My Child Answers Me in Dutch: When the School Language Takes Over, with Mimi with Mimi

There's a specific kind of grief that nobody warns you about.Your child is thriving in Dutch. Their friendships are in Dutch. Their jokes are in Dutch. Their inner world is becoming Dutch. And somewhere in there, you are starting to feel like a stranger to the child you are raising.This episode is about that feeling.I sit down with Mimi Potvin from Growing Up Multilingual to talk honestly about what happens when the societal language — Dutch — starts to overtake the language of your relationship with your child. Not the grammar. Not the vocabulary tests. The intimacy. The closeness. The part of parenting that lives in words only you two share.We talk about:The 8–9 year home language dip and why it hits so many international families in the NetherlandsWhat "relational access" means and why losing it is about more than languageWhy the transition to primary school shifts everything — and how to prepare for itPractical strategies to hold onto your home language without making it a battlegroundWhat to do when your child consistently answers you in DutchIf you have ever felt a pang of sadness when your child replied to you in a language that wasn't yours, this one is for you.