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Welcome to the United States of America

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

Where a “How are you?” means, “I see you are there, but I don’t REALLY care how you are REALLY doing.”

 

Where “I am sorry,” means, “Well, I know I did something not quite right and I don’t REALLY FEEL sorry, but my mom told me to say this whenever I did something so I am just saying it.”

 

Where “Please” and “Thank you” are used so profusely that it mostly does not REALLY mean anything. However, it’s almost a sin if you forget to say those words after the end of each sentence and question you pose.

 

Where “Can you forgive me?” is used like a doormat in defense of your actions and you don’t REALLY care whether the other person forgives you or not, because you will continue to behave just the same and do not plan to adjust your future actions.

 

Where everybody SEEMS to care, but then nobody REALLY cares.

 

Where everybody talks all the time, but nobody has anything REAL to say about anything.

 

Where everybody is called a friend and wants to be your friend but then nobody is your REAL friend.

 

Where freedom of speech is highly valued and is considered a hallmark of the American culture, but it REALLY is not the case, because:

 

Where praising and positive compliments have become so much the norm that anyone won’t dare utter a REAL ‘negative’ remark for fear of offending someone.

 

Where being politically correct has taken over REAL words.

 

Where words have lost their true meaning in REAL life.

 

Where the underlying emotions accompanying words have been stripped away preventing REAL interaction with others.

 

Where people robotically go from home to work, from work to home (the religious folk also try to go to church and then there are the devout football fans who live for the football games).

 

Where life is an endless cycle of Christmases-Valentine’s Days-Easters-4th of Julys-Halloweens-Thanksgivings-Christmases, etc.

 

Where people with deep emotional issues may find momentary relief, because all the above provide excellent escape/remedy from dealing with the REAL problems at hand.

 

Where relationships have become artificial, superficial, and superfluous.

 

A part of me loves it and another part of me hates it.

 

Welcome to my world.

 

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Pastor’s advice to discipline children: Corporal punishment

Monday, November 7th, 2011

Never a day goes by when I am not struck by some bizarre piece of news. This time it is about a pastor and his wife who promote corporal punishment in disciplining children.  They have self-published a book, To Train Up a Child, which has 670,000 copies in circulation (nope, I did not make a typo – sixhundredseventythousand books in print being circulated!!!).

Now here is the punchline: Guess with which group of people this book is popular? Christian home-schoolers!!!

Here is the irony of the system in this country. The teachers at schools are under EXTREME pressure from the parents. They are being watched like a hawk and God help them if they so as much as lay a finger on a kid. They will probably lose their job… [I met a male kindergarten teacher once, who said he had to quit, because it was not appropriate for him to even touch the kids in his class—let alone give a hug—even though it was considered normal for female kindergarten teachers to be affectionate with their students.]

Okay, I admit, maybe some teachers are out of line and we have to protect our kids, but come on, we will never ever hear of a teacher using corporal punishment. Not in the United States of America. There would be a big upheaval and the teacher in question would be sued big time.

And then there is the occasional kid who is abused at home and the teacher can step in and call the authorities, then the parents can be sued of child abuse/neglect.

But how do we protect the home-schooled kids who have to live under the tyranny of parents who believe in corporal punishment and who actually carry it out??? Does it make corporal punishment okay when it is done in the name of God Almighty and Jesus Christ?

The Pearls, along with many conservative Christians, say the Bible calls for corporal punishment. “To give up the use of the rod is to give up our views of human nature, God, eternity,” they write in the book.

Three kids have already died, but the Pearls (the authors of the book) are not being charged. Fine, there is freedom of speech and you can write anything you want. But, how come they can ban Harry Potter in some states and not this book? Something just does not add up.

 

Links:

 

Disclosure: I am a strong advocate of attachment parenting and do not believe and have never exercised any form of physical punishment with my children. I believe there are a myriad of ways to get through to a child instead of reverting to aggressive behavior. 

 

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How to Hug a Porcupine

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

Having a middle-schooler on my hands, suddenly I find myself in uncharted territory. There was a time when I used to be good at empathizing with older kids (Was that because it was so long ago that I myself was an older kid or was it because I have become too much of a parent after having kids – who knows?) Now I am baffled and half the time speechless as to what to do or how to behave in order to carry on a peaceful and meaningful relationship with my 11-year-old daughter.

 

Surely I am not the only one with this predicament, so I fish around for books. There are so many! Which one to read in my precious little time? How to Hug a Porcupine by Julie A. Ross was the winner of my jackpot.

 

She has some great advice in her book. The book is easy to read, her suggestions are easy to understand and practical, and she has great examples.

 

She describes the middle schoolers as hormonal, disorganized, and defiant. I totally agree. As if the sheer effect of hormones wreaking havoc on this age group is not enough, they have to deal with constant change in their physical bodies (as well as watching their friends transform physically into something else). On top of this, they have to learn to deal with their expanding mental abilities AND keep up with schoolwork AND keep up with increasing responsibilities around the house AND keep up with the growing expectations of people for them to start behaving like an adult. Wow! Typing it out like this already makes me feel nauseous! In short, it is very natural for a middle schooler to be hormonal, disorganized, and defiant. Who wouldn’t be?

 

Julie says, “Anticipate earthquakes. Say to yourself: ‘This is normal and to be expected.’” (p. 3)

 

Thus, it becomes crucial to be respectful towards our middle schoolers. It is just not the parents who are in uncharted territory: the kids themselves are there right alongside us. The kids are going through this period where they have to break out of their cocoons and transform into butterflies. They were caterpillars under our wings and now they have to learn to spread their own wings. No small feat…

 

Sometimes, it can be hard for a parent to be a bystander as their kids struggle to find their way. This is the predicament of most overprotective parents. We have to give our children the time and space they need to learn to fly. If you help a butterfly out of its chrysalis, it won’t be able to fly. It is the battle to break free that makes the butterfly fly.

 

Listening and understanding must accompany respectful communication with our children. They need to know we are there for them, but we have to be careful not to step on their shoes. It takes a lot of skill to find the middle way between being overprotective and being overly permissive. For example, some parents take it personally upon themselves to make sure their child turns in a perfect homework, but is that homework for the parent (this is what a friend of mine asked me when I was extending too much help on homework to curb the whining of my 5th grader!!!)? An example for the overly permissive parent would be that parent who gave $600 pocket money to a 5th grader going on a school field trip … What would a 5th grader do with that much money on a school field trip???

 

Having said all that, Julie emphasizes that, “Understanding our middle schooler does NOT mean we are condoning misbehavior or rudeness” (p. 84).

 

In her book, Julie has excellent discussions on how to communicate with our kids. She gives examples about ‘communication blocks’. My personal two favorites are ‘advising’ and ‘placating’ communication blocks.

  1. An advising parent would sound something like, “Next time, you should…” or “Well, what you need to do is go back to her and explain that…” Apparently when middle schoolers hear this kind of talk, what they think is along these lines: “I never do anything right.” Or “What happens is all my fault.”
  2. A placating parent would sound something like, “Oh, honey. You’re beautiful/talented/smart no matter what she/he said about you.” And the middle schooler would be thinking, “Mom/Dad doesn’t understand me.” Or “Mom/Dad is lying.” (p. 84)

 

My best take from her book is the idea of family meetings. “They comprise a short amount of distraction-free time that you set aside weekly to be together as a family. They give you the opportunity to discuss values and other relevant issues, to make decisions, to problem solve, and to reinforce a sense of ‘family community’ in an emotion-neutral zone” (p. 69).

 

We are getting on with these meets every other week now. We have done 2 meetings so far. When I first put the idea on the table, my daughter resisted big time. (What would we talk about anyway?) My husband and I decided to give it a festive flair and to keep it simple to wear down resistance. After all, it was important that the children understood that these gatherings were not about preaching them, but hearing them out and discussing issues related to our family and values. Thus, our first meet had non-alcoholic champagne and 3 different types of cookies :) and we talked about why we were thankful to have each and every one of us in our family. During the second one, we extended our discussion to include the best and the worst moments we had during our week. I am planning to build it up eventually. The kids are taking it really well :) )

 

Thank you Julie for the great idea!

 

Related posts:

Note: This article is my personal opinion. I have no monetary gain of any kind from promoting this book nor do I have any kind of personal affiliation with Julie A. Ross.

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Banned Books Week in Gainesville, FL

Friday, October 7th, 2011

 

A cage with duct tape around it that says, “Caution” – as if it’s a crime scene…

 

And on top of the cage is the sign that says: “Banned Books Week”.

 

Where are we? What year?

Gainesville, Florida, United States of America and the date is September 28, 2011.

 

And the books in the cage: (the infamous) Harry Potter, The Upstairs Room (a Newberry Honor Book), In the Night Kitchen (a Caldecott Honor Book), and more…

 

I was so baffled that I sought a librarian and asked what was going on.

 

She said, “These are the books that have been banned elsewhere in the U.S… – not in Gainesville.”

 

How much longer before they are also banned here?

 

How did they get banned? The librarian says, “Well, some person reads the book and finds something in there that s/he finds offensive and finds a court that will listen and then the book is banned.”

 

Is it that easy? What happened to freedom of speech? In the land of the free?

 

I get offended in this land all the time. I don’t go around complaining to a court of law about how I got offended by what someone else said – or wrote.

 

Or should I? [I need a court to listen to me! I got offended! My FEELINGS got hurt…] Uh oh…

 

Hello! We are not a bunch of 5-year-olds running around tattletaling!!!

 

I have a problem with people who think they can use their own ‘rights to be offended’ to limit other people’s rights.  What happened to the melting pot of different cultures and religions that made this country such a great place to live in?

 

Who is right and who is wrong? What gives a person the ‘RIGHT’ to judge another for what they ‘WRITE’? And what kind of a court of law gets involved in such PETTY quibbles???

 

And what happens to MY right to read a book that I might find very interesting and inspiring???

 

Harry Potter has become my all time favorite. And I hate to see it bashed as a book that promotes witchcraft and wizardry. It is a story of courage, inspiration, and friendship. EVERYONE is entitled to his or her own opinion. If you don’t like it, fine, but please don’t try to stop me from reading it, thinking you are ‘saving’ me or thinking you know ‘better’. [If anything, I think all the negative hype should be geared towards the paraphernalia that has cluttered the toy stores, the bookstores and the minds of our kids -- it is all those gadgets that do a great injustice to J. K. Rowling and give a bad name to her life's brilliant work...]

 

And please don’t go around criticizing other populations on the planet who go and burn books. Because banning them is not much different.

 

How can we ever dream of a world of peace if we cannot even tolerate what some of us choose to write?

 

How can we ever think of reconciling the deep chasm between Palestinians and the Israelis if we can’t stand our own differences?

 

The blame game of why what THEY did hurt MY feelings will never stop, unless we stop playing the game. Stop blaming somebody else for your own feelings.

 

Talk it out. Deal with it.

 

Or just zip it!

 

Coexist.

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Who is right and who is wrong: doctors or religious zealots?

Friday, January 21st, 2011

We have more information than ever, but we are still in the dark—maybe even more in the dark than we have ever been if I may dare say so.

Misinformation, disinformation, information…

And how do we tell one from the other? Who is telling the truth?

Movies, television series, scientific studies, bloggers, elders, government officials, our friends… We are being bombarded by mixed messages from everywhere, which leaves us confused and indecisive.

My three-year-old daughter was sick for the last two weeks. Last week, she was bad: fever for 6 consecutive days, coughing, runny nose, tired, no appetite. I was worried, of course, even though it looked like she had a bad cold or the flu. A part of me was telling me it was not a big deal and it would pass; yet another part of me was waging war against my better judgment. What if I was wrong? What if there was something horribly wrong with her? What would I do if something happened to her because I delayed seeing a doctor? When I could not stand my own internal battle anymore, I called the doctor’s office. I told them the story and naturally the nurse confirmed my worst fear: she had to be seen. So we took a little trip to the doctor’s office 15 minutes after the phone conversation.

DD was examined from head to toe, complete with an oxygen count. She demonstrated “flu-like” symptoms (that much I knew, thank you very much—I wish he would tell me something I did not know!). She needed no further testing, no medication, nothing. I was relieved and upset at the same time. Relieved: there did not seem something horribly wrong with her. Upset: DD still had a fever and the doctor did not provide any other advice than what I was already doing.

He did hand me some papers and told me to read them. One was about how to manage fever and the other one was about the swine flu. I understand why I may need more information on how to manage fever, but swine flu? Did he think DD had swine flu? If so, why did he not advise further testing? If not, why was I being handed information on swine flu? Was I in med-school?

Anyways, that was not the big deal, the big deal was this: when I called the doctor’s office, the nurse asked whether DD was up to date with her vaccinations. Why in the world would that matter? I had called them because I had a sick child on my hands and here they were questioning her vaccine schedule. Was I missing something here? What was the main concern? And that was not the end of it. When we actually went to see the doctor, I got hit by the same exact question BEFORE the nurse started asking me what was wrong with her!  Then it was the doctor who came in to examine DD, who gave me a small lecture on vaccinations. And the next day, I got a follow-up call from another nurse, which was nice, but then she questioned me even more about DD’s missing vaccinations. She advised me to come in and talk to the doctor about it. I was exasperated. I had a sick kid on my hands and here were these doctors and nurses obsessed with the missing vaccines. What was wrong with these people? Who is right? The good doctors?

What is right and what is wrong? I don’t want to be wrong. I want to verify that what I think is right is indeed right. My child is sick, but I have a hunch it’s going to pass. So I need verification from the doctor, because if I am not right, then I don’t even want to start to think about the consequences. I get the verification: I am relieved.

But this vaccinations business…

I have been reading on vaccines and the vaccination schedule for a while now. The more I read, the more opposed I have become to vaccinations. I have a hunch that all this vaccination business is not in the best interest of my child. I need verification from our doctor. Oops! Our pediatrician will not verify my hunch. Not in a million years. In fact, she wants to keep lecturing me on statistical probabilities. [Well, I have to do justice to some other doctors who do verify my concerns (e.g., Dr. Robert S. Mendelsohn author of How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of your Doctor; Dr. Stephanie Cave author of What your Doctor may NOT tell you About Children’s Vaccinations).]

The medical community is divided on this issue—just like it is divided on many other issues. So nothing new, there :) But who is telling the truth? The information out there is overwhelming. I am confused. Don’t get me wrong: I am not against vaccinations all together. I see the merit of vaccinating children and how the availability of vaccines has largely reduced pretty nasty childhood diseases. Yet there is always the other side of the coin that is left in the dark. Some pharmaceutical companies are making incredible amounts of money through the mandatory vaccination schedule and new vaccines are being added every year. I took a look at the preschool entry requirements here in the U.S. and I was devastated to see the increase in vaccines over the last 10 years. Has anything dramatic happened over the last 10 years to increase the number of mandatory vaccinations? And why here in the U.S.? Other countries in Europe do not have such a rigorous vaccination propaganda. Are conditions in the U.S. so much worse for our children than the conditions in Europe that we have to vaccinate them almost twice if not more than they do?

I am confused. And when the doctor and the nurses start questioning me like I am doing the wrong thing, and attempting to discount everything else I have read and lived through, I start getting mad.

I feel like I have to chart a more ‘sensible’ vaccination schedule for DD. But hey! that’s not allowed by the medical community. Well, maybe it is elsewhere, but where we live, the only way to go around that is to declare that we are religious zealots! So it boils down to: are we with the religious folk or the scientific folk? Because there is no middle way… We’re either with them or against them…

May the Lord help us all. Amen.

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Prachtige Grachten van Amsterdam (= Awesome canals of Amsterdam)

Saturday, October 16th, 2010

 

The horse-shoe shaped canals that run through the city have been a source of wonder to me since the day I set foot here. It is astounding to think about how they were built one after another as the inhabitants ran out of space. It is no wonder that the world’s top engineers who deal with water are Dutch, because their ancestors have been commanding it for little less than a thousand years—hanging on to their precious little corner on the planet by keeping the ocean at bay.

I was told during one of the canal cruises that there are more than 1,200 bridges and 165 canals in Amsterdam. Now those may not be huge numbers by themselves, but when you take into consideration the fact that Amsterdam is only 219 km2 including land and water, then that means roughly 5 bridges per square kilometer… Somebody want to tell me this isn’t a city built on water? ;)

Okay, I have to admit I have never been to Venice and I would really love to one day, but until that day Amsterdam will be the top floating city on my list:)

 

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Artis

Thursday, October 14th, 2010

When I first came to Amsterdam, there was an occasion when somebody asked me if I would be interested in tickets to Artis, the zoo in town. Having come from Florida, I could not be less interested. I had been to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the Sea World, the Busch Gardens, and the Butterfly Museum. Heck, I had seen alligators roaming wild and free on the streets. Going to a zoo in Amsterdam? Ha ha ha! They must have been kidding me…! I thought I knew better. Well, I could not have been more off in my thinking :)

Then there is also the fact that I have never liked going to zoos. The locked up animals make me sad. Would I like it if a more intelligent species put me behind bars as a source of entertainment for their kids? No, but then, I could try to look at it from the bright side: I would be so interesting that the members of this more intelligent species would be willing to pay money just to take a look at me.

Thus, I like to think about zoos more like an educational ground for my kids and I suffer along :)

As you can imagine, one day, the inevitable happened. I ran out of options to entertain my then 7-year-old daughter and a friend of mine offered free entrance tickets to Artis. I was sold.

Artis is yet another place where precious space has been ingeniously utilized. The zoo contains an aquarium built in 1881, a butterfly pavilion, a kinderboerderij (= petting zoo), and a movie theater among other things. More than a zoo, it looks like a nicely trimmed, ever-blooming garden. There is hardly any smell despite the fact that it houses more than 900 different species of animals.

They are continuously busy with renovating the zoo, which has opened its doors in 1838. Even though there are some animals still behind old-fashioned cages, most others have been enclosed in a more friendly way and some even left to roam for free—like the peacocks.

For children, it’s a paradise with countless animals and several different playgrounds. It’s also an interesting place for artists and photographers.  The annual membership has proven invaluable. Being situated right in the center of the city with easy access, it has become our top destination for daily leisure. Some of our favorites are: the sea lion feedings at 11:45, the tiny mammals section, the butterflies, the penguins, the giant tortoises, and the anteaters :)

And Artis has the best free toilets in Amsterdam!

Are you sold? ;)

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Zwaagdijk

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

33 more days in Amsterdam and (n-8) more days left to live on earth…

I have decided that my 40-day tribute will be to the Netherlands and not just to Amsterdam. True, we live in Amsterdam, but the real reason why we are here lies elsewhere: in Zwaagdijk—a tiny village some 40 km. further up north from Amsterdam.

Where I come from, villages look totally different. Zwaagdijk is what they call a lintdorp (= ribbon development). It literally translates into ribbon village and is a small settlement with houses lined up on both sides of a single street.

I have to admit that it looks a bit odd, but I guess that’s because it defies my own understanding of a village. It simply does not fit the definition of a village as I know it, yet it’s a village. Do I accept it as it is and expand my perception of a village? Or do I criticize it just because I think villages are supposed to look like something else? (I pose these questions as a metaphor. You see, coming from the ‘eastern’ side of the planet—now I won’t go into how there can be east and west if the world is round—every now and then, I like to wave my index finger at the ‘westerners’ who like to criticize the ‘easterners’ for not doing things as they should be done—as if ‘theirs’ is the ‘right’ way to do things.)

Just to set the record straight, in time, I have learned to accept Zwaagdijk as a village and I have expanded my understanding of what a village is :)

The villages I had known before were poor with mostly run-down houses built in a circle whereas Zwaagdijk looks pretty rich with impeccable houses neatly lined on both sides of a single road.

The villages I had known before almost always had at least a small grocery store and a bakery whereas in Zwaagdijk there is one church.

In Zwaagdijk, the nature is stunning. Every season has a different flavor. I have been lucky to see the perfectly planted elongated rectangular flower fields with each section blooming in a different color in the summer as well as in the winter when they merge into one vast field covered with snow. It’s a village where Mother Nature and her people work together in perfect harmony.

The villages I had known before didn’t always have a school whereas in Zwaagdijk there is an elementary school, St. Jozef School. Recently, the school has been torn down in order to be replaced by a new one.

Alas, with an ironic twist of fate, the demolition of the school building coincided with the passing away of my mother-in-law. She lived through the last days of her life not battling but smiling at her cancer.

 

Now the school is gone. So is Elly. May she rest in peace.

~~~

-

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Speeltuin UJ Klaren (= UJ Klaren Playground)

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010

Amsterdam Heineken Experience (a.k.a. the Heineken Museum) is a well-known tourist attraction. I have heard only good stories from people who have visited it since its recent renovation—although I have yet to see it.

However, this post is not about the beer museum, but the hidden gem that lies across from it. (Of course, the definition of ‘gem’ is highly subjective here and I admit that I am exaggerating a bit :) )

Speeltuin UJ Klaren is one of those ingenious ways that space is utilized in Amsterdam: in this case it is a playground being used both by a preschool and the public.

Unlike most other playgrounds in Amsterdam, this one is surrounded by a tall fence and there is no escape for the children—except the entrance door, which is kept closed with an iron bolt at all times. The lock that hangs under the bolt and the semi-official gate bearing the name of the playground give the impression that it cannot be entered freely.

I first heard about its existence from another parent I met at our Monday playgroup. Nice playgrounds are blessings in disguise for parents with young children: the more the better. So I grabbed my opportunity to check it out the following day. Even though I went there knowing it was a playground open to public, I was intimidated by the tall iron fence surrounding the playground and I had difficulty locating the entrance. I circled all the way around and ended up trying to open a locked door on the other side and almost gave up on my attempt to enter because I caught the eyes of some parents inside giving me the ‘what-the-heck-are-you-trying-to-do’ look. I was embarrassed, of course. Was this not a public playground after all? Maybe I had misunderstood what I had been told… How had the other parents gotten in?

Disappointed, I slowly started to walk back home still scanning the playground. Before it disappeared out of my sight, I saw somebody else heading towards it. She went for the gate right next to the canal, across from the Heineken Experience. I quickly steered the stroller and followed the lady’s footsteps. I was too late to catch up with her. There I stood one more time in front of the closed door, puzzled because of the lock hanging on the door. How had she entered? I looked more closely and finally noticed the iron bolt on the other side, reached for it and lifted it. Ta daaa! We were inside.

It has been a great place to go to when the weather is nice. I can just sit down and relax without having to worry where my daughter has run off to. She can go wherever she wants. The sand toys and the tricycles that the preschool shares with the public during its school hours are an added bonus. How many public playgrounds are there that provide toys for public use? And the nice thing is, nobody takes them away. The kids play with them and leave them there. That is that.

When I was there taking pictures today, a grandma came along with her grandchild and stood in front of the door just like I had done more than a year ago. She fumbled with the lock and then turned her stroller around to leave. I took a few steps towards her and said, “It’s open.” “Is it open?” she asked. She was a foreigner, sounded like an American. “You just need to lift the bolt,” I replied in English. She thanked me and went inside. I could have done what the others had done to me: given her the ‘what-the-heck-are-you-trying-to-do’ look, but I didn’t. I was a foreigner, too.

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Parent-child playgroup Quellijnstraat 62-66

Monday, October 11th, 2010

I saw the dull, orange information leaflet for the Monday parent/child playgroup at the consultatiebureau (= consultation office) shortly after my younger daughter’s birth. (In the Netherlands, instead of pediatricians, this office is responsible for following the growth and development of healthy children along with the administration of vaccinations.) That brochure has been the key to a series of memorable Monday afternoons with my daughter.

When we first moved here, being a foreign mom in a strange land, I found myself faced with a number of interesting challenges, one of which was finding a social network that would be supportive of my motherhood and my foreignness.

Even though I am against generalizing and stereotyping people, after four years, I feel compelled to say something about the inhabitants of my strange new land. The Dutch are a curious breed. When we first moved here, every Dutch person I met made me feel welcome and at home. I felt that I was among close friends, but it did not take long before the warm and fuzzy feeling began to wear off. After all was said and done, everybody went back to living their lives. Nobody bothered to give me a call back to ask how I was doing. Everybody had their own inner circle of friends and nobody was interested to make an effort to include an outsider. So where did that leave me? Out in limbo…

Hence, the Monday playgroup was a God-sent gift to me. The playgroup was for parents and their 0 – 4 years old children. One day, I gathered my courage, picked up my six-month old baby and went to the playgroup. I knew nobody then, but after more than two-years, things are much different now. I have gotten to know really nice people. I have made friends with people who live in the same neighborhood. It is relaxing to sit around and have a cup of tea and chat with other parents while my daughter gets to play around with their kids. Every now and then, the children sit around the table and do some activities. Sometimes, there is a musician, who comes in to introduce a music instrument to the children. There never is a dull moment.

Interestingly, most parents are foreigners… The few Dutch parents, who attend the group, are those with foreign partners! I have yet to see a child whose parents are both Dutch. Where are the Dutch people? Do they not exist or do they prefer to stick to their own inner-circle of friends?

Today I found out that a Tuesday playgroup has started in another location, but sadly there is no one attending so far. I am planning to go. Maybe I shall meet another kindred spirit there, who knows? Here is the address and the timetable for the playgroups—just in case you would like to come meet me there :)

Monday playgroups meet between 14:30 – 16:30
@ Peuterspeelzaal Waldemar
Quellijnstraat 62-66, 1072 XV Amterdam.
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Tuesday playgroups meet between 14:30 – 16:30
@ Peuterspeelzaal Dribbel
Smaragdplein 3, 1074 HA Amsterdam. 

There is also a housewarming party for the Tuesday playgroup at Peuterspeelzaal Dribbel on Thursday, October 14, 2010 from 9:30 until 11:00. There will be activities for children 0 – 4 years of age such as dancing, music, face painting, and prizes.

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