I have been harping on this for months.... Denmark is FULL OF BABIES. It's really pretty overwhelming. I've contemplated doing a survey of my bus rides - the frequency / number of babies per bus ride. But I'm not dedicated enough to baby statistics to pull that off especially since I bike now unless I'm going out and saturday night at 2am is not the highest baby-traffic time. Even though I HAVE seen people pushing strollers around like it ain't no thang on friday at 11:30. I've also considered surveying the relative amount of men and women with babies on public transit... for SURE more daddies with babies in public here than anywhere in the US. If only I had little research assistants to do my bidding, the number of sociological surveys we could get done!
As I write here in a cafe near my house I can see no less than three babies. One baby cries as her mom rocks and soothes her, another happily squirms after having finished up a big bottle of lunch, and a third naps while parents eat lunch. About 15 minutes ago two little boys who were very recently babies left with their parents... they were wearing matching danish-child outfits of rain boots, huge colorful raincoats, and striped t-shirts that are probably more hip than anything I owned before college.
A joke I heard recently:
American: "Why are there so many gay nannies in Denmark?"
Dane: "... those are the children's fathers..."
(You could also insert Sweden or Scandinavia or Norway for Denmark there.... as with most Scandinavia jokes I've ever seen - unless it's one group at the expense of the other)
Think I'm kidding??? here are some real live photos of babies in carriages in Copenhagen. EVERYWHERE, I tell you. The first three I just found online but the others I took along the lakes, in Nørrebro, and in Assistens Kirkegaard respectively.
People sometimes leave their babies outside in the buggies while they eat / have a coffee date... oh trust and social cohesion. This photo nicely shows how black-on-black-on-black fashion also extends to the baby accessory realm.
Also note in the right lower corner the baby bike seat.... One of my favorite scenes in Copenhagen is someone biking along with their baby totally asleep, strapped into one of these seats, flopping around behind them. They're totally safe, don't worry. Danes are nothing if not attentive to child bike safety.
As I write here in a cafe near my house I can see no less than three babies. One baby cries as her mom rocks and soothes her, another happily squirms after having finished up a big bottle of lunch, and a third naps while parents eat lunch. About 15 minutes ago two little boys who were very recently babies left with their parents... they were wearing matching danish-child outfits of rain boots, huge colorful raincoats, and striped t-shirts that are probably more hip than anything I owned before college.
A joke I heard recently:
American: "Why are there so many gay nannies in Denmark?"
Dane: "... those are the children's fathers..."
(You could also insert Sweden or Scandinavia or Norway for Denmark there.... as with most Scandinavia jokes I've ever seen - unless it's one group at the expense of the other)
Think I'm kidding??? here are some real live photos of babies in carriages in Copenhagen. EVERYWHERE, I tell you. The first three I just found online but the others I took along the lakes, in Nørrebro, and in Assistens Kirkegaard respectively.
People sometimes leave their babies outside in the buggies while they eat / have a coffee date... oh trust and social cohesion. This photo nicely shows how black-on-black-on-black fashion also extends to the baby accessory realm.
Inventive baby bikes...
This looks like a Lagkagehuset, a popular bakery chain... and one extremely attentive Danish baby.
Also note in the right lower corner the baby bike seat.... One of my favorite scenes in Copenhagen is someone biking along with their baby totally asleep, strapped into one of these seats, flopping around behind them. They're totally safe, don't worry. Danes are nothing if not attentive to child bike safety.
That's just cute.
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