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Which Country Has the Happiest Kids? Why?

Published Jul 9, 2024, 9:30 AM

When Jason and Peter heard about a study suggesting that children in The Netherlands were the happiest kids in the world, their reaction was naturally…Really, no really!

They were determined to find out how The Netherlands was able to lay claim to having the happiest children in the world! And more importantly…if their claim was true, what could be learned from their child rearing techniques. They also wanted to figure out the correct name for the country, since people refer to it as - “Netherlands” or “The Netherlands” or “Holland”!

For answers they turned to an actual Netherlander (or whatever they’re called) Veronique van der Kleij. She is a child and school psychologist who has worked at The International School of the Hague with children, adolescents, and their families. She specializes in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). She also has a master’s in child and Adolescent Psychology, and a 2-year post-master degree in School Psychology.

IN THIS EPISODE:

  • What differentiates kids in Holland from those in other countries.
  • The impact of helicopter parenting.
  • Bikes and kids…the surprising benefits!
  • Dutch kids & social media – how they interact.
  • How the Dutch discuss sex, drugs, gender and other difficult conversations.
  • The shocking differences in parental leave in The Netherlands!
  • How parents punish their children in Holland.
  • The importance of allowing kids to make mistakes.
  • Jason’s extraordinary journey to happiness and contentedness.
  • Googleheim: The Netherlands or Holland?

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FOLLOW VERONIQUE:

Website: Calm-Mind-Psychology.nl

LinkedIN @Veronique van der Kleij

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Now really.

Really now really hello, and welcome to really know really with Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden, who remind you that children of people who subscribe to our show are the happiest children in the world. The caveat to that is that your subscription and your children must be in the Netherlands, because the recent study suggests that children in the Netherlands are in fact the happiest kids in the world. And when we heard that here in the Home Office, our reaction was naturally really no, really, So Jason and Peter became determined to find out how a country was able to lay claim to having the happiest children in the world, and, more importantly, if true, what could be learned from their child rearing techniques. They also wanted to figure out the correct name for the country, since people refer to it as Netherlands or the Netherlands or Holland. It's all very confusing, so for answers they turned to an actual Netherlander or whatever they're called, very unique vonder Klay. She's a child and school psychologist who has also worked at the Intern National School of the Hague with children, adolescents and their families and now here are two guys whose children really wish they had done this episode years ago.

Jason and Peter.

I know today is a very uh it's kind of a wonderful topic, but it depresses me going in because by its very nature it's comparative, and I'm on the wrong side of the comparison. Other people are happy and add E r happy er than I am, and by the way in the world around.

But the thing that she make you happy is you have a best friend and partner. Most of the time, barometer wized is even less avocate.

Hence that's why it makes you feel.

You feel so much better and me continuously crappy. So this show, I say, what.

Makes the best friend a best friend?

You feel better an the when they do because they are worse comparison.

You call me and you go, how's your day? And I go, oh, man, it's not good. You go, wow, I'm having a pretty good day. I'm tackling. I'm tackling. So the topic is the Netherlands are home to the happiest kids in the.

World that there's already in and of its.

I got so annoyed, Why well the Netherlands, even the name and even the notes nothing the nether regions, right, don't go down there, that's your nether part.

So already. Usually when we see a topic that makes it go really, it makes it go really no really, this one had an adute went really no, really, they're the happiest kids in the world. So and the Netherlands, I guarantee. Now, if you're listening, if I walked in the street, did a man on the street right now insteads where's the Netherland? People wouldn't know it's a country, right, they wouldn't know if it's the Netherlands or Netherlands? Right? Is it Holland? Is it? Why are you not calling it the Holland? And are the people the Holland deers? And by the way, there's a whole the whole place you live is a fesso.

How can you be happy?

Every other country? This that in the room said, what do you think? How Schmelsburg not good billy Germany. Let's go with that. Yeah, here they went the Netherlands. Sounds like we're going over the hill to an area of nondescript. It's kind of like, yeah, yeah, where's it begin? Where's it?

Sounds like something in Hoppita and the Hague is there, the Hague I made myself left day.

I'm happy every because of the Netherlands.

So we're gonna talk about that. So before we talk about that, though, in this country, we have our our traditions and the way we raise our kids in culture. So I thought we'd give a comparative of some of the other cultures in the world. So when we have this guest on, we know how it's a child psychologist. Great and she talks about what's going on in the Netherlands slash Hollands slash.

So there's a copyright infringement right there.

All right, so let's find out. Let's talk to a culture that allegedly has the happiest. So joining us now is Veronic Voni.

You're gonna mess up the last that I know, but at least get.

The very neat there you go, very neat now Clay, right, Vander Clay, Clay, I do this.

I got obviously someone else should be doing this. It was a beautiful did your study it's a it's a beautiful name, and thank you for coming on. You are a child psychologist in the Netherlands. And we saw the headline that the Netherlands is home to the world's happiest children, and we had to find out a why b if that's accurate how they judged that. But before we even get into that, is it the Netherlands, Netherlands, Holland, the kingdom of what is your country?

Sometimes there's the sometimes there's not.

The It is the Netherlands, all right?

Yeah?

And do you know offhand why it is the Netherlands? Is that was there a guy named nether was there? Was it a region that people it was below other things, you know, and the history of how it.

Now prepared for this that's okay, I.

Have it for the end. I have it for the end.

Okay, okay, all right, you want to ask questions. So let's talk about children, educated and highly respected person.

So what's different in the way kids are raised there culturally than anywhere else.

In the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands, Yeah, it would make them happen. Now you're doing it.

I knew it.

I knew it. You guys wanted us up. You know that the lies it is really Holland. But somehow all right. Nevertheless, so, yes, kids in the Netherlands, what's going on there that allegedly makes them the happiest.

Yeah, well, I do have to say obviously we're not perfect either, but I think there are quite a few things that we do that are having a positive effect on our children's well being. I think one of the things that we're very very good at is allowing our children to learn independence at a very young age. We tend and I'm not saying that everyone does that, but we tend to let our children play quite independently by themselves, like at the playground, without hovering too much, without you know, catching them as soon as they might fall. Also with for example, we cycle quite a bit here in the Netherlands from a very very young age, and so children learn this independence cycling by themselves. Also to school very very young, usually when they're about like nine or ten. We do already allow them to go independently to school on their bicycles, but that's something that they learn quite young, and I think that we try as Dutch parents to give them a lot of freedom, and I think that is part of one of the reasons why I think they are quite happy in that sense.

So anecdotally, what that reminds me of very nick is when I was a kid in my neighborhood.

Same thing.

I was on my bike my you know, I would have breakfast on a Saturday, and then I'd go on my bike and I'd be with my friends, no parental supervision, and we'd come back for dinner. And that was the norm if my child. When I became a parent a mere thirty something years later, that was the scariest thing we could imagine.

What wait, let me ask you something there, because the same thing with me, although my parents didn't care as much, so there was not that much. But in our neighborhood, in our neighborhood's growing up at that point, it was my neighbors knew they would. There are a lot of eyes on kids, so it was very different.

And is that true there as well?

That it's sort of the village is aware that the children are out and so as a community, you know, they're watching other kids and the adults are sort of keeping a distant but but focused eye on these kids.

Yeah.

I think it's so like a safety thing. I think that's what you guys are talking about, right. It is, I mean relatively safe here in the Netherlands, and our roads are built so for if we're talking about the cycling that we can safely cycle almost everywhere. It's easier almost to take it. No, it is easier to take your bicycle everywhere and not take your car. So it's relatively safe here. But you know, we're also quite a small country, so that feeling of you know, community and not that we know everyone, but it is, you know, taking care of each other. Even if you don't know that child that's crossing the street with the bike, you do, you know, take care of each other.

In that sense.

How much is that truly a part of the formula for the fact that you have these happy kids? Is it the fact that it really is small communities in a small country. And I would also imagine, and I don't mean this in any pejorative way, sort of homogeneous communities, you know what I mean.

It's the culture dates back.

So yeah, there's there's a My impression of having never been there, is that there's sort of a singular culture. There isn't a sort of melting pot culture that we have here in the US.

Is that true?

No, we do have quite a few different cultures here as well. Yeah, we definitely do. We have lots of different communities, the Turkish, the Moroccan communities. We have a lot of people who've come from Africa as well who've settled here right here or so it's it's not just Dutch. We also have, especially like in the Hague. I live close to the Hague, a lot of international families that come and live here because of a lot of the international organizations that we have here. So it's definitely not just Dutch. But it depends on where you go in the Netherlands. So where I live, it's very very international, and we do have a lot of people who have immigrated here, but there's also areas in the Netherlands that it's very.

Very touch Yeah, okay, question the bike, the Viking, the letting kids be independent of a certain age and looking out for other people's kids. Does it translate across all all the cultures there kind of feel the same way about it. When they're exposed to that, they all embrace it.

Yeah, And I think I think other cultures have to get used to it, because I mean I recently went on holiday with my family and we were out at the playground and you could see a couple. It was a Dutch father and an American mother, and the Dutch father was like, well, just let let let our daughter go play, and the mom was like, He's like, oh, let it go. She's fun. So you know, those cultures, they also have to get used to it, right, but they do. I think they do embrace it and they see they see the benefit too. I noticed it with some of the clients that I've had that I've had as well into national clients in my practice. The parents say, yeah, we've learnt a lot from the Dutch letting our children go a bit more.

I'm curious. I remembered an incident with Robert when he was six seven years old. He's playing soccer, and soccer at that age is really about fifteen kids in a scrum. They all get together, everybody's kicking everybody, dust is going up, and then they separate. They're not really playing soccer fertida the United States. It's not good. But I remember Robert got pushed down and I, of course my wife and rush out because my poor boy is on the ground crying. And the mother of the other kid rushed out and instead of saying to the kid, why did you push them? She said, how did that make you feel? And I knew something had changed. When the bully was being asked, how does that make you feel where you are? Did the parents interact and solve the kid's problems at that age or do they let the kids figure out how to get through the day without us hovering and without us solving all your problems?

Yeah, I think it. Yeah, I think it depends on the age. But we do try to encourage them to solve things by themselves. Also, like if you see like little kids like sometimes falling at the playground, it's not like the parents right away rush to help them. And I'm not saying all parents, right, but other kids help them as well, right, And it's not that the parents aren't aware. We're aware, we're looking, but we're teaching them maybe differently, right, teaching them to get up by themselves or get their peers to help them. You learn a lot from your peers as well. I mean, you learn a lot from your parents, obviously, But yeah, so I think.

It's that reflects something Peter and I were talking about before you joined us about my kids. My wife and I tried a program when we were raising our kids when they were little that was developed by a woman named Mogged Gerber, and it was called Research education infants, And it was also very much the sort of engage the child in their own life, even at the very early of a month, six weeks, eight weeks. But when a child would get when a baby would get frustrated in a group of you know, there'd be like an open mat and the babies are wandering around and they get frustrated with something. The philosophy there was don't run in and save it so fast. First of all, they may figure it out. And second of all, it's okay to be frustrated. That's one of those things that you can be frustrated and get through it. And I was saying to Peter it worked very well for one of my kids and not very well for my other son.

And so, you know, I think it must be.

Hard as a parent because you work with children, but I'm sure you work with families too, so it must be hard for parents who have the inclination to jump in to hold back. Is there for you if you were just giving general advice to a parent who is struggling with you know when to jump in and when not. There is there sort of a tipping point where you go, yeah, that means go in. But prior to that. Let's see if you is there a way to look at those situations.

Well, I mean, every child is unique, and I think that's what you're describing as well. You don't have a program that fits every child. You have to look at what fits best for your child. And that's what I work with When I work with parents, we always look at well what fits your child, and as a parent, you know very very well what your child needs. Right, So if you feel that this is too much for them or they really need help here, then you also have to trust your instinct. And what I'm talking about are general things. Right. Generally, it's good to let them figure things out. But if you've tried that and you notice, okay, this doesn't work so well with my child, then you know you have to find a different way that works better to teach them the same things. Right.

I want to jump for a second too again this notion of the Netherlands producing happier kids, and I want to jump a little bit to some of the influences on the older kids. So I have to assume that those kids are as engaged with social media as any other as teenagers and kids in our country, and what we're hearing more and more is that social media is having a tremendous negative impact, building all kinds of stresses and all kinds of problems. Are the kids in your country somehow avoiding those pitfalls? Are they not as stressed out by these things? Are they not as plagued by it?

Or is it the.

Same thing but they're more somehow fortified to deal with it? Are the kids in your country somehow avoiding those pitfalls? Are they not as stressed out by these things? Are they not as plagued by it? Or is it the same thing, but they're more somehow fortified to deal with it.

I think they struggle with a lot of the things that you guys mentioned as well. A lot of a lot of these social media apps are made to have, you know, teenagers addicted to them, so Dutch teenagers are not immune to that. I think one of the things that helps, and that's what you want to work on from a young age, is being able to talk about it right, being able to talk about it at home and how do you solve these problems. A lot of the time, it's not necessary that social media is bad. It's about how you use it and how long you're on it. And if it's replacing certain things or right that you're not going out as much to meet people face to face. But if you're able to have those conversations at home, I think that makes it a lot easier. And if you know you can talk about anything at home from a young age, then you're more inclined I think, to have those conversations later on when your teenager struggling.

With these things.

You also engage them on subjects that here. Not everybody talks their kids about sex and drugs and self identification and transgender but you do, and you don't shy away from that in the country, even with young kids, if they have a question, you sit and you address or it's a different different attitude.

Yeah, and you know, of course I can't speak for all such parents, generally, we do. We do have these conversations, like conversations about I don't know, marriage. Yeah, it could be a man and a woman, but it can also be a man and a man, it can be a woman. There's lots of different ways a family can look like, right, And those are conversations that you have as a young age. I mean, if you look at a book for our children to talk about sex, and how your your body develops, and these things about families and it's all in there. Right, it's Dutch books like that, but they're written like that for kids as young as yeah, four or five six, right, this conversation.

Just as a point of comparison.

I remember when my son gave was I'm going to guess ten or eleven, and he finally said, okay, no kidding, how do babies happen?

How does this happen? And my wife and I were so prepared.

We had the graphs and the charts and the language, and they explained and I think we answered him for about thirty five minutes.

Wow, you did.

And then at.

The present, right, it was about five thirty in the afternoon when this happened, and my son's reaction was, I uh, I got to take a nap.

It was out for the night.

We were so overwhelming. Broke him.

We broke him.

Also. In prepping for this, I saw it like in Finland, which is considered the happy country, okay, that they have and you may have too, the fact that that there's brutal there's honestly like here, you ask somebody how you doing, they go awesome, awesome, It's always great, and I always go, I don't even know what that looks like. But there if you say how are things going, you can say having a bad day, having a tough time, and you're encouraged to be more honest about that that not everything is awesome, so you know your kid's expectation isn't just those That's the answer. People don't want to hear about your aggravation. Is that acting exactly?

Yeah? Yeah, And we're very down to earth so.

Generally, so.

Yeah, it isn't all all perfect and wonderful all the time. And I think the Dutch are very good at showing that and being direct, sometimes too direct for some people.

That yields me to like a perfect curve episode would be I don't want to go there because when I ask and you say not good, and you go, now you're into it. You got to hear why, and it gets.

Exactly yeah, And do people spend.

You're on your way to the story, you say hi to somebody because you think it's going to be a two second conversation, they say bad day, and you go why, And now, all of a sudden chance, your whole day because you got to hear what they're doing and then you got to jump into help. What happens with the bad day? How do you respond to that? Are you supposed to ask? Why is the next question?

I don't know. I think it'd be nice to say oh, or I'm sorry to hear that, or you know, some kind of sympathy would be nice.

Keep you going. You can do sympathy on the move, like oh, that sucks, and keep going.

No, that sucks me too, I'm having.

A that's the shield me too. You're having a bad mind, I'm.

Getting a data.

But you also can connect over that, right, like like with parents that sometimes I think it's like, oh, it's all perfect and it's so wonderful all the time. No, it sometimes it's really hard and sometimes it sucks. And then you can if you're honest about that, you have a connection, right, and then you can you can learn from each other, you can share, you can.

Yeah, but you're help each other if I'm understanding it correctly. That Dutch system also has it builds in the to the sauce when a child is born, more time for parents and children to be together. Like I've read somewhere, I want to get it right. The Dutch parents receive an average of sixteen point four paid weeks of leave for each child.

Yeah, so the mother has paid paid leave, so pregnancy leave for yeah about four months, and you can choose how you divide that, so you could take four weeks like before the jew date, and then three months three months afterwards. Fathers also have paid parental leave, and next to the pregnancy leave. For women, you also have paid parental leave and sometimes unpaid parntal leave. So I, for example, took after I gave birth to both my children eight months off after they were born.

And as a country, the people in the country, this is encouraged.

It's not. It's not like somebody would look at you and go, oh oh.

It shirking.

It's actually it's an accepted and positive part of the culture there.

Yeah, and I mean I think what you can do is also work less hours, right and still get paid the same amount until your child is a certain age, So you could if you work four days, you could work three days for I don't know.

It's supplemented in other words, while you're doing that.

Well, that's yeah, that's a really I know, but it's hard to work three and be paid for four, I know.

Really, how do I work for one and get paid for eight. How do I do that?

Here? You have women texting as they're giving it's push hold on. I guess I got to ask you about punishment. So how do you punish in that country? Is it time out? When a kid does something rare or something wrong? Yeah? Your children, and you've got to punish your child. What's what's punishment looked like?

Generally? I would I would say punishment doesn't work as well as rewards.

Punishment doesn't work as well as reward. No, wow, So.

What what you want to focus on more is rewarding the child for the good behavior instead of punishing them for the bad behavior.

So are there things like timeouts or or.

People use time?

But no hitting it right now? Smacking? Nobody gets smacked.

Right, listen, I'm sure it happened, right, But it's not.

It's frowned upon. It's not a thing.

It's not it's not frowned upon. It's illegal.

It's illegal. Well that's more than yes, yes, yes, okay.

I feel like the the the young people in my life generally seem to have less resilience in some ways, and perhaps because my generation of parents have jumped in a little too often have wanted to protect them from the perceived dangers or the real dangers. I think that's where a lot of young people being triggered by things that you go, well, yes we're talking about something that's terrible, but you don't have to take it on to yourself and bear that experience that isn't even yours kind of thing.

Are you experience in your part of the world. Are you experiencing any of that?

I guess I'm fascinated about how young people are being made to be resilient against, like I said, social media and this perception that things are bad, things are dangerous, And.

Oh sure, I think here as well, we struggle with, you know, worries about climate, worries about the future. But it's all about how you've learned to in general deal with worry and badness and being able to talk about it rely on your social network. That's really really important, right. So I don't think it's that they don't have it. I think maybe they can cope with it maybe a little bit better.

And is that just because of the system in which they've been raised. Is it because of those cultural things you were describing of letting them problem solve a little bit longer, letting them experience their own emotions.

Just I think it's a big combination of things. I mean, you have to also realize, I mean, we are quite a there's a lot of problems in the netherolence, but we're also a very rich country with a lot to offer the people that live here, right, So I think it also has to do with our standard of living, right, that helps as well. So I think it's a huge combination of things. And here as well, we do see our young people struggling with depression as well. That you know, we still have a lot of young people who are dying because of suicide. So it's not all great, right, but there are things that are going better compared to other people.

You can, I let you go.

I just this is something I've always wanted to ask somebody who does what you do for a living. Okay, do you feel any added burden to have the best kids because of what you do?

Does everybody look at you and go, oh, she's the child psychology expert.

If her kids aren't perfect, then you know, is there a pressure on you?

I've heard I've actually had someone say that to me that I'm like well, I'm not perfect, right, And the worst thing is is like I know, in the moment when I'm doing something that is not helpful or not good, I'm very aware aware, right, So I get angry at my kids, you know, I I snap at them sometimes, and I'm so aware of that. I'm like, oh, this is not good. But yeah, I'm also a human.

Being and you're more.

Can you be forgiving of yourself because you do know that? That's you know, It's like when I do a bad performance, I go okay, but I also know how to do a good performance, so I'll do a better one tomorrow.

Is it that kind of thing I.

Do try to I try to be mindful of that, right that you know, I'm a human being. I have my good days and I have moments that are also not so good. But then to give myself another try again. And then I'm teaching my children that as well. Right, I'm teaching my children I don't need to be perfect. It's about how I then solve it with them and I apologize to them or I explain to them and they learn from that again. So using that moment that didn't go so well for them to grow again, She.

Said, so goes you don't Mamma does for a living your message you get to I give you a little independence at age four, and you know you got a tattoo. How does that reflect? How does that reflect? How does that reflect on me? And also the pressure of the entire country is going we can't drop to number three? Come on you lie an interview? Lie smile? Okay, well, thank you for the time. Thanks so much for coming on. And I hope your kids never one stays number one. What's the happiest kid? So that was that was kind of fascinating in the sense that it really pointed out my short comings everything she said to do.

Then that's the subtitle of our show, Our Shortcomings, Things we don't know and did wrong.

So when we asked the question, we saw that they are the happiest kids in the world. I guess we have to follow up with are they Are they the happiest kids in the world. So I don't know if they're pushing it a little bit. I don't know if they have a publicist who.

Went around and interviewed every kid in every country and then took the median answers and went, oh, clearly they.

Do it with a series of his crime. They do a lot of different different points, they rate them then and then pick the country.

That's the question. This is and this is a this is.

An instential question.

What are you happy?

If you if you, if you really had to answer that question you stopped on the street today.

Given where you are in your life. I know the world around.

Us is a little crazy, but have you lived that happy life?

Really? And are you happy? So my answer to that is I am grateful. But from a family they grew up in the dark, in the shadow, you know that we're always scared stuffs gonna happen because stuff did happen. Content for me is happiness, like I'm content. Ah, does that make sense?

Yeah, here's here's my answer to that. I and I only realized this in therapy. So the seminal Broadway show that changed my life, that made me want to be an actor and is one of my favorite pieces of theater of all time is the show Pippin, And if you've never seen it, it's a lighthearted piece about Pippin, the son of Charlemagne, but it's not a historical piece. Who is born into extraordinary circumstances and expects of himself that he should be extraordinary and he doesn't know what he should be extraordinary in. So this character played by Ben Vereen, this player comes and says, well, I'm going to show you the world of politics.

I'm going to show you the world of warfare. I'm going to show you the world of romance. I'm going to show you the war and you're going to find your thing and be extraordinary.

And along the way, everything keeps disappointing him. Nothing is what he thought it would be, and in his depression, he winds up on a farm and he falls in love with the woman that run the widow that runs the farm and her son, and he's really content and he goes, wait a minute, this isn't no good.

This is not extraordinary. I need to be extraordinary.

And he goes back to the player played by Ben Veren and goes, show me what's extraordinary, and the player goes, well, here's what would be great is our grand finale. We do this whole setup and you set yourself on fire and you go up like a bolt, like the sun itself. It would be the most spectacular thing. And he goes, yeah, but if it's wrong, I'm gonna have a lot of trouble trying something else, and he compromises, and he settles for the widow and the child. And I used to think, I want to be Ben Vereen. I want to be that magical, charismatic, powerful bright light. Everything's exciting, everything's hot. And I realized that there is no contentment there. That if you chase happiness that is so far above the median line, all you can do is fall. When that thing that has risen you to the top of the roller coaster is nowhere to go, HiT's there. You're going to drop so far below the median line that it's going to be rushing. And with maturity, what I learned, and you can't tell this to somebody I think younger than forty years old, happiness burns very very low. It's a contentment. It's just it is not the highest ties.

It is this.

Continuous sweetness in your life where you can stop and go I am blessed, so I'm happy.

I'm happy because the contentment. It makes me happy. Honestly, that I gave you a gift this year for Christmas, Yes that was meaningful thing. And you gave me a belt, but it's the best belt wraps around you like an anaconda.

And I also gave one. Tell mister David, by.

The way, I should give David bore run because this was one of the funniest things David ever said. So Jason gives me a belt. Tell them what I gave. I gave you a Pippin. You gave me an original Hirshfield pip because I know. So I get the belt and I go, okay, hurtfelt Pippin the belt. So, and by the way, thanks for ruining Pippin. I was gonna go see it. The belt is self closing, you know, it hooks, it has no holes.

It works on this ratchet thing which allows you to adjust it in very small increment.

But we can't get out throughout an normal person's day.

But if you don't know how to open the belt, it's a little true.

So David google Heeint calls me right after we got the belt and we had talked to the woman who's the python hunter in the every woman that found the python, and David calls me, I don't know and goes, I need Pete Peter, I need the phone number of the python lady. I go, what do you need? The phone number of the Python lady for you says, I can't get Jason's belt. Ik. A picture is her wrestling his pace to the floor trying to get the which was to David, David as good as it gets.

So google huns and belt company, ladies and gentlemen they of modern.

Well, never failure, and you may not be a great gift. So David, what's the Google him for today? What didn't we do? What did we cover? What should we know?

Well, I'm wearing the belt right now, so am i, David Man, I'm gonna get right here.

By the way, this is one of those times with the audio version much better.

Yeah, let's do some flash chants are all right? Wow, they could transplant though.

Because my whole body it falls out. It's not just my end, all right.

So David, well, you know, there was some confusion as to is it called Netherlands, the Netherlands, Holland or.

Whatever it is?

And why the hell do you call the people from their Dutch right.

It's the Netherlands in the Holland things. She didn't call it Holland. You go aha, And then again Dutch, what is this?

What's going on?

Yeah?

Yeah, yeah, well it comes from because it was a region that was then controlled by the Holy Roman.

Empire for a while before it.

Was then congealed into a country. Many of the English speaking traders would come to the coast, and part of the Netherlands.

Is called Holland.

Holland is more of a regional area now. For many years even the government used the Netherlands in Holland interchangeably.

But at some point in.

The not so recent past for marketing reasons and they wanted to stay globally competitive, and there was confusion, they decided to go with the Netherlands, which physically.

Means a low lying country. So there you go.

Now Dutch, Why are they the Dutch people? This again goes back to old English and blah blah blah. But needless to say, the people from both both the now Netherlands and Germany were called dutchy you may know that of course Dutsch Deutschland is the way to say Germany and German. So basically the whole region there were referred.

To as Dutch.

You know, I learned so much and I still understand nothing. I still don't know why villains as Dutch people in home?

You know what they may be the happiest people, but they're not the best at naming the country. They could be like really low, really low down, you know what I mean.

Yeah, I'm happy because I'm wearing the belt the belt, and.

I'm happy because it's going to take you forty minutes. Thank you for joining us.

Happy everybody your check.

Now, Really, that's another episode of Really No Really. It comes to a clothes Let's play a game.

I'll name eight.

Prominent countries and you guess where they rank in the twenty twenty three survey or Happiest Countries in the World. The answers will amaze you. But first let's thank our guests. Very Unique vander Clay. You can follow her at her website calmmind Psychology dot nl and on LinkedIn, where she is at very Unique vander Clay. Find all pertinent links in our show notes, our little show hangs out on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and threads at Really No Really Podcasts, And of course, you can share your thoughts and feedback with us online at really No. If you have a really some amazing factor story that boggles your mind, share it with us and if we use it, we will send you a little gift nothing life changing, obviously, but it's the thought that counts. Check out our full episodes on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and take that bell so you're updated when we release new videos and episodes.

Which we do each Tuesday.

So listen and follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And now let's play our game. I'll name eight countries alphabetically. You try and guess where they ball in the ranking of happiest countries in the world. This is from a total ranking of one hundred and forty three countries, so one through one forty three. This is not child happiness, this is all around happiness. And as a bonus, I'll tell you where the United States falls at the end. Here are your eight countries, alphabetically, Colombia, Egypt, England, Iraq, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan, and Poland. Once again, they are Columbia, Egypt, England, Iraqi, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan, and Poland. I'll give you a few moments. Okay, here's your answers. Columbia is seventy eight, Egypt is one twenty seven, England is twenty, Iraq is ninety two, Japan is fifty one, Mexico is twenty five, Pakistan is one O eight, and Poland is thirty five.

And where are my fellow Americans.

Do you think the USA falls?

Well?

In twenty twenty three, it fell out of the top twenty for the first time. We currently said at number twenty three. And with that, I'm moving to Finland. Toydella oikoshti. That's finished for really no really, or it would be if I had said it remotely correctly, which I am sure I did not. Really No Razy, really, no really is the production of iHeartRadio and Plase Entertainment

Really? no, Really?

Every Tuesday best friends Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden are joined by experts, newsmakers and ce 
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