The Dutch have a tradition of "dropping" their children off in a forest at night

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Apparently the parents will take groups of young kids (preteen) out into the woods in the middle of the night to let them find their way home or to a campsite. This is, like, a normal thing in the Netherlands. Sometimes the parents will blindfold the children during the ride out, and sometimes the parents will follow the kids (refusing to help, sometimes even following in secret and making scary noises).

I personally think it sounds like a wonderful tradition, especially when the parents tag along - they can make sure the kids don’t get hurt or anything.

~Max

2

In the sequel to "Cabin in the Woods " we discover that trolls demand the sacrifice of one child a year or they’ll destroy the Netherlands

3

Is this where the Hansel and Gretel story comes from?

4

I think the story in Hansel and Gretel is that they were abandoned by the parents due to a lack of food, rather than a “dropping”.

~Max

5

For entertainment purposes, I’d love to observe a room full of helicopter parents reading this thread.

6

that sounds like fun.

7

Sounds like something that started as a population control method

8

This is called Snipe Hunting

9

The Scout magazine here got into trouble for suggesting a ‘snipe hunt’ as an activity. ‘Snipe’ is also a kind of small bird…
I think that a ‘snipe hunt’ is a kind of ‘wild goose chase’ rather than specifically finding your way home.

10

11

No, they weren’t abandoned. They were sent out to pick berries, and got lost before nightfall.

12

Like most of these stories, there are different versions. Perhaps in some the kids get lost picking berries, but in others, they’re deliberately abandoned by their father and stepmother because of a lack of food.

13

It obviously depends on the details of the environment. There are still places in the US where this would be a death sentence… but European forests are much smaller and tamer than those American forests. And there are plenty of tame American forests, too. The Cleveland Metroparks, for instance, would be perfectly safe for a ten-year-old with a modicum of outdoors training.

14

Yep, the version I read as a child definitely had the parents deliberately abandoning them in the woods

15

In middle school we called that orienteering. Except we were dropped off by a grumpy gym teacher and it was always raining. Then he’d go back inside and fall asleep on the bleachers.

Come to think of it, he might have just wanted us to stay out there.

16

The “original” Grimm Brothers’ version had them abandoned by their biological mother the they later changed it to a step-mother. Reference: wiki

17

even more entertaining: Let’s imagine a room full of American lawyers.

And wow–this “dropping” seems like a wonderful tradition!
More fun than the scavenger hunts I did as a kid. .

Related question about Holland:
It is generally considered the most densely populated country in Europe:
Do they have any “real” forests, with bears and snakes and stuff? You know—stuff that’s genuinely scarier than parents making noises? :slight_smile:

18

No bears, no wolves, no mountains, no extremes of heat, possibly some cold.

They do have poisonous snakes, though.

19

You’re also more than likely to be pretty close to houses, roads and railway lines, at least where most Dutch people live.

And with clues left for them to find, this is more like a treasure hunt, albeit somewhere larger than the back garden, and the treasure being to come home (not a bad life lesson in itself).

20

This is my favorite fairy tale, and I’ve read lots of different versions, and I’ve never encountered a “sent out to pick berries” version. Are you sure you’re not misremembering?