Dam Parenting

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 invoice that came out of nowhere.
We get into what the market actually looks like right now, why more internationals are being pushed into buying whether they're ready or not, and how Buy Home Helper guides you from first search to signed keys — with the tips, warnings, and stage-gate reminders your makelaar probably isn't sharing.
If you're logging into Funda morning and night, building spreadsheets, and wondering if there's an insider club you somehow missed — this one's for you.
Exclusive offer for the Dam Parenting community: Use code DAMPARENTING at buyhomehelper.com — the first 10 listeners get a full year free.

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 Immunisation Programme (RVP), why chickenpox isn't on the Dutch schedule, the BCG tuberculosis vaccination that surprises many international families, meningitis B, travel vaccinations, and how to check your child's vaccination record online in minutes.

IN THIS EPISODE:
The Dutch National Immunisation Programme — who runs it, how it works, and why your GP is probably not involved
Every vaccine on the schedule — from the whooping cough vaccine in pregnancy to the HPV vaccine at age 9, including the new RSV antibody (September 2025) and rotavirus vaccine (added 2024)
Chickenpox — why it's not in the Dutch programme, what to do if you want it privately, and why age 12 matters
BCG tuberculosis vaccine — who receives it, how the automatic invitation works, and what to expect from the skin reaction
Meningitis B — why it's not included in the Dutch programme and how to access it privately (and what it costs)
Travel vaccinations with babies and young children — where to go and how far in advance to plan
How to check your child's full vaccination record online at mijn.rivm.nl — in under 2 minutes
Missed a vaccination window? Here's what actually happens (it's probably not as bad as you think)
Arriving from abroad with an existing vaccination schedule — do you have to start again? No. Here's how it works.
ALL LINKS AND RESOURCES:
🔗 Dutch National Vaccination Programme (English): https://www.rivm.nl/en/dutch-vaccination-programme
🔗 Check your child's vaccination record online: https://mijn.rivm.nl
🔗 JGZ parental portal (online environment of the Youth Healthcare Centre): https://www.mijnkindgegevens.nl
🔗 DigiD (needed to log in to mijn.rivm.nl): https://www.digid.nl
🔗 KNCV TB Foundation — high-risk TB country list: https://www.kncvtbc.org
🔗 GGD — find your local office for BCG and travel vaccinations: https://www.ggdghor.nl
🔗 LCR Travel Vaccination Advice (enter destination country for required vaccines): https://www.lcr.nl
🔗 Private vaccination centres in the Netherlands (incl. chickenpox / varicella): https://www.vaccinatiecentrum.nl
🔗 RIVM contact (to request vaccination record by email or post): https://www.rivm.nl/en/contact

‘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 pursue–withdraw cycle, what it looks like in real couples, and why both people in the cycle are doing the exact same thing: trying to get their needs met.
Plus: the A.R.E. framework (Accessible, Responsive, Engaged), what emotional safety actually feels like in the body, and why couples wait an average of seven years before getting help.
The cycle is the problem. Not the couple.

Debby Poort — Sex & Intimacy Counsellor
Yellowwood | Amsterdam & Amstelveen
Website: www.yellowwood.nl

DAM SEX is monthly. Every episode builds.
Dam Parenting — every Wednesday.

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 with artist Sanne Freijdag, whose project the Gossib Gathering is doing exactly that: bringing women together over fabric, stitching, and the kind of honest conversation that happens when your hands are busy and your guard is down.
We cover the medieval history of women's gathering spaces, how the quilting circle became women's last sanctioned meeting place, the science of why working with your hands is so healing, and what matrescence — the becoming of a mother — has to do with all of it.
And we launch the next session: three Sunday sessions in Amsterdam Oost where we'll be making a quilt together for one pregnant woman in our community. Because you can't always see your village — but you can make something that proves it exists.
You don't need experience. You just need to show up.
Book your spot HERE
📅 28 June · 5 July · 12 July
12:30–16:30
GROND, Amsterdam
A donation of €10 on the day to fund the supplies is all that is asked!
Sanne Freijdag: www.freijdag.com
Instagram @sanne.freijdag

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 international mothers across the Netherlands — actually looks like to walk into for the first time.
If you've moved to the Netherlands, newly pregnant or just looking to fine more mom frirneds and you're doing this without your village yet — this one is for you.
MamaSocial runs events in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Haarlem and more.
MamaSocial instagram page