Since our own blog is not full of amazing tips and reads yet, the Näpp-team decided to do the research for you and look up the best international parent blogs from the Netherlands. In some of the blogs parenting is not the main topic, but all of the writes are parents and therefore refers to parenting, especially parenting as an expat, a lot. Here you can find them listed, not in a particular order. From every blog, we also pointed out one must-read post, read at least this one If you don’t have time for the others.
Kristen in Clogland
Australian Kristen and her Dutch husband met each other on a cruise ship, lived and worked together for several years on cruise ships, and then they spend several years in Sydney, Australia, where their two children have been born too. In 2011 they relocated to the Netherlands. Kristen writes really nice posts about life in the Netherlands, especially life with kids in the Netherlands, and also gives good travel tips.
Näpp recommends reading the post about their laid back approach to raising bilingual children and how it has worked out. You can also find Kristen from Instagram.
Invading Holland
Stuart tells that he ended up in the Netherlands by accident at the age of 21. He was applying for a job, even though he was not sure where it located, he just hoped not too far from London. Well, soon he found himself from Amsterdam. Apparently, he liked the Dutch lifestyle in the end, since he ended up even marrying a Dutch woman and now they are raising up a daughter together. Stuart has an entertaining way of writing, and what makes his blog even more unique, are the illustrations he draws on his blog posts by himself.
The recommended post from the Näpp team is a funny story about Stuart has a competition about learning Dutch with his small daughter. Invading Holland is also on Instagram.
I becoming Dutch
Lisa tells that she is Chinese by race, born in Indonesia, raised in Singapore, and has called Haarlem home since June 2007. She has two kids and whit their free time they like to go and explore the country. And boy, that is what you will see in Lisa’s blog. If you are ever in a need of inspiration in deciding which city to go next and what to do there, we highly recommend you reading out this blog. This has to be one of the best guides for exploring the Netherlands.
A blog post about a Dutch city, Dordrecht, is recommended for personal reasons; The founder of Näpp has some of her closest Dutchies living in there, and she finds the city very beautiful. Check out her Instagram as well!
Finding Dutchland
The women behind this blog are two international mamas, who raise their children in Amsterdam, together with their Dutch Husbands. Rina Mae is a Filipino-American freelance writer and photographer and Michele moved here from London and has worked in the publishing industry most of her career life. You might have heard of Rina Mae and Michele before, since they are also famous of their “the happiest kids in the world” -book, where they tell exactly why the Dutch kids are the happiest kids in the world.
Näpp recommends reading at least the blog post which was the beginning of their book. You can also follow them on Instagram.
Expat Since Birth
Ute, the author of this blog, lives in the Netherlands with her husband and three kids. She is an adult third culture kid, and she is also a parent for third culture kids. She speaks and writes in German, Italian, French, English, and Dutch fluently, and has even a Master in Bilingualism. Naturally, Ute’s blog focuses a lot in raising multilingual children in a multilingual context, and of course multilingualism in general.
Ute has written an interesting post about the OPOL method among multilingual siblings.
The Expat Chronicles
Julia is originally from Massachusetts, USA, she is also a wife, and mom to two boys. They started their expat life first in Spain, and after 5 years in Spain, they moved to the Netherlands. Julie and the family have been traveling a lot, and she has documented the travels in blog posts that gives super tips to other travelers.
The näpp team finds The Bucket List interesting and recommends all of you to check it out. Julie crosses the experiences out when she has done those, and also writes a post about them.
Turning Dutch
Amanda moved from England to the Netherlands already in 2000, so we could say that she is highly experienced in being an expat in the Netherlands. She moved here for a reason that so many of us are familiar with: she met a Dutchman. They are now married and parents of three boys. Amanda writes about the life of a British mother, who has Dutch children, she gives amazing tips on expat life and says that she tells about living abroad like it is.
We recommend reading an interesting post on how to make Dutch friends, we all know it can sometimes be challenging.
Kristin In Holland
Kristin moved to The Hague from the USA on New Year’s Eve 2010 and lived in there for eight years with her Dutch husband and son. Recently they moved to another city, a small city called Schagen. Kristin has also published two novels, and you can see that she is a talented writer in her way of telling the stories in her blog posts.
We all know how difficult throwing a children’s birthday party can be, and that is why Näpp recommends reading a blog post about kids birthday parties because Kristin and her husband created a perfect way to entertain the children.
Amsterdam Wonderland
Tracy and Marc created this blog because they wanted to help people find out the real Amsterdam, and they tell they are proving that Amsterdam is one of Europe’s most thrilling capital for kids. They actually live in the UK, and Tracy is from London, but Marc is from Amsterdam and that is why they spend a lot of time visiting the Netherlands with their two sons. This blog is a must read for all the parents visiting Amsterdam with their kids!
This perfect 48 hours plan for Amsterdam with kids is the recommended article from the Näpp team. Remember to follow them on Instagram too!
Mommy on a Mission
Melissa and her husband moved to the Netherlands more than 10 years ago. After moving, she got into a healthier lifestyle, and when she got pregnant, she got really conscious about what she ate. Because of that, she is now sharing amazing healthy recipes for all of us to use. She even has own post series about cooking with the kids!
Näpp-team recommends reading how Melissa got into a new mission of getting the kids involved in cooking dinner. Melissa, and especially her cooking, can be found from Instagram too.
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We hope you found some nice new blogs to read, and especially some new people to find some inspiration from!