Dam Parenting

Dam Parenting Podcast

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 parents telling the truth about how it actually went.

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Yesterday · 1 hr
Can'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 something different. In episode 3 of DAM Trauma, trauma therapist Adina Petre explains nervous system regulation in plain English. No Latin, no diagrams, no pressure. In this episode: – What regulation actually means (it isn't feeling calm all the time) – The window of tolerance, hyperarousal and hypoarousal, for parents running on empty – Why fight, flight and freeze are automatic, not a willpower problem – Co-regulation when your support network is a plane ride away – What constantly adapting to a new country does to your nervous system – The one thing Adina says doesn't exist at all – A simple, slightly playful tool you can build tonight from an old shoebox For international, expat and immigrant parents in the Netherlands dealing with parental burnout, brain fog, the mental load and the everyday stress of raising a family abroad. If this episode brings up something bigger than a podcast can hold, talk to your huisarts or contact Adina directly. Adina Petre: Instagram Get the DAM Parenting newsletter: once a month, plus early access to the last-Wednesday episode. Find episodes by topic: damparenting.nl
September 16 · 49 min
Living 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 mother that the girl's dad was scary because he has a brown face. An hour later, outside a supermarket, she asked whether he steals money too. Her parents are not racist. Maya was born and raised in the Netherlands. Mo is biracial — a Malian father, a French mother, a childhood between Abidjan and Paris, fifteen years in the Netherlands. They are raising a four-year-old daughter here in the Netherlands. In this episode: — What to say when a child says something racist, and why you do not have to answer in the moment — Why blaming the other parents is usually wrong, and what to say to them instead — How to introduce race to a toddler or preschooler without a formal conversation — Why the infamous 'Amsterdam's 180 nationalities' do not produce mixed friendship groups Questions this episode answers: What age should you start talking to children about race? Does it make my child racist if they say something racist? Is living in a multicultural city enough? This episode is brought to you in partnerhsip with MamaSocial Subscribe to the monthly newsletter for international parents in the Netherlands: damparenting.subscribepage.io
September 12 · 52 min
The 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 looked at yet. So Eva sat down with Liam — also known as Dad Do Art, self-declared Vulnerable Dad number Two — got the calendar out, and went through the whole Dutch school year. Month by month. Not a masterclass. Two parents, two coffees, and nine months of what's actually coming. What's in it: studiedagen and why you mark every single one this week, while you're still an optimist. School apps. What happens when there's no substitute teacher, and why the playdate swap isn't the fluffy part of parenting — it's the emergency infrastructure. Herfstvakantie and why you're already late to book. The Sinterklaas intocht, and the small matter of celebrating two men in red who arrive by completely different transport. The long January stretch: darkness, sickness, and lice. The May holiday, which is in April. Keti Koti. And the summer finish line, when everyone gets sick the second they stop. Plus the things nobody tells you: why the school gates feel awkward and it isn't you, why you should ask a parent — not the teacher — about the class WhatsApp group, and how one Friday afternoon on an empty playground turned into an actual village. Here's the reframe that started it. There's a US Surgeon General advisory on parental stress that names the mismatch between how work is structured and how children's schedules are structured as a core driver of parental burnout. You're not failing at logistics. The logistics were built by someone who's never met a working parent. For international parents, expat families, and anyone whose child has just started group 1, 2 or 3 at a Dutch basisschool — whether you're three weeks in or three days in. Send this to one parent who's just started school, or is about to. Consider that your first volunteer act. DAM Parenting — helping parents navigate Dutch systems while raising children far from home.
September 9 · 33 min
Why 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 happened. For internationally mobile children, September isn't just a new school year. It's a re-entry. They've come back from a summer in a country that might feel more like home than this one, said goodbye to grandparents again, and walked into a classroom where they have to switch languages at the door. The tiredness doesn't show up on day one. It shows up when the adrenaline runs out. Kate Berger is a child psychologist and the founder of the Expat Kids Club in Amstelveen and Wassenaar, where she works with internationally mobile children and their families. In this episode we talk about what September actually does to expat and third culture kids — cumulative transition fatigue, the difference between a child who's struggling with school and a child who's struggling with coming back, and why so much of what parents read as behaviour is really exhaustion. We also get into the thing nobody says out loud: how much of a parent's own anxiety lands on a child at the school gate, and what to do about it when you're anxious for good reasons. If your child has been more tearful, more clingy or more furious than usual since term started, this one is for you. In this episode: re-entry after a summer abroad · why week two is harder than week one · transition fatigue and how it accumulates over years · what internationally mobile children lose that nobody names · how parent anxiety transfers at the school gate · what actually helps, and what makes it worse. Kate Berger runs the Expat Kids Club ( www.expatkidsclub.com — Insttagram @expatkidsclub.) Part of DAM Parenting's ongoing series on what it actually takes to raise children in a country you didn't grow up in. New episodes every Wednesday. www.damparenting.nl
September 2 · 27 min
Mismatched Libido: One Wants Sex To Feel Close, One Needs To Feel Close First | 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 never say a word of it out loud. In Episode 5 of the DAM Sex series, sex and intimacy counsellor Debby Poort joins DAM to unpack what happens when two people in the same relationship have completely different starting points for desire — and why so much of the disconnection around sex turns out not to be about sex at all. What we get into: What responsive desire and spontaneous desire actually mean, and why one of them is so consistently misread as "you don't want me anymore" Why mismatched libido in a long-term relationship is far more common, and far less personal, than it feels at 11pm Why a man wanting sex is so often not about what his partner assumes it's about What happens in new parent couples when one partner is exhausted and touched out for months and the other turns to pornography — and the line Debby draws between when that's neutral and when it's a problem How to open that conversation at home without it landing as an accusation Why couples from different countries, families and faiths are working from completely different sexual scripts, and what to do when those scripts contradict each other What Debby wishes partners understood about arousal, the orgasm gap, and how long things actually take The one conversation she has in her practice more than any other — and why couples visibly relax the moment they hear it If you have ever thought "they're never in the mood," or been on the receiving end of "is that all you ever think about," this is the episode. About Debby Debby Poort is a sex and intimacy counsellor based in the Netherlands, working in English with couples and individuals — including a lot of international and intercultural couples. Find her at yellowwood.nl and sexandintimacycounselling.nl. She also runs a free introductory course you can work through at home, on your own, with no commitment and no big conversation with your partner first. It's a genuinely low-stakes place to start. Ep1: Touched Out, Low Desire & Feeling Like a Feeding Machine: Let’s Talk About Sex After Baby Ep2: ‘We’re Housemates Who Share a Bed’ — How Can Emotionally Focused Therapy Help You? Ep3: Obligation Sex Is More Common Than You Think — Here's What It's Really Costing Your Relationship
August 26 · 22 min
Language 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 it didn't come as easily as it did before you left. Does that mean something has gone wrong? Did six weeks speaking your home language undo years of work? In this episode of Dam Parenting, Eva sits down with multilingualism specialist Mimi - from Growing Up Multilingual— back for another episode of their ongoing multilingualism series — to talk through one of the most common end-of-summer anxieties in international families: the moment the school language feels rusty. They cover: — What is actually happening in your child's brain after weeks in a different linguistic environment — Why reduced activation is completely different from language loss — What parents do that makes the transition harder (and what actually helps) — How to talk to your child about the shift so they understand it — and stop interpreting it as failure — When to genuinely worry, and when to simply stay steady Mimi also addresses younger children, preschoolers, and families whose children are starting school in Dutch for the first time this September — and what they need to know before day one. This episode is for every multilingual family in the Netherlands returning from the homeland, heading into a new school year, and quietly wondering: are we okay? Yes. You are. And here's why. Dam Parenting is the weekly English-language podcast for international families navigating life in the Netherlands. New episodes every Wednesday. This episode is brought to you by MamaSocial , because navigating motherhood far from home is so much better with the right women around you. Events and spaces for mothers of all backgrounds, right here in the Netherlands.
August 19 · 55 min
7 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 and trauma therapist Adina Petre joins us to break down 7 types of trauma that show up specifically in expat and international family life — the ones that don't look like trauma from the outside, but quietly shape everything. We cover: relocation grief, cultural identity loss, generational trauma, birth trauma in a foreign healthcare system, parenting without your support network, the psychological cost of living in a second language, and vicarious trauma in a world that won't stop delivering bad news. This episode won't overwhelm you. It will give you words. And sometimes — that's exactly what's needed. Share it with someone who needs the language. Adina Petre: adinapetre.com Follow us: @damparentingpodcast
August 15 · 22 min
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 listeniing to the numerous episodes we already have in our archive - I decided to magpie this episode, and grab a selection of learnings from previous episodes and also add in a few of my own. In the Netherlands children start basisschool the day after their fourth birthday, so your child may walk into a class that's already formed. This episode covers what to expect in groep 1 and 2, what to send them in, and what to do in those first overwhelming weeks — for parents new to the Dutch system and for anyone heading back after the six-week summer holiday. WHAT'S IN THIS EPISODE - The Dutch school words nobody translates: groep 1, 2 and 3, kleuters, juf and meester, wennen, BSO, TSO, luizenzak, het tien-uurtje, gymles - Why gym day means your kleuter may be asked to strip to their underwear - Clothes, shoes, rain gear and mittens — Isabel Cruz's four practical rules - Leerplicht: your four-year-old is not legally required to be at school until they turn five, and what that means for half days and BSO - The summer slide, and why groep 1 and 2 have nothing to catch up on - What to say at pickup instead of "how was your day" - What to do when your child says someone was mean to them QUICK ANSWERS What is groep 1? The first year of Dutch primary school, for four-year-olds. Groep 1 and 2 run almost entirely on play; formal reading and writing start in groep 3. What is wennen? Settling-in practice mornings before your child officially starts. Ask your school how many they offer. What is BSO? Buitenschoolse opvang — after-school care, booked and waitlisted separately from school. When does school become compulsory? Leerplicht starts at five, from the first school day of the month after your child's fifth birthday. When do Dutch schools go back? Summer holidays are staggered across three regions, so return dates differ by where you live. MENTIONED Isabel Cruz, Kaleidoscope Consulting — school choice and school-readiness workshops in Amsterdam Faye Poole, child psychologist — the emotional support and "someone was mean" frameworks Melody, Petit Gourmet Academy — our school lunch box episode, where she went through eleven real listener lunch boxes Our paediatric dentist episode — why you're still brushing their teeth for them at nine It's a scramble of an episode at 9pm on a Friday night, but I hope it answers an unasked question for you. Tell me what I've missed: @damparentingpodcast on Instagram, or damparentingpodcast@gmail.com
August 12 · 45 min
What 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 children's nutritionist Mélody goes through three of them with us — what's working, what a child's body genuinely needs to get through a school day, and what she'd change. This one is for you whether your child starts school next week starts next month, or next year. We cover what balance actually means across a week rather than in a single box, why the Dutch fruitpauze does more work than parents realise, why the water-only rule at most Dutch schools is a support rather than a restriction, and whether the classic broodje kaas is nutritionally fine. Spoiler: it is. We also talk about what happens when your food culture doesn't match the Dutch one — warm lunches versus sandwiches — and what to do when your child comes home asking for the same thing everyone else has. Plus three staples for the morning you have five minutes, why children under five shouldn't have nuts, and Melody's three professional permission slips for parents carrying too much already. All 11 lunch boxes are on our Instagram, @damparentingpodcast. Part of DAM Parenting's August back-to-school series for international and expat families in the Netherlands.
August 5 · 18 min
Why Your Desire Disappeared — And How to Find It Again (With Science)
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 else yet. In episode 4 of DAM Sex, Eva is back with sex and intimacy counsellor Debby Poort to talk about something that doesn't get said enough — and not in the way it usually gets said. Sex is good for you. Not as a favour to your partner. Not because it's been a while. For you. Your sleep. Your cortisol. Your sense of yourself as a person who exists in a body that belongs to you. They get into the actual science — cardiovascular benefits, dopamine, oxytocin, endorphins, and yes, headaches — and then into the harder question: how do you share that with someone who is depleted, running on empty, and already feeling like everything is a should? Debby also unpacks responsive desire and the crucial difference between willingness and wanting — including the very real risk of responsive desire being used as pressure, and why that misses the point entirely. They talk about what it takes to reconnect to desire that has genuinely gone quiet — not just low, but offline — and whether it ever really comes back. Plus: why couples stop touching each other completely, the fear underneath non-sexual touch, the couples who stopped initiating without a single fight about it, and why there is always a reason — even when brain fog means you can't remember what it was. And Debby shares details of her free welcome course at sexandintimacycounseling.nl — no appointment needed, no commitment, just a place to start. Find Debby Poort: yellowwood.nl Got a question for Debby? DM us on Instagram or email damparentingpodcast@gmail.com
August 1 · 15 min
They 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 new private bilingual Dutch-English Montessori primary school opening in Eindhoven this September. And the children starting now? They are the founding class — the ones who will set the tone, the culture, and the standard for every child who comes after them. In this episode, Eva talks to Tim about what was missing in Eindhoven for international families, what it actually takes to open a private school inside the Dutch education system, why the inspectie only shows up after you open your doors, and what it means to ask families to trust something that has no history yet — because it's about to become history. A short, feel-good summer episode about the audacity of building something from nothing. Find Seeker at seeker.education Eindhoven | Bilingual Dutch-English | Montessori | Ages 4–6 | Opening September 2026 Part of Dam Parenting's ongoing series on schools, systems, and raising children in the Netherlands.
July 29 · 27 min
Is 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 school year starting soon with a child who has barely spoken Dutch all summer — and a quiet worry that something has slipped.This episode is for all of it. Eva sits down with multilingualism specialist Mimi from Growing up Mulltilingual for a wide-ranging conversation about the language anxiety that follows multilingual families through summer — whether that's a child who goes quiet in the home language when they arrive at the grandparents', a child returning to the Netherlands after weeks abroad wondering if their Dutch is still there, or a family heading into September with a child who has barely spoken the school language in months. They cover what actually happens to language when the environment changes, why reduced activation is completely different from language loss, what the silent period really means, and the BICS versus CALP distinction that reframes what fluency actually looks like in a child. BICS (Social Language): The conversational language used in casual, face-to-face, or everyday interactions (e.g., chatting on the playground, ordering food). Because it is highly contextualized, learners typically master this within 6 months to 2 years of immersion CALP (Academic Language): The specialized, context-reduced language required to succeed in classroom subjects and professional settings (e.g., reading textbooks, writing essays, solving math problems). It takes significantly longer to develop—typically 5 to 7 years. Mimi also has something important to say about the child who compares themselves to monolingual cousins and feels behind — and why that comparison is never a fair one. For multilingual families in the Netherlands navigating summer, the homeland, and the return to the academic year.
July 22 · 6 min
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 purpose — is a reality check on parent burnout, the mental load, and why holidays with young kids are not actually holidays (they're taking the show on the road). Recorded at the start of the Dutch summer break, this episode gives you permission to rest before you crash — because burnout doesn't send a calendar invite, and the signs of parental exhaustion are easy to miss until someone points them out. Consider this that someone. Inside: a four-question burnout self-check you can do on the bike, why the gap between how you're doing and how you say you're doing is the first warning light, lowering the bar for the school holidays without guilt, and why five minutes a day beats the 5K run you keep not doing. With a little help from Brené Brown's Daring Greatly and Leonard Cohen's beauty of cracks. Part of DAM Parenting's ongoing conversation about what it actually takes to stay well while raising kids far from home — because parents don't need fixing, they need conditions where they can function.
July 15 · 25 min
Why 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 not weakness. That is your nervous system doing something remarkable. This week we're joined by psychologist and cross-cultural specialist Elif Durgel, founder of Roots and Wings Academy in Eindhoven, for a warm, science-light conversation about why smell bypasses the thinking brain entirely and connects directly to memory, identity and emotion — and what that means for international parents living far from where they started. We talk about: Why smell hits faster and deeper than any other sense What nervous system regulation actually feels like from the inside The invisible extra load of living between cultures — and why July makes it louder Why so many of us quietly deny ourselves the things that help Why going to the expat shop isn't retail therapy — it's something more real than that Whether you're heading home this summer, somewhere completely new, or discovering the Netherlands in July for the first time — this one is your permission slip. 20 minutes. No jargon. Just a really good conversation. Find out more about Elif: rootsandwingsacademy.nl Come tell us yours on Instagram
July 8 · 31 min
What 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 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 language — this conversation is for you. We're joined by Adina Petre, clinical psychologist and trauma therapist , who will be joining us monthly to help us understand ourselves a little better, one episode at a time. In this episode: — What trauma actually is (and what it isn't) — The difference between Big T and Little T trauma — Why the nervous system doesn't grade on a curve — What happens when we stay in survival mode for too long — And why your experience is real, because it happened to you — and that is enough Share this episode with someone who needs the words.
July 1 · 23 min
Obligation 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, 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 DAMSex, Eva sits down again with sex and intimacy counsellor Debby Poort to talk about obligation — or "duty" — sex, and what it quietly does to you, your partner, and your relationship over time. They unpack what's really happening when one partner is having sex out of guilt rather than desire, and what it does to the partner on the receiving end of that obligation — most of whom don't actually want it that way. Debby introduces responsive desire, a concept that explains why "wanting" doesn't always come before "willing," and why that's a completely normal, healthy starting point — especially for parents whose spontaneous desire has quietly disappeared since having kids. They also get into the orgasm gap, what a healthy "no" actually sounds like, how to respond to one without it becoming a wound, and how to keep this conversation going with your partner without it turning into an accusation. This episode is part of the monthly DAM Sex series — sex, intimacy, and connection for international parents in the Netherlands, and honestly, everywhere else too. Brought to you this month with thanks to MamaSocial, supporting our community of mums across the Netherlands. Find Debby Poort: yellowwood.nl Got a question for Debby? Send it via Instagram DM or email damparentingpodcast @ gmail.com
June 27 · 28 min
Queer 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 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 actually takes to raise a child in a rainbow family here, the gap between the Netherlands' progressive reputation and the lived reality for queer parents, and the moment his two-year-old daughter came home from City Hall and said: "Mama — baby Sophia haved two papas. Kaya haved two papas." Whether you're a queer parent, an expat family finding your footing, or someone who simply wants to raise their kids in a more open world — this one's for you. Find Queer Families NL on Instagram: @queerfamilies.nl Tiktok @queerfamiliesNL and Aldo and Kim on @2GayDadsinNL DAM Parenting is the podcast for international and expat parents in the Netherlands. New episodes every week.
June 24 · 24 min
Raising 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 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 travel home — and why most parents underestimate how significant that window actually is. They talk about the child who understands everything but answers in the wrong language, why love of family isn't always enough motivation, and how to have the conversations that actually help your child build a relationship with their own multilingual identity — not just manage it. Practical, honest, and grounded in lived experience as a multilingual parent herself, Mimi brings a warmth to this topic that cuts through the anxiety and gives you something real to do. For international families in the Netherlands navigating language, identity, and belonging.
June 20 · 29 min
Coparenting 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 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 together, the question he had to ask himself when staying felt like slowly disappearing, why he believes ending a marriage and ending a family are not the same thing, and how he and his ex built a coparenting relationship they're both proud of. This is not a conversation about divorce being easy. It's a conversation about what's possible when two parents put their children first — and take care of themselves in the process. For any dad who is struggling and hasn't told anyone yet: this one's for you. RESOURCES — Nationwide Netherlands For children: KIES (Kinderen In Een Scheiding Situaties) — free municipality-funded support groups for children aged 4–18. Available across the Netherlands. Self-refer or via your child's school. Find your local KIES via: kiesvoorhetkind.nl or kiesamsterdam.nl (Amsterdam-specific) Villa Pinedo — online support platform for children and young people with divorced parents. Available in English. Buddy app, forum, and parent resources: villapinedo.nl/english For parents: Mediation in the Netherlands — if you need support building a parenting plan, a registered mediator can help. Search via the Dutch Mediation Federation: mfnregister.nl Your gemeente — ask your local jeugdregisseur (youth coordinator) what coparenting support is available in your area. Every municipality is different.
June 17 · 35 min
Why 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. 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 waiting lists, the private vs public route. Why he initially thought he'd fooled the professionals. What medication actually changed, and what it didn't. And the moment his mum arrived at the diagnostic session with every school report from age seven, and everything finally made sense. This episode covers: adult ADHD and ADD diagnosis in the Netherlands, neurodiversity and fatherhood, burnout and undiagnosed attention difficulties, ADHD medication, ADHD therapy, and the very first step to take if you think this might be you. For international parents in the Netherlands. Every Wednesday.

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