Story 16 of 52 /// We now share childhood memories

We moved to Australia when she was only 10 months old, with the intention of never going back to the Netherlands. She attended a local Kindy as soon as she was old enough, and though we spoke Dutch at home, she always felt that English was her first language. Watching her enjoy Tim Tams and Fairy Bread always made me feel incredibly proud: we had successfully immersed our daughter into a culture not her own.

It wasn’t until we moved to Singapore that we realized she was much more Australian and a lot less Dutch than we believed. With the foresight of a potential return to the Netherlands, we enrolled her in a bilingual Dutch-English primary school. It was at that school that she for the first time ever celebrated “Sinterklaas”, a Dutch children’s celebration that is very similar to Santa Claus’ visiting.

She was so excited about finding out whether Sinterklaas had left a gift in her shoe, loved trying ‘pepernoten’ which she never had before, and she was so proud of receiving the first letter of her name in chocolate. We looked at old pictures of myself as a child, celebrating the same holiday.

Only then I realized how much I loved sharing this experience with her. Through this celebration a connection was established between my daughter and my roots: while the settings of our youth were so different, we now share childhood memories.

About this Series

This story is part of our 52 Stories initiative: a collection of real, lived experiences from global families and international children navigating life across borders. Every story in this series is based on true events, highlighting both the beautiful breakthroughs and the complex, often hidden challenges of the relocation journey.

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