An American mother who is living in Denmark with her four children has opened up about adjusting to life in Copenhagen, where babies nap outside in strollers and couples sleep with their own duvets.
Annie Samples, 36, from Texas, has more than 200,000 followers on TikTok, where she documents what it’s like to raise a family in one of the happiest and safest countries in the world.
The expat, who uses the handle @annieineventyrland, told DailyMail.com that Copenhagen is ‘just so peaceful’ that you ‘really feel the safety straightaway.’
‘If you act like it’s not peaceful and act more neurotic you kind of stick out like a sore thumb,’ she said. ‘So I try to just go with the flow.’
Annie Samples, 36, from Texas, was living in Portland, Oregon, and had never left the U.S. when her husband’s company opened an office in Denmark and offered him a job
The couple relocated to Copenhagen with their three sons in May 2019, and three years later, they welcomed their daughter, who is now 10 months old
Samples was living in Portland, Oregon, and had never been outside of the U.S. when her designer husband’s company opened an office in Denmark and offered him a position.
‘My husband had always said that he wanted to live in Copenhagen. He had visited here when he was much younger and just really liked it,’ she explained. ‘With that said, we didn’t really have any plans to move internationally.’
The couple relocated to Copenhagen with their three sons in May 2019, and three years later, they welcomed their daughter, who is now 10 months old.
Samples recalled carrying residual stress from her life in the U.S. for a couple of years after they moved, but it melted away over time.
‘You start to realize what things you were stressed out about without even realizing it,’ she shared, saying she feels privileged to not have to constantly worry about mass shootings.
‘That not being something that I have to think about anytime I enter a public space is just a huge weight off of our shoulders.’
Denmark has more restrictive gun laws and a significantly lower rate of gun violence compared to the U.S., where more than 100 people have already died in mass shootings less than two months into 2023.
Samples has more than 200,000 followers on TikTok, where she documents what it’s like to raise a family in one of the happiest and safest countries in the world
Samples is grateful for Denmark’s high taxes, which provide free health care. She recently shared how she received a bill for $6,000 after taking her daughter to the ER in Texas
In one of her popular videos, she documented her urgent care appointment in Denmark. She insisted she has never had an issue with long wait times or subpar care
The mom of four explained that she checks in with her yellow health card and never receives a bill. She also uses her health card at the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions
Samples is also grateful for Denmark’s progressive taxation, which provides free universal health care and education to residents.
The average Dane pays a tax rate of around 45 percent, but the mother of four said it’s worth it for the healthcare alone.
‘People are like, “Oh, your taxes are so high. That’s horrible,” but we are saving money being here with three very active boys,’ she said of her sons, who are ages eight, six, and four. ‘We have definitely gotten our money’s worth.’
When Samples was visiting Texas with her family last month, her daughter had a stomach virus and had to be taken to the emergency room. They received a bill for $6,000 and had to figure out what would be covered by their travel insurance.
Samples told DailyMail.com that if her daughter needed to see a doctor in Denmark, she would call a non-emergency line and have an appointment scheduled. She would scan her yellow health card upon her arrival and wouldn’t have to fill out any paperwork.
‘When you’re finished, you just leave the hospital and that’s the last time you think of it,’ she said. ‘You don’t get any bills. Nothing. You just walk out and you’re done. It’s just all included in the taxes that we pay here.’
The stay-at-home mom believes that living in a country like Denmark, where you don’t have to worry about medical bills, ‘improves your quality of life.’
Samples was a month pregnant with her daughter when she received life-saving medical care in Copenhagen after an ovarian cyst ruptured. She needed emergency surgery and lost over a liter of blood.
Samples went viral last September when she shared a video about the Nordic tradition of letting babies sleep outside in their strollers year-round
The mother of four included footage of her daughter’s stroller parked outside a café and on their balcony at home
The tradition has been passed down from generation to generation, and it is common to see strollers with sleeping babies outside houses, apartments, and local businesses in Denmark
In the winter, Samples will put her baby girl in a merino wool body suit, pants, socks, and a hat as a base layer. Depending on how cold it is, she will bundle her up in a fleece snuggle suit
The stay-at-home mom also has a cozy footmuff that attaches to her stroller, which is like a sleeping bag for her daughter
She said that when people hear about giving birth in Denmark, they expect it ‘to be very hands off,’ but she ‘actually had so much care and attention’ during her high-risk pregnancy.
‘There were definitely less luxuries compared to my American births,’ she noted. ‘But everyone was lovely. I’d say the biggest difference was that I gave birth at 7PM, and I was in my house sitting on my bed that night at midnight. I was able to give birth and then leave right after, so I thought it was great.’
Through the Danish healthcare system, she received regular visits from a baby nurse who checked on her and her newborn and offered her parenting tips.
Samples said her baby nurse encouraged her to let her daughter sleep in her stroller outside, a common practice in Nordic countries.
‘They say it’s healthy for the baby,’ she explained. ‘When you live in a society where your healthcare professional is encouraging you to do this you’re like, “Oh, I should do this. I should work on getting comfortable doing this.”‘
In 1926, Icelandic doctor David Thorsteinsson published a pedagogy book that argued parents should let their children sleep outside in their strollers to get fresh air, even in cold weather, to strengthen their immune systems.
The tradition has been passed down from generation to generation, and it is common to see strollers with sleeping babies parked outside houses, apartments, and even local businesses in countries such as Denmark, Norway, and Iceland.
A 2008 Finnish study found that children ‘took longer naps outdoors compared with naps taken indoors.’
‘When you live in a society where your healthcare professional is encouraging you to do this you’re like, “Oh, I should do this,”‘ she told DailyMail.com of letting her daughter sleep outside
Samples thinks a lot of people who saw the video assumed she was parking her baby outside of a shopping mall for hours on end when, in reality, she is always keeping an eye on her
She keeps a portable baby monitor inside her daughter’s stroller, which has made her feel more comfortable about the practice
Through the Danish healthcare system, she received regular visits from a baby nurse who recommended having her daughter nap outside in her stroller
Samples has adopted the practice and will leave her daughter outside when she visits a café or shop, but she is constantly checking on her.
‘That part of my American brain has been really difficult for me to let go of, but I’m trying to get more chill about it,’ she said. ‘They also have these portable baby monitors that are wonderful that are really sensitive so you can hear every single little noise that is made — or not made. So that definitely helps me feel comfortable.’
She added that there is a Danish way of dressing babies in the winter months to keep their body temperature regulated during their outdoor naps.
Samples will put her baby girl in a merino wool body suit, pants, socks, and a hat as a base layer. Depending on how cold it is, she will bundle her up in a fleece snuggle suit and a footmuff that attaches to her stroller, which is like a sleeping bag.
‘They seem quite toasty in there, and [the Danish] have certain [safety] guidelines,’ she said. ‘You are supposed to feel the back of their neck to make sure that they’re not getting too sweaty or anything. There’s a big emphasis on making sure your baby’s not overheated.’
Samples thinks it’s a ‘great practice,’ and unlike most American moms, she doesn’t have any concerns about her daughter being abducted because of how safe she feels in Denmark.
She went viral last September when she shared a video about the Nordic tradition, including footage of babies sleeping outside in their strollers and her daughter napping on their balcony at home.
‘Parents always keep a close eye or have a baby monitor in the stroller,’ she explained in the clip. ‘Babies here don’t get kidnapped because no one wants the responsibility of someone else’s kids.’
Samples and her husband have also become devotees of sleeping with two small duvets instead of one large one, which is another Scandinavian practice
‘When we moved into our permanent apartment, we tried the one duvet again, and we were like, “No, absolutely not,”‘ she recalled. ‘So now we do the separate duvets’
Samples can speak and read a little Danish, while her sons have become fluent through immersion. She misses things about the U.S. but hopes to live in Denmark for the rest of her life
‘Denmark is very peaceful and relaxing, and I think that’s really good for me to be living in a place like that,’ she said
The post has been viewed 16 million times and has received more than 73,000 comments, both positive and negative. Some online trolls called it ‘child abuse’ and claimed she ‘should be in jail.’
Samples told DailyMail.com that she thinks a lot of people who saw the video assumed she was parking her daughter outside of a shopping mall for hours on end when, in reality, she is always keeping an eye on her.
‘You pop into a little boutique or a small grocery store where you can see them out the window,’ she said. ‘It’s a lot less shocking and more natural than it probably sounds to a lot of people.’
Samples and her husband have also become devotees of sleeping with two small duvets instead of one large one, which is another Scandinavian practice.
She said that when they first moved, they were staying in a furnished apartment and had separate duvets, which she had never seen before. She loved that they no longer had issues about who was hogging the covers at night.
‘When we moved into our permanent apartment, we tried the one duvet again, and we were like, “No, absolutely not,”‘ she recalled. ‘So now we do the separate duvets Everyone in the house has their own duvets, including the baby, and it’s just very cozy.’
Samples hopes to live in Denmark for the rest of her life. She can speak and read a little Danish, while her sons have become fluent through immersion. However, there are still things she misses about the U.S. in addition to her family and friends.
‘There’s just so much convenience. There’s really so much good food. It’s just fun and exciting,’ she said of her native country. ‘Denmark is very peaceful and relaxing, and I think that’s really good for me to be living in a place like that. But sometimes my kids see how life is in the U.S. and they’re like, “Oh, we got to go back there.”‘