Our Book
“Clear and concise, with plenty of anecdotes for family life to illustrate the argument, this is one of the most convincing parenting books to come across my desk in the last year.” The Sunday Times
“Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!” Chris Evans on BBC Radio 2, Breakfast Show
“An eye-opening and badly-needed dose of perspective. In my next life, I want to be Dutch.”
Pamela Druckerman author of French Children Don’t Throw Food
“A fascinating book – one I wish I had read sooner! In fact, the more I read the more I became tempted to move our entire family to the Netherlands…”
Sarah Turner author of The Unmumsy Mum
“I would say all parents should read this book. But perhaps that’s just piling on unnecessary, Brit-style pressure. Maybe you should just go out for a bike ride with your kids in the rain then open the biscuits. Gezellig!”
The Daily Mail
“American parents exhausted by the pressures and expectations of parenting will appreciate this refreshing look at how another culture handles the same issues.” Publishers Weekly
The secret to raising the happiest kids in the world? Whatever it is, it’s somewhere in the Netherlands . . .
Would parents rather their children be successful or happy? Kids in the US and the United Kingdom face lots of pressure to excel—often at the expense of happiness. But does it have to be this way? Not in the Netherlands! In The Happiest Kids in the World, expats Rina Mae Acosta and Michele Hutchison—both married to Dutchmen and bringing up their kids in the Netherlands—examine the unique environment that enables the Dutch to turn out such well-adjusted, independent children. With heaps of good humor, and no shortage of amazement, the authors are delighted to find that:
- Babies get an average of 15 hours of sleep per day.
- Children under ten usually do not get any homework.
- Teenagers are less likely to get pregnant than their counterparts in almost every other nation, and . . .
- Parents really do serve chocolate sprinkles for breakfast!
Along the way, they discover that the most commonly strived-for grade is just passing (6 points out of 10), how to achieve the perfect work-life balance, and that being normal is crazy enough.
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