Children left home alone - the Finnish way

[cors187]

Are the workers supposed to entertain the brats or just look after them?

In a decent system the kid would still be in school in the afternoon with a real teacher and possibly some teaching assistants.

->1980,s
I do actually remember the teachers would patrol the school yard after school and there was also a classroom open for a time.The rest of the kids were going to the local fight club to do battle.

Theres something in Uphews comment thats extremely true in finland.

[Pursuivant]

Interesting experiment.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -them.html

[CH]

There lies the problem and my point in it's entirety. The workers are just badly paid, low qualified, low motivated people.

Why do you constantly extrapolate from one experience you have to it being "the Finnish way"? This is an issue with your schools afterschool care. Contact whomever is producing it, or talk to the school or to the school-whatever-department of the city. Or just go ask the staff what kind of program they have... is it just unstructured play (and... really... what's so wrong about that?) or do they have something more. My main issue would be with if they just sit chatting with each other instead of keeping an eye on the kids. Do also note, that the afternoon care the school provides isn't the only option if you live in a larger city, there are usually lots of other organizations offering afternoon care... of course the one provided by the school is sponsored by tax payers.

At least when my daughter was in afterschool care it was part unstructured and part structured activities. And no, I wouldn't want my daughter to have full day school from a young age just because parents work.

[Tiwaz]

Soz but school finishing at 12pm and the after school club (if you're lucky) staffed by "god knows who" is ridiculous. My lads after school club these past couple of weeks has consisted of the kids "playing out" for 4 hours, no planned activities, we found out the after school club has a load of equipment in a store room which the workers there are too lazy to take in and out. The workers sit on chairs in the playground chatting to each over while the kids "entertain" themselves. A disgraceful system. When I was in primary school we did the work in the morning and arts and crafts or sports in the afternoon. Finland's system of providing none of this is rubbish.

My son was digging holes in the dirt with his bare hands once when he was picked up as he had nothing to play with. The alternative is he goes to the local park where no one tracks who is coming or going. They sad they will call you if they notice your kid hasn't showed up there for a week.

I repeat it's a disgrace, we pay enough taxes for our kids to have a proper school day.

It is a disgrace that someone is so stupid they think children have to have "planned" play.
They HAVE arts and that crap at school. It is perfectly fine to let children be creative BY THEMSELVES by playing WHAT THEY WANT.
Kids do not need, and should not be, programmed by adult to play. Give them means to play and let them have fun. That is sensible and will permit child to develop.

@#$%, when I was kid and at school we did not need planned activity or someone staring over the shoulder explaining what I should do. We played whatever came to our mind. Did not need fancy crap either. When it was raining or springtime, making little dams for water was considerable fun for us.

We used our shoes (rubber boots) as tools.

Jesus... Your kids are going to be some of the least capable of handling the world they have to meet someday with so disturbing amount of energy being wasted at trying to monitor and control their actions.

[irnbru]

Stopped posting on this thread, had replies deleted. All the best

[cors187]

wunder-baum

[GTI]

Leaving kids home alone is indeed quite common, which is nothing weird in my opinion, this is coming from a native Finn, so foreign people may have different opinions and rightfully so.


When I was on 1st grade back in 2001, my parents usually drove me to school since we were living quite far away from the school. When we moved closer to the school(Took about 15 mins to get there on foot) I walked there alone, this was back when I was on 2nd grade. I got my own keys to home just shortly after we had moved, and was home alone approximately 2-3 hours daily, nothing bad never happened, still alive. Didn't drink any poison like they usually tend to say what kids do when they are left home alone, aka worst case scenarios. I would say don't leave 1st grader home alone, 2nd/3rd grader can be left home alone for couple of hours(2-3 max) it really depends what they do while they are alone. I have always been a gamer guy, so playing some game(s) was a good way to kill time, that and just spending time with older brothers. It wasn't like this all the time, sometimes I participated these after school things, where you could play with other kids, sometimes I went to friend's house to spend some time with him, his mom was usually home when we went there. I would say I was around 50 percent of the time alone at home, other 50 percent I was in these after school things/at friend's house. I used computer first time in 2001, I still remember how slow internet used to be back then, internet speed has advanced a lot in last decade or so.


But yes, if parents, whether it's native or foreign ones, don't want to leave their kids home alone at age of 7 for example, nobody should have any problem with that, it is purely up to you how you want to raise your kids, so I do not understand some of these hostile opinions by some people.


Älkää haukkuko pystyyn henkilöitä, jotka haluavat kasvattaa lapsensa eri tavalla kun mitä suomessa ollaan totuttu, se kun loppujen lopuksi on ihan jokaisen oma päätös, miten lapsensa kasvattaa. Tämä ihan vain tietona meille supisuomalaisille, joilla tuntuu olevan jokin ongelma tämän asian kanssa.

[Upphew]

Älkää haukkuko pystyyn henkilöitä, jotka haluavat kasvattaa lapsensa eri tavalla kun mitä suomessa ollaan totuttu, se kun loppujen lopuksi on ihan jokaisen oma päätös, miten lapsensa kasvattaa. Tämä ihan vain tietona meille supisuomalaisille, joilla tuntuu olevan jokin ongelma tämän asian kanssa.

Umm, yeah but no. People can raise their kids to worship my noodly appendage if they want. I don't like it but they can. When they start to bitch and moan and ask for my money to pay to pamper their offspring... I certainly will bark them up.

[pnlbr]

Umm, yeah but no. People can raise their kids to worship my noodly appendage if they want. I don't like it but they can. When they start to bitch and moan and ask for my money to pay to pamper their offspring... I certainly will bark them up.

It has been a long way and much of a heated argumentation since I originated this post. My sole intention was to know how working expat parents cope with the Finnish way of leaving school-aged children home alone. I would expect most of them to find a baby-sitter/aupair, etc since leaving children home alone as young as 7 is considered not only irresponsible parenting but also a felony in many countries.

But ok, I don't want to start this whole discussion all over again. I am just replying now because I could not see in any post in this thread, any person bitching or moaning or asking for YOUR money or any Finnish government financial aid for that matter. People, me included, would be very satisfied if the private sector would be interested in providing after-school care, for which - needless to say but I will point out since you seem to totally miss the point of this thread - some parents would be willing to pay for.

So please, listen to GTI's advice who seems to be a wise person for his/her young age, and let people seek for solutions for their own issues without bashing them, thank you.

[Upphew]

It has been a long way and much of a heated argumentation since I originated this post. My sole intention was to know how working expat parents cope with the Finnish way of leaving school-aged children home alone. I would expect most of them to find a baby-sitter/aupair, etc since leaving children home alone as young as 7 is considered not only irresponsible parenting but also a felony in many countries.

You got some answers ans a lot of extra curricular discussion on top of that.

But ok, I don't want to start this whole discussion all over again. I am just replying now because I could not see in any post in this thread, any person bitching or moaning or asking for YOUR money or any Finnish government financial aid for that matter.

Did you skip irnbru's comments?

People, me included, would be very satisfied if the private sector would be interested in providing after-school care, for which - needless to say but I will point out since you seem to totally miss the point of this thread - some parents would be willing to pay for.

Point of this thread towards the end seemed to be irnbru bashing the Finnish way and people proving/trying to prove him wrong or just bashing him.

I do understand that there are parents that want their kids looked after and are willing to pay for it.

So please, listen to GTI's advice who seems to be a wise person for his/her young age, and let people seek for solutions for their own issues without bashing them, thank you.

When someone bashes the system that seems to have worked ok, I bash the person doing the bashing.

[pnlbr]

Again, I will not go through the whole argumentation anymore. Whomever has useful information about after-school care (nanny, baby-sitter, aupair, any other solution not yet thought of) to share, please feel free to post in this thread. Thank you!

[Upphew]

Again, I will not go through the whole argumentation anymore. Whomever has useful information about after-school care (nanny, baby-sitter, aupair, any other solution not yet thought of) to share, please feel free to post in this thread. Thank you!

https://www.finlandforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=80236

[Honest]

Having a babysitter to look after your kids in your absence seems the best idea !! While this is an infant, the type of abuse can change in case of 6-7 years olds.

Other than normal schooling, play groups etc, parents are the only people who can look after their kids. leaving it to others in isolation will only result in poor treatment, abuse or bad up bringing in most of the cases.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16ts-MP_GXQ

[onkko]

Having a babysitter to look after your kids in your absence seems the best idea !! While this is an infant, the type of abuse can change in case of 6-7 years olds.

Other than normal schooling, play groups etc, parents are the only people who can look after their kids. leaving it to others in isolation will only result in poor treatment, abuse or bad up bringing in most of the cases.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16ts-MP_GXQ

And if you look statistics instead of scandals then parents, especially mother, are ones who shouldnt be near of their children.

[Upphew]

And if you look statistics instead of scandals then parents, especially mother, are ones who shouldnt be near of their children.

Might help with the discipline too