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Published: August 26th 2009
Our week and a half in Germany was mostly about visiting with friends. We started off in Fulda, where we visited my childhood friend, Isabel, and her family, Alex and little Charlotte. They picked us up from the airport in Frankfurt and brought us back to Fulda, a quaint German town full of rolling hills and historic sites. Here we visited the oldest church in Germany (802), toured a palace, and strolled along cobbled streets with Charlotte running ahead.
But Fulda wasn't so much about visiting the sites than it was about visiting our hosts, who have built such a nice life for themselves. Alex is a professional photographer and Isabel a part-time nurse. They live right below Alex'sparents , which allows them to work but also spend lots of time with their daughter. Now that Isabel is pregnant again, this schedule is especially important.
I loved to watch their parenting style. They let Charlotte run whenever possible and safe, helping her only when she really needed it or when she was in danger. Charlotte is only one and a half, so allowing her to set the paceoften slowed things down (and landed us in some unusual places and conversations with strangers), but what and independent child they are raising.
Although this parenting style is by no means representative of all Germans, I did find that many children and teenagers were trusted to explore and make their own mistakes to learn about the world without being told how it should be done. Having grown up in Germany, I remember thisfeeling of exploring a town from my own childhood, and I feel it did a lot to develop my Independence.
When we visited Kai, Corinna, and Chaya in Hanover, we noticed large groups of teenagers hanging out all over town together. Their confidence level and maturity seemed so much higher than American teenagers, I have to ask myself if it has to do with the way they were raised at one and a half.
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Isabel
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freedom
thank you for your lovely observation of raising lotte ...it's all about freedom...you know that...that's why you are on the trip around the world... lovely greetings to you and lots of upcoming adventures for you... the baby is doing fine as well as i am doing fine... sickness and vomiting is all over now.... the best time is now to come... lotte and alex are also feeling great and we just enjoy the warm/ hot summer here in fulda... kisses and hugs the three and a half germans