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With 33 hour work weeks, a $20 minimum wage, free university, free medical care and free child care, Denmark has been one of the happiest countries in the world for the last decade or more. Home of Hans Christian Andersen and hygge, many people around the globe have an idealized view of what it’s like to live in Denmark. But according to one mother from the US who actually lives there, there are certain cultural differences that might shock the average American.

In her series “Things That Are Normal In Denmark That I’m Scared To Tell My American Friends”, TikToker Annie In Eventyrland shares all of the culture shocks she has experienced since she moved to Denmark. Below, you’ll find many of Annie’s observations about how Danish children are treated, as well as an interview with her and some of the reactions her videos have received. 

We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments about how normal these things would be in your home country, whether you’re American, Danish or from somewhere else completely! Then if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda article featuring cultural differences from around the world, look no further than right here

More info: TikTok

#1

"I'm Scared To Tell My American Friends": 11 Things That Are Normal In Denmark But Not In America It seems like age 7-8 is completely normal for a kid to walk to and from school by themselves, not really any later than 10, depending on where you live and where the kid's school is.

annieineventyrland , Daiga Ellaby Report

#2

"I'm Scared To Tell My American Friends": 11 Things That Are Normal In Denmark But Not In America People leave their babies outside in their strollers to sleep. To me, it's a sign of safety and trust in the community.

annieineventyrland , Tamara Govedarov Report

To hear more about Annie’s thoughts on Danish parenting and how she ended up in Denmark in the first place, we reached out to her via email. She told Bored Panda that her family relocated to Copenhagen about three and a half years ago because the design company her husband works for opened an office there.

We asked Annie how she would compare living in Denmark to living in the US, and she told us, “Considering just the sheer difference in population, it's really hard to compare. But I am really thankful that Denmark is so safe. Copenhagen is listed as the safest city in the world, and I'm extremely grateful to be able to raise my children here. For that, I do prefer Denmark, but I would be lying if I said I didn't miss the occasional Target run from time to time.”

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#3

"I'm Scared To Tell My American Friends": 11 Things That Are Normal In Denmark But Not In America In Denmark, you can't name your baby whatever you want. In fact, there's a preapproved list that you can choose from. And if the name that you wanna choose for your baby isn't on there, it has to be approved. So we can't name our kids something like Malibu Barbie here, but there are even more common-seeming names that have been blacklisted as well.

annieineventyrland , CHUTTERSNAP Report

#4

"I'm Scared To Tell My American Friends": 11 Things That Are Normal In Denmark But Not In America In the US, there's this perception that Denmark is just this extremely healthy country and everyone eats super clean and just eats whole foods, fruit, vegetables all the time.

And in the US, at least where I had my kids, which was in New York and then Portland, Oregon, there was a lot of stigma around giving your kids sugar or any kind of junk food.

Honestly, something that I really love about Denmark is how normalized treats are.
Doctors will literally recommend it if your kid is sick, they will say, "Well, have you tried giving them ice cream yet?"
Another food that's kind of demonized again, at least where I'm from in the US, is anything with bread, any carbs of any kind. Here in Denmark, you might have a pastry every day. You might have a pastry several times a day, and then pasta with some bread. You'd probably wash that down with a coke or a glass of wine, or several beers.
I do love how normalized fun foods are, and I think it actually sets people up for really healthy eating habits.

annieineventyrland , JÉSHOOTS Report

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Pink Aesthetic
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In Finland, it's sort of the same but people usually feed their kids healthy food ever day. Even school food is real food, not junk food.

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We also asked Annie if it took a while to acclimate to all of the cultural differences, and she shared, “I honestly feel like I am still adjusting to the cultural differences here. I wasn't expecting it, but it feels like literally everything is different from what I'm used to in some way, for reasons big and small.”

“Learning to grocery shop in a foreign country took me a couple years to get down, and I still have room for improvement,” Annie admitted. “The hardest thing for me to get used to was, considering maternity leave and work life balance is so healthy here, there really isn't such a thing as a stay at home parent, which was my role for five years before making the move. It's been a lot having my entire identity change, but for the better.”

#5

"I'm Scared To Tell My American Friends": 11 Things That Are Normal In Denmark But Not In America Something that seems to be very normalized here are afflictions of old, in particular, lice. I grew up in Texas and I never had lice in my entire childhood or early adult life. If somebody were to get it, it's kind of a big deal. But I will never forget, a few months after we moved here, as we were leaving my son's kindergarten, he was complaining that his head was itching, and sure enough, I looked at his scalp and there just was like the perfect pattern of lice eggs.
I ran back into the classroom and was like, "Oh my gosh, I just noticed my son has lice." And the teacher was like, "Okay, well, I'll send out an email and let everybody know." They were just so calm about it. Whereas I feel like in the US, people would be freaking out.

annieineventyrland , Silvana Carlos Report

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El Dee
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is still a thing in my country too. You can easily get rid of it of course so maybe that's why it's not such a big deal?

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Erica Ventura
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My daughter had lice. My daughter with long hair, so thick that cheap hairbrushes would break if you tried to pull them through her hair. It was most definitely not easy to rid her hair of them. Not easy at all...

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theendisnigh75 avatar
TheEndIsNigh🇨🇦and🇬🇧in🇺🇲
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Agreed. I don't have children, but I do currently live in Texas. The semi-rural area that I live in even goes so far as to send out a little mailer to everyone in the areas around the primary (eh..elementary) school when there is a lice outbreak. The OP's post is definitely not typical

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MellonCollie
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Honestly, I don't see how this would NOT be a thing in kindergarten and elementary school. Lice are not easy to get rid of if not everyone takes the same measures, and classmates will re-infect each other all the time. Our children have had them two or three times during elementary school, in 6 years time, so far.

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Cee Mor
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We don't freak out about it, here in the USA, anymore. In fact we can't even send you home from school for it any more (in Illinois). I'm a teacher

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Honu
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was in elementary school back in the 70s and it wasn't considered a huge deal. The teachers sent a note home. Your parents gave you look over and bought some lice treatment if you had any signs of critters. It mostly hit the kids who played little league baseball because they shared batting helmets. I never caught them myself, but I remember having my mom check for it a couple times.

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Mixed Reality Portal
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We used to have Nitty Norah the Nit Explorer " come to my junior and infant school when I was a kid in the 70s. They'd check for nits and other general health conditions. It was considered normal and we never had issues with nits or anything like that.

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Xenia Harley
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It has become less of a big deal here in the states too. I taught for 30 years, and where kids were sent home until lice were gone, toward the end of my career, parents were just notified.

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LFish
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah. I'm in TN and lice happen. In fact it's so common that there are a couple of businesses that have been opened by nurses that solely remove lice. $100 and an hour later no more lice. After spending about 6 hrs trying to remove them from my daughters hair the school nurse still found some the next day. I was thrilled to pay and be done with it. We had to do it again a couple of years later.

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Manny_Flawz
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In the late 90s, I was a substitute Aide in early Special Ed classes. One day we had to take the kids to the Nurse for a lice check, which blew my mind. Even more, was that they wanted to check me also. I thought about it, and then I thought, why nit ?

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Pink Aesthetic
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Same in Finland. The teachers will inform if anyone has lice or any pests.

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Shawn Matalino
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Having lice has been so stigmatized in the US. It's considered the condition of "dirty unclean persons, when it's quiet the opposite. Lice prefer a clean environment.

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LilliVB
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's just a drag, but not a big deal. In my kids school there's also a medical lice control a pair of time a year, to avoid it spreading that much, and so saving the drag to most families

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Jus
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You just buy a special shampoo and comb and get rid of it. Children get it from other children

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MK86
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My mom's a teacher in Texas. She deals with lice every other week. When we lived in Texas, our kids' school had lice outbreaks every few weeks. Now that we've moved, it's not lice...it's bedbugs.

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KokoMomo
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I used to live in Illinois, relatively white neighborhood, me being 1 of only 3 Asians in the school. In the late 70s, I got sent home from school for lice. Except it turns out it wasn't lice, it was dandruff. My hair is black, they saw white speckles and determined lice. And kids started calling me Lice girl. I hated that school.

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Lisa Roberts
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Lice carried around The Plague as fleas did. Would thatB considered a big deal..?

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delightfuldragon
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Afflictions of old"? I taught school for 21 years. Trust me, this is not old.

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That Spoony Bard
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't remember anyone ever freaking out about lice in the US. In fact my school used to have the nurse check two out three times a year to prevent an outbreak. If there was any, they would take them to the nurse's office to wash them and send them home with a bottle of special shampoo or detailed instructions.

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violet Hart
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When I was a kid it wasn't a big deal they informed the parents and sent a flyer how to take care of it

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idrow1
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And all the Karen parents would be losing their minds and talking about suing for endangering their precious precious angels.

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Yvette Desmarais
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ya. We got checked when I was a kid in the 70's in the US but I've heard it is more prevalent now.

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Melia Janssen
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Most people here don't freak out because it's part of being a child to get lice. My daughter did once and we did a course of lice shampoo and she was fine for a day or two. Once she was good to go, then she returned to school. In the meantime, we informed them but nobody else caught it. A few months later, her classmate did and it was again, no big deal. It's just part and parcel of growing up.

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LadyHawk
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You are from Texas, and as far as I know, it never gets really cold, like in Denmark. In the winter, when we are very indoors and close, the lice have golden times. Think that's the reason you haven't experienced lice in Texas.

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Fishbear
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Idk, I had lice multiple times as a kid in the US and the reaction was similar. Lice also isn't an "affliction of old"

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Walter Brameld
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If we could get everybody on the planet to agree to shave their head on the same day, we would be rid of lice forever.

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Hobby Hopper
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've lived in the States all my life, and I've definitely seen lice outbreaks at school. It's an annoyance, but it's nothing to freak out about. You just deal with it.

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Daffodil
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's common here in the USA too. But we did have precautions against it in elementary. We could set our backpacks down touching another backpack, and couldn't share hats and stuff

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Frando Bone
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Because if people here aren't freaking out about something, they would think their lives were boring...

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Trillian
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I actually asked our pediatrician about this as we never had lice either and in my son's school we got a note to check at least once a month 🙄. She said that they resurfaced after some (toxic) chemical was outlawed.

dc1 avatar
DC
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

While head lice sure are disgusting, they don't pose any significant danger to anyone pre deathbed. Making no more an issue of it than it deserves actually is just sane...

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Big Chungus
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It used to be a big thing when I was a kid too (US) but now it seems not such a big deal because of there being so many products on the market to get rid of them

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Brooklyn
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yea it isn't that big of a deal. It's just, in the United States, everyone makes a big deal about bugs of any kind. It's so annoying

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Enuya
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We occasionally had head/hair checks in elementary school in order to prevent lice problems. It was normal for everybody, parents included. My class never had an issue with it (maybe we were lucky) but once in a while there were some cases in other clases.

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Not A Panda
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We all know that the only people who get lice are the people who are very clean, so *shrug*. You're clean, you get lice. Better than being dirty.

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#6

"I'm Scared To Tell My American Friends": 11 Things That Are Normal In Denmark But Not In America The legal drinking age here is 16, you're allowed to buy alcohol of certain levels. In case you don't know, the legal drinking age in the US is 21.

annieineventyrland , Tembela Bohle Report

We then asked Annie if she thinks many American parents could learn a thing or two from Danish parents. “One of the biggest differences between American and Danish parents is how relaxed they are, and with nearly a year of maternity leave, paid vacation and sick days, living in such a safe country, affordable childcare and no medical costs, why wouldn't they be?”

“For that reason, I think it would be pretty difficult for American parents to be as relaxed as their Danish counterparts,” Annie told Bored Panda. “But I do think American culture could stand to step back from helicopter parenting, having their kids in so many activities and having so many educational expectations for them at such young ages. Denmark is really good at letting kids be kids.”

#7

"I'm Scared To Tell My American Friends": 11 Things That Are Normal In Denmark But Not In America If you drop your kid off at daycare, kindergarten, elementary school, any institution, they could leave at any point and you might not know where they are.

I honestly don't know how many times I picked up my kid from school and they were like, "Hey, we went to the theater today," and I had absolutely no clue that they were even gonna be going anywhere.
There's also been times that I've been out, like walking through the park and ran into my own kids with their school, not even knowing that they would be there.

annieineventyrland , BBC Creative Report

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Atomicwoman07
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Parents do get an email or messages in the online forum (AULA) when kids go on day trips or go outside.

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#8

"I'm Scared To Tell My American Friends": 11 Things That Are Normal In Denmark But Not In America If you are ever visiting Denmark, do not be alarmed if you hear a four-year-old on the playground dropping an F-bomb. It's very normal to hear Danish kids using American curse words, very small kids, which is very jarring. Like I said, sometimes you'll hear around age four and five, and once they're in elementary school, it's pretty much the norm.

annieineventyrland , Oakville News Report

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“Something I love about Denmark is even though people aren't super outgoing here, everyone is always looking out for each other and each others' children,” Annie added. “If I am ever out with my kids and need a hand, people never hesitate to step in and help. I would love to see that same sense of community in cities all over the US.”

#9

"I'm Scared To Tell My American Friends": 11 Things That Are Normal In Denmark But Not In America First of all, the actual school day is only from 8 to 1:30 PM.
Secondly, they don't call their teacher, Miss, Mrs. Mr. Ma'am, Sir. They just call them by their first name
If a kid is caught hitting, flipping somebody the bird, using a cuss word, the harshest punishment they're gonna get is probably just the talking to. Things like suspensions and expulsions are only used in extremely extreme cases.
My oldest son is in the US equivalent of the third grade. He just now started getting homework this year, and his homework is to read for 15 minutes a day in whatever book he chooses. He's also never received a grade. I don't know when that starts. Oh, kids here don't start reading until they turn seven, in the US, there's pressure to start reading by five.
I'm not sure if this is true, but since kids here are allowed to buy beer at the store at age 16, I've heard that some high schools serve their students beer in the cafeteria.

annieineventyrland , kyo azuma Report

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Mads Demant
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The last bit is not true. Unless there is a school party of some sort there is no beer for sale in high schools.

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#10

"I'm Scared To Tell My American Friends": 11 Things That Are Normal In Denmark But Not In America You can't just walk into any old store and buy whatever drug or supplement that you might want or need. And also there are a lot of drugs and supplements in the US that just aren't available here.

For instance, if you need Tylenol or infant Tylenol, which is actually called Panadol here, you have to go to a pharmacy or you can get them behind the counter at grocery stores, but you have to get it from behind the counter in every circumstance. In the US there are just aisles full of drugs in every supermarket.

annieineventyrland , Markus Winkler Report

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Sue User
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I once tried to buy antihistamine at a drug store in the Netherlands. Apparently you need a prescription. When I nentioned at work how weird it was to be able to buy weed but not antihistanine, my collegue stated " the weed is probably better for you"

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It’s no surprise that Denmark is one of the world’s safest and happiest nations, especially after hearing a bit more about how they raise their children. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments as well. If you had the chance, would you raise your kids in Denmark? Or do you wish you had grown up there yourself? If you’d like to keep up with Annie and her family’s adventures in Denmark, you can find her TikTok Annie in Eventyrland right here

#11

"I'm Scared To Tell My American Friends": 11 Things That Are Normal In Denmark But Not In America In Denmark, once you start grade school, you take a sports class in the US we would call it PE or physical education. Afterwards, everyone, boys and girls, get completely disrobed and then they all get in a large shower together and it's supervised by their classroom teacher. Whereas in the US, we didn't even change into athletic clothes, and then afterwards, don't change out of our clothes and just go about our day.

annieineventyrland , Jan Antonin Kolar Report

Many viewers weighed in with their thoughts on these cultural differences in the comments as well