‘Letting go. Damn tricky if you ask me’

Image: Nine IJff

Jannine Berkelaar is editor-in-chief of Kek Mama. Together with her husband Erik, she has daughter Elin (10) and son Mats (8).

“Nice and fascinating”, sounds disinterested from my daughter’s mouth after I asked if the volume between her and her brother could be turned down a bit. Secretly I have to laugh a little at this prepubescent behavior, but the feeling that she is playing tricks on me prevails. I rebuke her, make little impression, and we live happily ever after.

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Headstrong

Pfff, parenting is not that easy. The older Elin and Mats get, the longer the conversations to get my point across. Besides being tiring at times, I also love to see how headstrong they both become and how shrewd and smart they are and how often my own words are used against me. As a completely independent person, I naturally think that I have put the two nicest people in the world.

“The older they get, the longer the conversations to make my point”

But I can sometimes be frightened by the responsibility that comes with raising them: how do I ensure that these two go into society with an open mind, without too much fear, independently and with some self-reflection and self-love? It would be good to give your children the space to let them down and experience disappointments.

Letting go. Damn difficult if you ask me, because my primal feeling says that I want to protect them from all kinds of harm, that time goes too fast and I want to hold on to them as long as possible. And that’s what I do after such a long discussion, when my point is finally clear: a long hug.

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