Dam Parenting

Have you ever reacted to something and thought — why did I react like that? Or carried a weight you couldn't quite name? Today we're breaking down what trauma actually is — plainly, warmly, and without the jargon. Because if you're living in the Netherlands as an expat or immigrant, building a life far from home, navigating a foreign healthcare system, raising children in a second lang...

This episode is brought to you by MamaSocial , who connect mums across the Netherlands so you actually have a community to lean on. Brunches, mingles, networking, whatever you need — MamaSocial will be hosting something near you. Check out their website and Instagram to find your nearest one now. Have you ever had sex because saying no felt harder than just getting it over with? In episode 3 of DA...

When Aldo's daughter arrived via surrogacy in Canada, he looked around and realised he'd spent 10 years focused on becoming a dad — and forgotten to build a community for her. So he started a WhatsApp group for four or five families. Within months, it had grown to 250 members from every corner of the Netherlands. In this episode, Aldo — founder of Queer Families NL — talks about what it ac...

Your child speaks the school language all year without thinking. Your language — the one you grew up in, the one your parents use, the one you hoped would just stick — has to fight for space. And then summer comes. You get on a plane. And suddenly the whole dynamic shifts. In this episode, Eva talks to multilingualism specialist Mimi about what really happens to language development when families...

What actually happens after a relationship ends — when you have children together, you're living in the Netherlands, and your village is far away? Niko, a German dad, joins us this week to talk honestly about something most men never say out loud: the grief, the guilt, the fear of what separation would do to his kids — and how he came out the other side. They talk about growing apart after years t...

If you became a father and suddenly felt like you couldn't keep up — with the admin, the overwhelm, the switching, the forgetting — this episode is for you. Liam, founder of Dads Do Art and familiar Dam Parenting voice, joins Eva to talk about his late ADD diagnosis. What fatherhood revealed that decades of coping had hidden. How he navigated the Dutch healthcare system — the huisarts, the wai...

The Dutch housing market is fast, opaque, and genuinely unforgiving if you don't know the rules — and most of us didn't get the rulebook. In this episode, Eva is joined by Nic, co-founder of Buy Home Helper , who built a platform specifically for internationals navigating the Dutch home buying process after his own experience of lost bids, hidden costs, surprise neighbours, and a final inv...

Confused about vaccinations in the Netherlands? You're not alone — it's one of the most asked questions in every expat parenting group. This week I'm joined by Youth Healthcare physician Dr. Marenne van Hengel Budde for a complete, plain-English guide to the Dutch vaccination system — from pregnancy through to age 14, and everything in between. We cover the full Dutch National Immunisa...

‘We used to be so passionate. Now we’re housemates who just happen to share a bed. I’m scared we’ve lost something we can’t get back.’ IIn this episode, sex and intimacy counsellor Debby Poort answers it. This month on DAM SEX, Eva and Debby go into Emotionally Focused Therapy — the attachment-based model that reframes ‘we have a sex problem’ as ‘we have a connection problem.’ They talk about the...

Gossip. Gossib. Godsib. The same word — and the meaning was changed on purpose. Before gossip became something shameful, it meant godsib: God's sibling. Your circle. The women who gathered around you when you gave birth, who cooked and held and stayed. That tradition was deliberately dismantled — and we are reclaiming it. In this final episode of the Maternal Mental Health Month series, I sit down...

We close Maternal Mental Health Month with something the research says matters just as much as therapy: community. Rachael Forester — therapist and new lead of MamaSocial — joins Dam Parenting to talk about why mum friends aren't optional. The science of co-regulation. Why female friendship in early motherhood is neurologically unique. And what MamaSocial — the community space for internationa...

Maternal mental health doesn't always look like crisis. Sometimes it looks like not having a single person to call when your baby spikes a temperature at midnight. This week, as part of our Maternal Mental Health Month, Eva speaks to Robyn from Delft Mama — a volunteer-run charity that has been quietly building community for international families in and around Delft since 2007. They talk abou...

When was the last time you danced? Not in the kitchen with a toddler on your hip — actually danced, to music you love, in a space that felt like yours? On this special episode on Dam Parenting closing up the Maternal Mental Health Month series, Eva is joined by Morgan and Sam from Tiny Grooves — two Australians, nine years in Amsterdam, five kids between them, and the creators of something genuine...

For those in the Eindhoven region, we have reached out to a community down there, ready and waiting to welcome you. On this episode I'm joined by Sylvia, founder of Expat Kids Eindhoven — a community she built from scratch after having her baby during COVID, far from her family in Colombia, and realising other international mamas were probably feeling exactly the same. We talk about what actua...

What if one of the most powerful things you could do for your mental health as a mother didn't involve a therapist, a screen, or a to-do list — but your own voice? This week on Dam Parenting, we're closing out our Maternal Mental Health Month series with something that surprised even us. Host Eva went along to a Singing Mamas session in Amsterdam — and felt it from the very first song. Sin...

Starting solids is meant to be an exciting milestone—but for many parents, it brings anxiety, confusion, and a constant feeling of getting it wrong. When do you actually start? What should your baby eat first? Is baby-led weaning realistic—or just something we see on Instagram? And what does “starting solids” actually look like when you’re living in the Netherlands, shopping in Dutch supermarkets,...

In the Netherlands, if you are experiencing postpartum depression (PPD), your first point of contact should be your huisarts (general practitioner) or verloskundige (midwife). They can formally diagnose you and provide a referral to specialized, Dutch healthcare-covered psychological care. There is the Pop Poli clinic, which we prevoiusly had on as a guest 2 years ago, A POP-poli (Psychiatrie, Obs...

We talk a lot about the beauty of raising multilingual children — the richness, the connection, the gift of language. But what about what it actually costs to hold it all together? In this episode for Maternal Mental Health Month, host Eva welcomes back multilingual family coach Mimi from Growing up Multilingual, for an honest conversation about the side of language parenting that rarely gets name...

 If you have ever lain awake in the dark, baby in arms, scrolling Instagram and feeling quietly worse with every post you see — this episode is for you. This week as part of our Maternal Mental Health Month series, Eva sits down with positive psychologist Eva from The Joy Embassy for an honest, warm conversation about what social media really does to new mothers in the Netherlands — and what we ca...

Do you ever feel like you're constantly dropping the ball, losing yourself in the chaos of motherhood, or just can't seem to keep up — no matter how hard you try? It might not just be motherhood. In this episode, originally aired as part of our 2024 Maternal Mental Health series, I'm joined by Emma, founder of ADHD Potential , a mother and ADHD coach who knows this reality from the ins...

You’re exhausted. You’re touched-out. You haven’t wanted sex in months and you’re quietly wondering if something is broken. Nothing is broken. This Maternal Mental Health month we’re talking about what nobody talks about: what actually happens to your body, your brain, your desire — and your sense of yourself as a sexual being — after you become a mother. We are joined by Debby Poort, a sex and in...

After birth, so many women are told their symptoms are normal — and then left to quietly wonder if they are. Leaking, pain, pressure, discomfort during sex. Normal? Or not? This week I'm joined by Sofía, a pelvic floor physiotherapist based in The Hague with 13 years of specialist experience — and an immigrant herself who understands the unique position international families are in when navigatin...

After a late phone call with a friend, I felt the urge to record something very different than usual, as we already are bombarderd with Mothers Day deals, discounts and bundles - but the reality is - we don't want or need more stuff. Our mental overload is barely dealing with managing our home as it is. So this was mine to you. Just words - and acknowledgement for all you go through, raisinig...

There are some experiences in motherhood that don't end when we think they will. Pregnancy loss is often spoken about as something that happens — and then we move forward. But what's talked about far less is what happens when the grief doesn't stay in the past. When it returns in another pregnancy. Or shows up after your healthy baby is born. Today I'm joined by Dr. Renée Out — a d...

Nobody told you about this part. The rage that rises from nowhere. The way you can go from calm to completely overwhelmed in seconds. The fact that it almost always lands on your partner — while the actual source of the pressure stays invisible. Postpartum rage is one of the most common and least talked-about experiences of early motherhood. It is not a character flaw. It is a nervous system under...