In a week of dramatic political developments in Greenland and Denmark, Danish parents might have found themselves tackling tricky conversations with their children. Our column Inside Denmark looks at some of the stories we’ve been talking about this week.
Volunteers at Danish children’s charity Børns Vilkår’s counselling hotline had 314 conversations with children last year about war and national crisis.
The war in Ukraine, drones over Danish airports and US President Donald Trump’s threats of annexing Greenland were among some of the topics children wanted to talk about, the organisation said this week.
Børns Vilkår has two separate counselling hotlines, BørneTelefonen and Hørt, which are open around the clock for youngsters to get in touch with if they are worried, upset or in trouble and want advice.
War and crisis were the main themes of 314 of those conversations last year.
“Since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022, we’ve had a growing number of conversations about the fear of war,” the charity’s psychologist Julie Bek told news wire Ritzau.
“When there are drones over Danish airports, or a lot of media attention on Trump and Greenland, it fans the fear of war, especially for more anxious children,” she said.
Kids as young as 10 years old have felt overwhelmed by current events, she said.
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“They might have a smartphone where they can look at all the headlines. But their parents think they’re too young to talk to them about these things.
“Many of the children we hear from haven’t spoken to their parents about it. They might be a bit ashamed of being frightened by the world around them,” the psychologist said.
Others don’t want to be a burden by sharing their worries with their parents.
“And there are others whose parents tell them ‘you shouldn’t worry about that’,” she said.
“But that doesn’t ease their concerns and that’s why they contact us,” she said.
So what advice does the charity give to worried young callers, and can parents use a similar approach?
“It can be helpful to find a sense of safety in familiar things like school, where everything is as it usually is,” Bek said.
In other cases, the advice may be to take a break from the news.
“We receive many inquiries from children and young people who feel overwhelmed. They try to understand the situation and search for more information, which can become self-reinforcing and increase their anxiety.
“In these cases, we can offer concrete help on how to take a break,” she said.
Volunteer counsellors at the BørneTelefonen and Hørt helplines had a total of 63,939 conversations with children and young people last year, so war and crisis are a long way from being the only, or even the main topic of concern.
Most of the conversations concerned conflicts with parents, while around a third of calls related to mental distress.
It seems likely that news from around the world could see a continued upward trend of the type of calls described by Bek, as well as more conversations on the topic between parents and kids.