Traditions, celebrations and other festivities that are linked to a certain country, have been something my husband and I have sort of avoided ever since our daughter was born.
The reason for that, is that we both believe it's important to be as international and inclusive as possible in today's world.
We believe there really is no better way to teach our daughter to be focused on each person as someone with wonderful skills and special strengths, combined with flaws like every human being. The nationality of that person makes no difference to how we connect with others.
Our little family of three considers FREEDOM as our highest family value. We believe it's very important to feel free to be who you want to be anywhere in the world. To speak your truth and stand up for what you believe in, while respecting other people's beliefs and values.
The journey we've gone through as a family the past almost 6 years, has been inspired by the growth of our daughter and her increasing needs to develop her skills. Some people move for work or for love, but we've been moving around for the development of our daughter.
Raising a world citizen sounds attractive to many people, but how many actually keep committing to this every day? And what does it really mean to raise a global citizen?
My husband and I know what a struggle it can be to keep freedom on top of our priority list and to let outside pressure stay outside...
Moving away from Ibiza, where freedom is a very high value and fairly easy reachable, to come back to The Netherlands I've once again gotten stuck in what I recently discovered has an official terminology: The Reverse Culture Shock
Being Dutch but having lived and worked abroad half of my life, always gets me somewhat stuck the first few months I'm back in my home country. Somehow every time I move back I live more of an expat life than a local Dutch life.
Now that Sinterklaas has arrived to The Netherlands and at school and everywhere you're being bombarded with Sinterklaas stuff, we've found ourselves in a new interesting phase to navigate...
Never a dull moment as a parent I guess!