Shows / Dam Parenting
Dam Parenting
Nobody hands you a map when you have a baby in a country that isn't your own. DAM Parenting is a weekly English-language podcast for international parents in the Netherlands: pregnancy and birth in the Dutch system, kraamzorg, postpartum, matrescence, relationships after kids, bilingual families, ADHD assessments, Dutch schools, and finding your people far from home. Hosted by Eva, an Irish parent in Amsterdam. Honest, warm, non-judgemental. 200+ episodes with midwives, psychologists and…
Episodes
Dam ParentingBreaking Generational Patterns: Why Parenting Abroad Can Trigger Your Own Childhood
Becoming a parent can bring parts of your own childhood back to the surface. Sometimes it's a reaction you don't understand. Sometimes it's the anger that…
Dam ParentingSinterklaas in the Netherlands: A Guide for International Parents & Kids
New to Sinterklaas in the Netherlands? Or is your young child just old enough to start discovering the magic? For international parents, Sinterklaas can raise…
Dam ParentingHow Our Upbringing Shapes Sex & Relationships : Sex Ed in the Netherlands
You and your partner might love each other, share a home and be raising children together — but when it comes to sex, you could be working from two completely…
Dam ParentingWhat Dutch Parents Know About Cough Syrup That Expat Parents Don't
Your child has a cough for three weeks already. You're in the Netherlands. The Dutch huisarts has told you this is completely normal and will last six to eight…
Dam ParentingMultilingual Children With ADHD: Should We Drop a Language?
Does ADHD make learning two languages harder? And should you drop your home language if your child has ADHD? Multilingualism specialist Mimi Potvin closes ADHD…
Dam ParentingADHD Parenting Hacks: What Actually Works? Tips for Parents in the Netherlands
ADHD parenting hacks: what actually works when you're already overwhelmed? If you have ADHD and you're raising kids, you probably don't need another person…
Dam ParentingLate ADHD Diagnosis Grief: Why Relief Feels Like Loss
You finally got the ADHD diagnosis. So why do you feel wrecked? DAM Trauma, episode 4, for ADHD Awareness Month. Trauma therapist Adina Petre, who was…
Dam ParentingBreast Cancer Support in the Netherlands: Help in English
Cancer Support in the Netherlands: Help in English Where can you find English-speaking cancer support in the Netherlands? A cancer diagnosis is difficult…
Dam ParentingMiscarriage in the Netherlands: Pregnancy Loss, Grief & What Actually Helps
TW: this episode talks about miscarriage and pregnancy loss. Skip it if today isn't the day. It will be here. Released on Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness…
Dam ParentingIs It ADHD or Just Adjusting? Spotting ADHD in our Third Culture Kids
Is it ADHD, or is your child just exhausted from a new school, a new language and a new country? It's #ADHDAwarenessMonth. Child psychologist Kate Berger from…
Dam ParentingADHD and Sex: Why 'Not Tonight' Feels Like Rejection
Does ADHD affect your sex life? If you or your partner has ADHD, "not tonight" can land like a door slamming, and nobody has told either of you why. It's ADHD…
Dam ParentingADHD Awareness Month: (Recorded Nine Hours Before It Airing)
Kicking off ADHD Awareness Month with the least polished episode I've ever made. Recorded nine hours before it went out, at my kitchen table, in one take. The…
Dam ParentingMy Child Understands My Language but Only Answers in Dutch
Your child understands every word of your home language, and answers you in Dutch. Every time. If it started when school or daycare went back, you're not…
Dam ParentingTaalparade: A Free Multilingual Family Event in Amstelveen on 7 November
The Dutch and English langauges are everywhere. The language your child speaks with their grandmother? Almost nowhere outside your front door. And kids notice…
Dam ParentingThe Shame of Asking: From the Boardroom to Food Delivery Driver
Camila moved here for love straight out of university, spent sixteen years climbing at a big media company, and quickly built Joy In Organizing a business with…
Dam ParentingCan't Relax No Matter What You Try? Nervous System Regulation Explained
Tried breathwork, silent retreats, sound baths and every calming app going, and still can't relax? You're not bad at it. Your nervous system might just need…
Dam ParentingLiving In A Diverse City Isn't Enough | Raising Anti-Racist Kids In The Netherlands
Living in a diverse city does not teach a child about race. Parents have to do that on purpose. A four-year-old on a playdate in Utrecht told her friend's…
Dam ParentingThe Dutch School Year, Month by Month — A Chat With Liam
Schools back in session and nobody's ready. The alarms are back, the shoes are missing, and somewhere in your inbox is a school calendar you haven't properly…
Dam ParentingWhy Your Child Fell Apart in Week Three of School — Transition Fatigue in Expat Kids, with Kate Berger
📬 Get the monthly email: damparenting.nl — everything from the podcast, in four minutes. Your child went back to school and seemed fine. Then week two…
Dam ParentingMismatched Libido: When One of You Always Wants More Sex | DAMSex
One of you reaches for sex to feel close. The other needs to feel close before sex is even on the table. Nobody is wrong, nobody is broken, and most couples…
Dam ParentingLanguage Loss vs Reduced Activation: Returning to School in the Netherlands After Summer
The school bag is back out. The new lunch box is ready. And somewhere between the airport and the front door, your child tried to say something in Dutch — and…
Dam Parenting7 Types of Trauma That Show Up When Living Abroad — With Trauma Therapist Adina Petre
You moved here. You built a life. And somewhere along the way, you started carrying something you couldn't quite name. In this episode, clinical psychologist…
- Dam Parenting
Dutch School Starter Pack: Groep 1, Gym Days, BSO and the Summer Slide
After Wednesdays school lunch episodes, i have recieved several DM's asking for hints and tips about schools - and without asking everyone to go back…
Dam ParentingWhat to Put in Your Child's Lunch Box for a Dutch School — With a Children's Nutritionist
What do you actually put in a Dutch school lunch box? Parents at an Amsterdam school sent in 11 photos of their children's real lunch and snack boxes, and…
Dam ParentingLost Your Sex Drive? Why Desire Disappears in Long Relationships | DAMSex
DAM Parenting says the stuff out loud that you might be thinking — just in your headphones, on your own time, when you're not quite ready to say it to anyone…
Dam ParentingThey Couldn't Find the Right School. So They Built One.
What do you do when the school you want for your child simply doesn't exist? If you're Tim and Camilla, co-founders of Seeker — you build it. Seeker is a brand…
Dam ParentingIs My Child's Dutch Getting Worse Over Summer? What Multilingual Families in the Netherlands Need to Know
You're away for the six weeks of school holiday in your home country. Maybe you dropped your children off and came back to work. Or you're staring down the new…
- Dam Parenting
You're Allowed to Be Exhausted: A Reality Check Before the Summer Holidays
Feeling like an exhausted parent before the summer holidays have even started? You're allowed to be. This short, one-take episode — no editing, no polish, on…
Dam ParentingWhy Does a Hand Lotion Calm Me Down? Nervous System Regulation with Elif Durgel
You catch a smell. A lotion, a tea, something cooking. And in under a second — before you've even thought about it — you're home. That's not nostalgia. That's…
Dam ParentingWhat Is Trauma? Big T, Little T, and Why It Might Be You
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…
Dam ParentingObligation Sex Is More Common Than You Think — Here's What It's Really Costing Your Relationship
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…
Dam ParentingQueer Parenting in the Netherlands: Why One Dad Built a 250-Family Community From Scratch
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…
Dam ParentingRaising Bilingual Children in the Netherlands: What Summer Travel Really Does for Heritage Language Development
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…
Dam ParentingCoparenting After Separation in the Netherlands: One Dad's Honest Story
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…
Dam ParentingWhy Becoming a Dad Made Me Finally Realise I Had ADD - Mens Mental Health Week
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…
Dam ParentingBuying a House in the Netherlands: What No One Tells You
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…
Dam ParentingVaccinations in the Netherlands: Everything International Parents Need to Know
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…
Dam ParentingSexless Marriage? When You Feel Like Housemates Who Share a Bed | DAMSex
‘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…
Dam ParentingThe Word They Used to Silence Women — And How We're Taking It Back
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…
Dam ParentingYou don't have to do this alone: MamaSocial, mum friendship and maternal mental health in the Netherlands
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…
Dam ParentingDelft Mama - The Thing That Actually Helps Expat Isolation
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…
Dam ParentingMusic, Dance & Mental Health: The Amsterdam Events Where Parents and Kids Can Let Go
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…
Dam ParentingFinding Your People Abroad: How Expat Kids Eindhoven Is Fighting Expat Loneliness One Hangout at a Time
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…
Dam ParentingSinging for Mental Health: Why Mums Who Sing Together Feel Less Anxious, Less Alone
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…
Dam ParentingStarting Solids Anxiety: What to Feed Your Baby with Petit Gourmet Academy
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…
Dam ParentingPostpartum Mental Health in the Netherlands: Veronika's Honest Story
In the Netherlands, if you are experiencing postpartum depression (PPD), your first point of contact should be your huisarts (general practitioner) or…
Dam ParentingAm I Doing Enough? The Mental Load of Raising a Bilingual Child, with Mimi
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…
Dam ParentingThe Algorithm Isn't Your Friend Postpartum with Eva from the Joy Embassy
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…
Dam ParentingADHD in Motherhood: The Shame, the Chaos & Finding Your Way Back to Yourself
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…
Dam ParentingLow Libido After Baby: Why You Feel Touched Out with Debby Poort
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…
Dam ParentingWhat's actually normal after birth (and what isn't) — pelvic floor physiotherapy in the Netherlands
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…
- Dam Parenting
Late night recording - but for us on Mothers Day
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…
Dam ParentingWhy Pregnancy Loss Doesn't End When a Healthy Baby Arrives
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…
Dam ParentingPostpartum Rage: Why New Mothers Get Angry, Who It Lands On, and How to Get Help in the Netherlands
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…
- Dam Parenting
Maternal Menal Health Month - it starts here.
This month is about the conversations we don’t say out loud. I’m bringing in familiar voices and new ones to talk about maternal mental health, the reality of…
Dam ParentingMaternity Rights in the Netherlands: What Every International Parent Needs to Know
Are you pregnant in the Netherlands — and not sure what your rights at work actually are? You are not alone. This is the most asked-about topic in…
Dam ParentingNo Family Nearby: Finding People Who'll Speak Your Language to Your Child, with Mimi
If you've been carrying the weight of your child's minority language entirely on your own — this episode is going to change how you think about multilingual…
Dam ParentingWhy Dutch Supermarket “Healthy” Foods Can Be Misleading | Nutri-Score Explained
When I started moving beyond the easy first foods and into toddler snacks, pouches, crackers, and supermarket “healthy” options, I realised I had no idea what…
Dam ParentingFrom Fearful to Prepared: How Hypnobirthing and a Doula Changed Everything — Vivi and Liam's Birth Stories
Hypnobirthing and doula support in the Netherlands, from two parents who went from dreading birth to walking in prepared. What if your second birth was so…
Dam ParentingWho do i call when my child is sick in the Netherlands | A Youth Doctor explains the system
An episode over 2 years in the making, and finally it's here. It's not a full comprehensive episode, we dont want to bog you down with everything all at once…