Elves and Eggs
Whether it’s pirates, plays or poffertjes, the Dutch school year regularly throws up some sort of challenge for the unsuspecting expat parent. There’s nothing more stressful than checking the school WhatsApp messages at ten in the evening and discovering that your child has to come dressed as an elf the next morning. “Oh, and could you also bring some eggs? We’re making pancakes.” Now I don’t know about anyone else but I don’t have many elf costumes in my wardrobe. And I’m right out of eggs. So maybe there’s more than a bit of relief among harassed parents when the end of the school year in the Netherlands finally arrives. Wrong. The last few weeks of the summer term are actually ten times worse. Every day in July there’s something weird going on at a school near you. One day you have to make sure your kid goes to school inexplicably dressed as a pirate-themed mushroom and the next you have to conjure up something odd for them to eat at lunchti...
