Headshot Coffee has genuinely been the MVP of this study abroad program. Located right outside the building where we meet for classes, it just so happens to be some of the best-quality coffee we’ve found here in Prague. For some reason, the Czechs don’t seem to value well-made coffee like us American snobs. Anyways, early morning walks to Headshot in the soft sunshine will definitely be missed. My friends and I typically make the trek well before our classes begin to ensure a leisurely start to our morning. The path we take cuts through a gorgeous rose garden lined with benches, which usually aren’t too crowded during our earliest journeys. This particular morning, however, a school group flooded the scene.

What made the group stick out, however, was not the loud chatter or bright clothes. It wasn’t even the time school normally starts, yet each and every one of the kids held in their hand a half-finished ice cream cone. They were all going to town on their dessert-for-breakfast setup, and it was a scene full of energy. As I stopped to take a picture, one of the kids looked up from his ice cream and gave a happy wave. His greeting overflowed with contagious excitement, and I thanked him for letting me make his picture as I walked past. For all the struggles of street photography we’ve encountered so far, there are just as many joys that give endurance and purpose to our field of work. This moment was certainly one of them. And to think they didn’t even need coffee to be full of life in the early hours of the morning!

My classmates and I have been blown away by the amount of babies and young children we’ve seen out and about with their families in Prague. It feels like kids are everywhere, and I’m certainly not complaining about encountering so many precious souls. Yet, after looking up fertility rates and birth statistics, we learned that the average amount of children per family is actually quite a bit lower in the Czech Republic than it is in the US. There has to be some other explanation as to why it feels like little humans rule the world here in Prague, and I’ve come up with my own theory based on conversations with some locals.

I hypothesize that American parents shelter their kids far more than Czechs do, attempting to control every environment and encounter their children have in the name of safety. I’ve witnessed it firsthand back home; many of my friends and family members are obsessively protective of their babies. Czechs, on the other hand, must prioritize exposing their little ones to the world at a young age, exposing them to everyday situations in the hopes of toughening them up. Admittedly, statistics say that Czechia does have far less crime than in the US. But I think that as a whole Americans are controlled more by fear than anything else, and I see that even more clearly after spending weeks here in Europe.

The toddler standing above, who could not have been older than two or three years old, was riding the escalator down to the metro without even holding hands with her mother. In fact, her mom’s face was glued to her phone right up until the two reached the bottom. The child never lost her balance, and no one gave her a second glance. Such a scene would be unheard of in the States, but I see so much value in the Czechs’ way of raising kids.