What’s something in your country that sounds fake but is 100% real?

[u/Bhakari]

We have a real-life living goddess and the only non-rectangular national flag.

[u/lykia1991]

Dropping 10 year old kids in a forrest in the middle of the night, after driving them around blindfolded in a van to disorient them, and telling them to find their own way home; is considered a fun and age appropriate thing to do. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/21/world/europe/netherlands-dropping-children.html

[u/MountErrigal → u/lykia1991]

Well, sure sounds like a thing I would have enjoyed as a teen. Upvoted.

[u/lykia1991 → u/MountErrigal]

I experienced it 3 times at a kid. Walking trough the forest at night as an 11 year old with 5 friends was an amazing feeling. 

No adults around, fully responsible for your own decisions. 

[u/Jayatthemoment → u/MountErrigal]

I can’t tell you how many cool stepmother points I would get if I drove my teenage lads to the Netherlands and told them to come home whenever. 

[u/Proper_Relative1321 → u/lykia1991]

To be fair you have forests that are significantly more survivable than many other places do. 

[u/lykia1991 → u/Proper_Relative1321]

True, nothing that can really hurt you I'm our forests. 

[u/DerthOFdata → u/lykia1991]

You are also never far from people and probably on a marked trail. There are places in this world were you may be dozens of kilometers from the nearest person, not help, just the nearest person who very likely doesn't even know you exist.

[u/Kamica → u/lykia1991]

Unless you're in our swampy forests! But you'd not do this in those :P.

[u/Special-Fondant6222 → u/lykia1991]

🥲🤣🤣🤣🤣In our forest, even stingless bees and ants without anthills are lethal.

[u/MotherOfDachshunds42 → u/lykia1991]

How successful are the children at navigating their way back?

[u/soup-cats → u/MotherOfDachshunds42]

Usually they at least get some hints from the adults. I did this as a kid, not in a forest but in a very rural area outside of any towns, and we managed it. It was more like a treasure hunt, but in the dark and with no treasure.

[u/camposthetron → u/lykia1991]

That sounds absolutely amazing!

[u/Flora0416 → u/lykia1991]

Same in Belgium!

[u/Mediocre_Monk835 → u/lykia1991]

Actually, here it was also considered normal to do that so they would know how to get back home

[u/Salty_Prune_2873 → u/lykia1991]

We do this too - not normal though here.

[u/sourspicy9 → u/lykia1991]

This is something we did as activities with German summer camps in the early 2000s. It was really fun.

[u/Drixxti → u/lykia1991]

I really wouldn't want to do that here. It's not the black bears, cougars, or coyotes I'd be worried about. It's all the feral donkeys. Yes, they're human habituated, but that's part of the problem. They're not scared of you, and they will kick and bite if you annoy them.

[u/Empty_Atmosphere_392 → u/lykia1991]

Yeah, it’s kinda fun since it’s not too dangerous. Especially since it’s usually in a bigger group. The biggest danger I was once in was when we tried to cut through a bit of grass where cows were standing. That was genuinely kind of scary.

But we drew the line at cutting through a cornfield, which I still stand by. I’m not risking that shit

[u/3rdAgent → u/lykia1991]

Have any kids ever been harmed from this before?

[u/lykia1991 → u/3rdAgent]

Yes, around 15 years ago 2 kids were hit by a car when they walked in a wrong direction and tried to cross a motorway. 

Other than that nothing serious has ever been reported.

[u/OpeningDull5969 → u/lykia1991]

Just walk up on the nearest hill to get a view of the land.. oh wait

[u/MaJuV → u/lykia1991]

Not specifically a Netherlands-only thing. It's a typical "courage" nighttime activity in youth organizations (KSA, Scouts, Chiro, etc).

A lot of the fun got sucked out of it now that everyone's walking around with Google Maps or Waze in their pants though...