In “Crime Scene: Fear in the Dark”, three mothers want to subject their teenage children to an educationally valuable initiation ritual: In the parenting trend of “dropping”, which is supposedly widespread in Holland, groups of young people are left blindfolded in the middle of the forest before entering adulthood, only equipped with a map, a compass, some camping utensils and provisions. From there they have to find their way back home together and without any GPS electronics, working together as a team.
As die-hard helicopter moms, the three friends first play through this survival trip themselves as a precaution – as it soon becomes clear, with fatal consequences that promptly give detectives Liv Moormann (Jasna Fritzi Bauer, 35) and Linda Selb (Luise Wolfram, 36) their next case .
Just like Commissioner Moormann, many “Tatort” fans will have never heard of a parenting trend called “dropping” – which is because it doesn’t exist. The inspiration for the script could have come from “Tatort” author Kirsten Peters via an article in the “New York Times” from 2019, in which under the headline “A strange Dutch summer ritual: abandoning children in forests at night” about the supposedly in The educational practice of “dropping” that is systematically practiced in the Netherlands is reported.
Even if “dropping” is accurately described in this report as an old “boy scout tradition”, the text suggests, somewhat sensationally, that it should also be understood as an expression of a general educational philosophy with which the Dutch approach the character formation of their offspring.
“The Dutch,” it says, “approach childhood differently. Children are taught not to depend too much on adults, and adults are taught that children can solve their own problems. Droppings distills these principles into an extreme form and relies on the idea that even for children who are tired, hungry and disoriented, there is a compensatory thrill in being in charge.”
This report made quite a few waves on platforms such as Twitter at the time and was extensively discussed by guardians from all over the world. Leaving children out in the woods at night without supervision, cell phones and handguns seemed, especially to US citizens, to be completely bizarre and irresponsible madness.
As deeper research shows, even in Holland, “droppings” are not a general initiation ritual that every young person inevitably has to complete in their life. However, it is true that “Droppings” have been very popular as a leisure and team event in the Netherlands for years.
In contrast to Germany, there are many providers there like dropping.nl where you can book such outdoor spectacles – even as an adult. Depending on their preferences and budget, action-oriented groups can be dropped into the Dutch jungle by army truck, rubber dinghy, helicopter or plane. They don’t have to fear for their lives on such survival trips; in an emergency, they can inform the organizers electronically about their fate at any time and be picked up again. Well-chilled drinks are also usually well provided at such events.
