Moving my young family to the Netherlands

Dwil wrote:

Hey everyone,

My name is Dylan and I just wanted to ask for some help. Me and my partner were thinking of moving to the Netherlands within the next couple of years. We have two children under 5, I'm trained as an English/TESOL/special needs teacher,and my partner is a tattoo artist.

We were hoping you could give suggestions/help/advice etc on the following:

* how could we best integrate our children in Dutch society?
* what are the pros and cons of raising children in the Netherlands?
* which cities and areas would be best to move to?

Thank you guys!

Hi Dylan and welcome to the Forum.

At the top of the page is a link to our Handy Tools section; if you select that you'll get access to our Expat Guides which contain many articles written to help you plan your journey.

Teaching is a regulated profession in the EU and you will need to get your qualifications ratified by the country you intend to work in; in Holland this is NUFFIC; this link will take you to their website; you should consider whether your Dutch will be good enough to teach in a Dutch school and if not, consider the International schools where they teach in English.  For your partner, I'd try the various Facebook groups (just search for Tattoo Holland; warning some pages are not kid friendly!).

For your specific questions:

Integrate.  Send them to Dutch schools; you'll be amazed how quickly they make friends and pick up the language.
Pros and Cons.  Dutch people seem to be much more open (some say "in your face") than most other people I've met around the world; guess that's both a Pro and Con.
Cities and areas.  In general, the west (around Amsterdam) is more expensive than the rest of the country.  There are lots of open spaces everywhere; we chose to live in the East where my wife originally came from, it's not so hectic over here.

Once you've read our guides, if you have any further specific questions, please come back to us.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team