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 · 24 min
Miscarriage 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 Day 15 October 2026, this episode is for anyone who has lost a pregnancy or a baby while living in the Netherlands, and for anyone supporting someone who has. Melissa, an American living in Rotterdam, went through three pregnancy losses in the Dutch system before having her two children. She talks honestly about a missed miscarriage at her first midwife (verloskundige) appointment, deciding between medical management and a D&C (curettage), a second loss alone during Covid, a termination for medical reasons, and a near-sepsis emergency at Erasmus MC. We cover: Going through miscarriage as an expat, in a second language and an unfamiliar healthcare system Why grief after early pregnancy loss is normal, and why it can last months What to say (and not say) to a friend after a miscarriage Sibyl, the app Melissa built for pregnancy loss support Sibyl is a private companion app for pregnancy loss, built from lived experience with gynaecologists, fertility specialists and a reproductive mental health psychologist. It's for any kind of loss, from failed fertility treatment to stillbirth, whether it happened yesterday or months ago. OFFER: One month free with code DAM2026 Website: https://www.sibyl.care App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6787125952 Instagram: @sibyl_app Support in the Netherlands: your huisarts (GP) or verloskundige can refer you to a psychologist, including English-speaking ones. If you're here for someone else, send this to them, or just message them that you're thinking of them. Get DAM Parenting in your inbox once a month: SUBSCRIBE HERE Follow: @damparentingpodcast · damparenting.nl DAM Parenting is an English-language podcast for international and expat parents in the Netherlands. We arrived without a village, but we built one anyway. The village is for the hard days too.
Wednesday · 39 min
Is 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 the Expat Kids Club on why some kids hold it together all day and fall apart at the front door, what a Dutch teacher really means by "druk", and how to get from a first worry to an assessment. Plus the one thing she says parents nearly always know first. Guest: Kate Berger, child psychologist and founder of The Expat Kids Club, supporting families in the Netherlands for over 18 years. Mentioned on the episode: -https://www.amsterdam.nl/en/health-care-support/personal-budget/ - Tilt Parenting -The Expat Kids Club provides psychoeducational assessments and screenings for many neurodevelopment conditions, including ADHD and ASD. We do not formally diagnose, but use standardised assessment measures that yield information to provide reports that include diagnostic indication (if relevant), as well as tailored recommendations for access to academic accommodations (aligned with IB-standards), and additional (mental) health services in supports in NL and abroad. We also, of course, offer therapeutic intervention. For more information about our services please see expatkidsclub.com Get the monthly newsletter: HERE More on this topic: https://damparenting.nl/
October 7 · 28 min
ADHD 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 Awareness Month, and DAM ex goes there. Sex and intimacy counsellor Debby Poort explains why the intense early spark shifts, what rejection sensitivity does in the bedroom, and why so many couples end up feeling more like parent and child than partners. Plus the medication conversation almost nobody has with their doctor. For the partner with ADHD and the one who loves them. Neither of you is the problem. Guest: Debby Poort, sex and intimacy counsellor at Yellow Wood. Her free welcome course: sexandintimacycounseling.nl. Get the monthly newsletter HERE More on this topic on DAMParenting.nl
October 1 · 9 min
ADHD 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 deadline is the only thing that has ever made me do anything. I was diagnosed in my forties — the same month this podcast launched. Three medications in three months, none of which worked, and then I was told I'd maxed out my dose. And what I felt wasn't "the system failed me." It was "I've failed. Again." In this one: – What a late ADHD diagnosis actually feels like as a parent – Why ADHD medication not working can feel like a personal failure – New University of Warwick research linking ADHD to gut problems, IBS and constipation – Why calling it a deficit of attention was always a con — it's regulation, not concentration – Why neurodivergent mothers burn out more than everyone else – And why "just rest" is the most useless advice ever given to a working parent All of October is ADHD on DAM Parenting — for you, your partner, your kids. Debby on sex and intimacy when your brain won't settle. Adina on the grief nobody warns you about after a late diagnosis. Kate on raising neurodivergent children here. Mimi on languages. And Liam and me on a Saturday, going through everything we've tried that didn't work. New here? There are 200+ episodes, all sorted by theme at damparenting.nl 📩 Newsletter Sign up here 🎧 Last month's episode on regulation with Adina Petre
September 30 · 29 min
My 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 imagining it. Why does my bilingual child only answer in Dutch? Mimi from Growing Up Multilingual explains why the school language takes over so fast, whether you should insist on a reply in your language, and why she'd retire one very popular piece of bilingual parenting advice. We also get into the child who seems embarrassed by the home language, one easy thing to try this week, and what to do if you feel you've already lost ground. For international parents raising bilingual and multilingual children in the Netherlands, where Dutch at school can quickly become Dutch at home too. Get the free Multilingual Cheat Sheet when you join the DAM Parenting newsletter Check out our website: damparenting.nl
September 28 · 16 min
Taalparade: 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. Mimi joins me for a short one about Taalparade, a free multilingual family day for children aged 0–12. We talk about why seeing your home language out in the world matters more than any lesson about diversity, and why asking a bilingual child to "say something" in their language can backfire. For international families raising multilingual children in the Netherlands. Taalparade: Saturday 7 November, 11:00–16:00, Library Amstelveen (next to the shopping centre). It's Free. Whether your family speaks one language or five, you're invited.
September 26 · 31 min
The 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 77,000 followers and a book deal. Then came burnout, a divorce that ate €45,000 in legal fees, and nine months of job applications that went nowhere. This summer she got on a bike with an Uber Eats bag. The reel she made about it has over a million views now. This episode is about shame. The kind that makes you go quiet instead of asking for help — and what happened the day she messaged every single person she knew, including a man she once rented a bike from. We talk about carrying a household financially for years, what divorce costs when you have no family in the country, why supermarket and restaurant shifts don't work if you're the only adult in the house, and why she says you should never confuse needing help with failing. For anyone raising children in a country they didn't grow up in, working a system nobody explained to them, and wondering how they'd survive doing it alone. Newsletter, once a month: Sign up here
September 23 · 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.

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