a younger age here than in the USA.

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//ABOUT US//
We are a family of six, with four kids and a cat 😹, who moved from the USA to Germany in February of 2021 to pursue our dreams of adventure, travel, learning another language, and integrating into German life. We hope you enjoy our videos about our journey to integrate - the highs and the lows of being foreigners on the adventure of a lifetime.

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//TIME STAMPS//
0:00 - Intro and life in Germany update
4:11 - German playgrounds were one of our first German experiences as immigrants
5:30 - 1 - Parents are more involved on the playgrounds, especially Dads
6:44 - 2 - You can drink a beer while your kids play!
7:50 - 3 - Playground tourism is a thing! Family's playground "hop"
8:25 - 4 - The playgrounds encourage the kids to use their critical thinking skills and cooperate with other kids
12:53 - 5 - You can see the German culture of self-reliance in action on the playgrounds
17:28 - Time to feature some of your comments about German playgrounds (and Ella steals the show!)

[MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

Hey guys! Did you make it to the part where Ella TOTALLY video bombs us? Also, we'd like to correct our mistake in the video. We called the snack stands sometimes found near playgrounds in German, Alms. That is a term that originally means, "seasonal mountain pasture." But it expanded when Alpine tourism became popular to where they began to serve food to hikers and visitors. A better name for it would be Imbiss or Kiosk, we've been told in the comments. (Thanks to Henning Rech for that great cultural lesson!)

[divanihsta]

Most German playgrounds would be a huge liability in America since everyone wants to sue everyone. In Germany there's more of a "this is public property if you risk getting injured its your own fault" attitude.

[GettingNervous]

The Americans: These playgrounds in Germany are so dangerous for kids.
The Germans:

[Stiv_]

As a German, I thought these playgrounds were a world wide standard. Didn't know other playgrounds are this lame lol.

[merle]

As a german, i now wanna know what the playgrounds in america look like

[FantasKanal]

There's 3 types of children.
1: Those that believe their parents that the Stove is hot.
2: Those that have to test their parents hypothesis.
3: Those that have to confirm their previous test results.

[grubbyga]

I as a kid grown up in Switzerland, my Parents told us after the Scool : Go outside and play with other kids. They calld us when it was time to eat dinner. I as kids walked in every House of my Classmates without knocking on the door. It was a wonderfull Childhood.

[perilblume]

I liked what a German TÜV Engineer said about playground safety: 

"a playground can and should to a degree be dangerous, kids need to be able to hurt themselves to understand that their actions have real world consequences and to train their decision making abilities. It is however our job to make sure that simple mistakes can not result in serious life changing injuries and that all hazards are obvious to a child. A fixture may be 3m tall and the wood could give you splinters but under no circumstances may the wood be rotten or a screw untight. A child can judge the risk of falling or getting a splinter but we can't expect them to judge structural integrity or state of maintenance" 

Paraphrased from an interview in KSTA in 2018

[ErklaerMirDieWelt]

The difference with the beer might be that drinking beer in American culture is mostly associated with partying and getting drunk (which is indeed inappropriate on a playground) while in German culture, beer is seen as a refreshing summer drink to enjoy with friends over a good conversation (which is totally appropriate on a playground).

[sisuguillam]

Klassische deutsche Eltern: "Arm noch dran? Müssen wir amputieren?"
Funktioniert immer 😆

[LittleWinterWitch]

I recommend a "Wasserspielplatz" (water playground) in the summer. It usually has water pumps, canals and floodgates and your children can play with water, build dams or let little boats float down the canal. I just don't know how active they are right now, because of Corona. Our local water playground only pumps a small amount of water, because standing waters are prohibited due to the pandemic.

[Arntzraider]

The advantage that we have in Germany is that we have a very good health system, so that parents don't have to worry about being ruined by a doctor's expense if a child has an accident.
If a child is injured while playing, the parents or other people present can call an ambulance to examine them in the hospital.
Without that there are additional costs.
Because of this, parents need to be less afraid for their children, out of fear that they will get hurt.
The children can therefore test their limits and go beyond them.

[maacld.]

When I was a child, we called these "Abenteuerspielplatz" (adventure playground). They were rather new and came with the unification. Before we had big sandboxes with a slide, seesaw and some gymnastics equiptment like bar and similar, all made of metal. Me and my older brother went alone to play outside since I was 3 and he was fully responsible of me being just two years older. When my younger brother was able to articulate and learned to walk, we took him with us. So our parents could rest. My favourite thing on a playground was the "Kletterspinne". Greetings.

[QemeH]

A friend of mine from elementary school days who I occasionally keep in touch with is a _Spielplatzinspektor_ (playground inspector) by trade. When he told me I immediately assumed that his role was primarily to ensure the safety of the equipment and the surroundings, but there is so much more he has to take into account. There is actually a DIN norm (industrial standard) for playgrounds in germany - because, ofcourse there is, we ARE german after all - and it contains everything from noise shielding for houses nearby to age restrictions to the number of trash cans and the organisation of disposal to regulations about pets and much, much more. The list he once showed me for quality control contains stuff like accessibility, age appropriatness, value as relaxation spot for accompanying adults, number and educational value of devices, hygiene concept and actual hygiene, amount of open space for other activities, how close to nature the design is, etc.

Long story short: Germans value teaching their kids about the outside and basic life skills.

[samu]

What I dont really know as a germam but might have a big influence on parenting is the fact that everyone has insurance. It seems like every American is just an accident away from being broke forever as a Trip to the emergency room or an ambulance ride is so expensive. The stakes of messing around at the playground are much higher considering these circumstances.

[sarahr.]

One playground rule my sister had with her children: They don't help them up the playground stuff (especially climbing). This means you can't go further up than your own ability and this also makes the smaller children fall from smaller heights.
Of course with small children you also stand right beside them and always have a hand ready to grab them.

So far we didn't have any major accidents. Only a small laceration on the head, because my nephew did run behind a swing and got hit by it (and this could probably happen at any "safe" playground)

[derdiedaswarumweshalbwieso]

Playgrounds are great. Even as an adult you can have fun there. In my opinion, all adults should swing at least 15 minutes a day. ☺️
Then the world would certainly be a better one.

[ralfbonenkamp]

What I found very interesting and fascinating at the same time: it's not only self-reliance, it's also becoming resilient at the same time. I've seen this many many times: when kids ran around, stumble to the ground maybe getting a little hurt by a small scratch or bump, the stop and look around for mum or dad. If no one is in sight or getting an immediate response it takes only a few seconds before continue playing. BUT: on the same situation if an adult comes around and especially with a frighten face, crying almost heartbreaking starts immediately.
So as a dad I quickly learned to anticipate when care is _really_ needed and when I simply need to wait a few sec before the incident clears by itself ;-)

[FFM]

I worked with a man from China who told me his biggest culture shock was seeing the children just running around doing their own thing in Germany.

[FictionCat]

We called the big wheel you can walk on in 10:29 "Teufelsrad" (Devil' Wheel) when I was a child because it could be dangerous falling down from them in full speed. Naturally this was also the fun thing about them.