I married a Dutchman
The Shallow Man, formerly of London, and for many years, resident in Amsterdam, has become something of an expert in navigating the choppy and touchy waters of intercultural relationships with the Dutch. Indeed, having developed a reputation for selflessly putting myself in the line of fire in order to answer questions posed to me by my expat flock I’ve been contacted by the lovely Christiana Spasova. “Shallow Man, you’ve written a lot about dating the Dutch, but you’ve yet to share the experiences of someone who has married or is in a civil partnership with a Dutch person. Why don’t you write something about this?”
Being as ever the Butler to the Presidential needs of my readers, (I saw the film yesterday, thanks to the ladies who chatted all the way through) today’s post is called ‘So I married a Dutchman’ and based on interviews I carried out with some Expats who wish to remain anonymous.
The Bulgarian
I had no intention of moving here at all, but then in Sofia, while working at a Dutch multinational I fell in love with the man who is now my partner. We were together for two years in Sofia and then when his assignment was over I decided to move to the Netherlands to be with him. I work in the logistics field and my organization kindly seconded me to one of our offices in the Netherlands. I’m very happy to be here with my boyfriend, and the purpose of this article is not to whine about the Netherlands or Dutch people. It’s simply to share my experiences living here, something which I think quite a few of the Shallow Man’s readers will be in a similar situation to me.”
It happened in Zwolle
After jumping through many, many layers of bureaucracy, I married a Dutchman and finally settled here with my husband six months ago. We bought a house in the village in which he grew up and live only a few minutes walk away from his parents and he has many old friends living nearby.
Prior to moving here, I started taking Dutch lessons in Sofia, even though my job is in English and my partner also insists on speaking to me in English as well. This would be fine, however, his family, just as the Shallow Man wrote in his blog either speak to me in Dutch and then when I respond in Dutch speak to me in English. His mother, then constantly makes comments how poor my Dutch is.
When introduced to people and I explain that I’m from Bulgaria, the reactions I receive are often totally rude. A message to Dutch people, not all Bulgarians are members of the mafia, involved in cloning PIN cards, nor are we gypsies desperate to overrun your country. I’m also not here in the Netherlands because Bulgaria is some kind of hell hole that people wish to escape from!
Bulgaria and Romania are different countries. When I meet a Dutch person in Bulgaria, I don’t ask them their opinion of the international xtc trade, so I don’t see why so many Dutch people assume that I’m the expert on Bulgarian and Romanian crime.
I’ve heard the saying that Dutch people can never be rude, and are just telling it like it is. Well, that’s a very poor excuse for a lack of respect and manners. I used to get really angry about the negative comments people make about my country, now I follow the Shallow Man’s advice and respond with sarcasm. For example, “Yes I’m from Bulgaria, I’m with my partner for his money and am also on assignment here for the Bulgarian mafia. I’m so happy to be in the Netherlands, a country with flat screen television and toilets inside houses.” A couple of people even thought I was being serious when I said this. Go figure.
One more thing, there’s no such country as ‘Eastern Europe’. Just so you know.
Compromises necessary for a peaceful life in the Netherlands
My husband is a very well dressed Dutchmen, however, since moving here, he has tried asking me to dress down a little as people in our neighbourhood believe that I think too much of myself due to the following reasons.
- Wearing makeup
- I wear skirts and dresses and high heeled boots and shoes
- Regularly have my hair styled
We have both compromised on some things:
- I bought a pair of UGG boots. UGG is short for ugly, but the girls in my neighborhood keep telling me what amazing boots they are
- Deep fat fryer, I’ve never owned such a thing, but my mother in law was horrified that we didn’t have one, so to keep the peace I’ve bought one
- Jeans, I’ve realized that on the rare occasions when I’m invited for a drink with my boyfriend’s sister, that I have to dress down, so wear my UGG boots with jeans
In spite of Bulgaria being a much poorer country economically compared to the Netherlands, people dress a lot better there. Though sometimes they can also be at the other end of extremes, such as going to the supermarket wearing high heels and lots of makeup. I agree with the Shallow Man that the Netherlands is definitely a country of people that dress poorly. I think that a lot of people really just don’t care about their appearance, which is a shame as the Dutch are naturally very attractive, which is why I married a Dutchman. 🙂
Quality food costs money
When my partner saw how much money I was spending on food, he was not pleased. He used to buy just about everything from the supermarket and lots of it was processed prepared meals. I prefer buying food fresh from markets. Once he tasted how good food tastes when made with fresh ingredients he slowly began to change his mind and complains less.
Curtains
I’d heard about how the Dutch tend to leave the curtains open and thought it was an exaggeration. Well, not in the village where we live. When I first arrived I often used to walk out of the shower and across the main room naked, providing anyone walking past a good view. I decided that enough was enough and regularly have the curtains closed. This leads to comments from my mother in law who says to my partner, “I walked past your house earlier and the curtains were closed!” as if she thinks I’m killing someone or up to no good.
Guess who’s coming for dinner?
The relationship I have with my husband’s parents is complicated. I’d met the parents when they came to visit my partner in Bulgaria. I get the feeling that his mother hoped that he was just having a fling with me and upon returning to the Netherlands would find himself a Dutch girl. I make a big effort to try and get on with them, even though every time I meet them his mother looks at me as if I’m a package from Zalando that she’d like to send back.
When I first moved here I organized a big meal and invited his parents. I made a great effort, started with a feta cheese and tomato salad and then made Moussaka as the main meal followed by homemade cheesecake. His mother turned her nose up at the salad and then mentioned that she found moussaka was too spicy. The father felt that the cheesecake from Albert Heijn was more to his liking. This was just them telling it like it is. To keep her and my boyfriend happy I’ve tried to master putting together stamppot boerenkool, something which my mother in law almost complimented me on.
The Netherlands is a beautiful country, and I do love the countryside, and the pretty relaxed way of life and I’ve met some nice people outside of the immediate family. Learning Dutch has also helped me a lot, having said that most of my friends are mainly expats I’ve met through work. My advice to anyone moving here to be with their partner is to prepare yourself for challenges when dealing with the family.
I married a Dutchman the Englishwoman
I have been here in Amsterdam for around 15 years, I married a Dutchman I met in London many many moons ago.
My husband is wonderful and has a very open minded view of the world, is funny and generous. It’s his family that causes me more concern. They are well off upper middle class, golf club, Aerdenhout types who find social status their holy grail. That’s all pretty normal, but it’s their profound Calvinistic financial tightness that continues to astound me. Every Christmas presents are either from the check out at AH or recycled from unwanted gifts. Sometimes if we are lucky we even get our own gifts. Dinner, when we are invited, is either a cheap fondue using unsuitable cheese or a thin soup made from a stock cube. Horse meat slices, with the label torn off, in case we notice and bread.
Every Christmas they bring the smoked salmon which is always out of date, bought from Lidl the summer before. As the years have passed they have abandoned present giving altogether (probably a good thing) and stuck to the soup. Not that expressions of love should necessarily come in the form of material gifts but when a free hamper from a well-known organisation, where my father in law used to work is divided out and wrapped as Xmas gifts; a tin of frankfurter sausages for the vegetarian niece and a jar of peanut butter for the grandson with peanut allergy, I begin to wonder if enough loving thought has gone into these presents.
This Calvinism also seems reserved more for the family. Golf clubs, exotic holidays, be it with a suitcase full of dried food, are fully enjoyed by my in laws.
The Shallow Man will preempt the inevitable responses that some will provide to this article. Yes, the ladies in question will go home to Sofia and London, but only at a time of their choosing.
No Dutch nationalists were hurt during the writing of this post.
Totally been through similar experiences with my in laws. After bunch of yrs they still shock me with callousness and random stupid stuff (like nobody in a big family meets for Christmas when we are there cause they don’t like to hang out with each other I guess?). thanks for this blog post as I am happy to find that I am not the only one to live through passive aggressive judgement of everything. Once when I didn’t know better yet I showed my MIL gift for me from my hubby – a nice watch.. the look on her face omg.. but thats the smallest of what this bunch shocked me with.. from alcohol designated for my wedding that was drunk night before the event cause family was staying at the venue and they drank it, some ppl not paying for the hotel rooms at the same event, visiting us after my kid was born and staying super far away from our place and never showing up cause sightseeing.. I mean I could go forever..
Sad to hear the Dutch are so rude towards Bulgarians. I heard about this from several people. And the sad thing is, as a Dutch person living in Sofia, it’s the other way around, people considering us superior cause we are Dutch. But we also get the same stereotypes to deal with. Whenever I am on a party and I tell people I am Dutch, will get offered drugs almost every single time..
I recognise that one. The Bulgarians can be very rude as well.
Did you guys find it easy to make your own friends in Holland? I am thinking of moving to Holland with my husband after living abroad with him for quite some time. My main concern is being able to make friends that speak English as I am not fluent and not only that , I want to make real friends, not friends with people that are only planning to stay there for a few years. How have you guys managed that ? . Is there some kind of group in Holland for foreign wives of Dutch men haha.
For me I started dating my husband after living in NL for 4 yrs already as a highly skilled migrant (since 2006). I guess I got lucky, so far my in-laws have been wonderful to me, especially after giving them a grandson! And they usually come to visit and specifically asking if they can have dinner with us. They love my cooking even though I serve them non-Dutch dishes. One time my father-in-law even asked me to make stuffed mushrooms and then showed them off at his birthday party. It’s just funny having the Bulgarian had to buy a frituurpan ‘for show’ to the in-laws. I also had to buy one because my husband loves his deep fried Dutch food so much. Over the years he has learned to appreciate eating more of the fresh and not deep-fried food. And over the years I’ve also loved some of the Dutch food. So I guess we’ve found some common ground. I also have quite a collection of shoes… but I NEVER bought a pair of UGGs. hahaha. Good thing my husband nor his sisters say anything about it. My husband just accepts the fact that most women, Dutch or not, have lots of shoes!
As an Indian Married to Dutch man, I would have defended my Parent-in-laws and basked in the glory of their goodness until I moved to Netherlands.
My whole reason to move to Netherlands was to be near to my Husband’s parents. Now here I am and they are not the same as I imagined and I am wondering WHAT REALLY WENT WRONG.
Cant thank you enough for letting me know I am not the only disliked-expat daughter-in-law. (still wondering what happened to the days when I felt i was the favorite – can anyone care to explain)
And also, when comparing UK (where I lived past few years) and Netherlands, I accidentally said ‘I like Netherlands more, it reminds me of my very flat hometown in India’ – oppps I think I should now know why I am not favorite !
You are not alone. I actually avoid having too much conversation with my mother-in-law because I find her often very narrow minded and offensive. My husband knows this and he agrees. You are not alone. I think as and Indian you were very much influenced by British culture where manners was very important. I struggle a lot with the dutch lack of manners and grace.
Hello from the USA,
My mum is Australian raised by English parents in a posh house in Sydney. I finally found a very decent fella who was a grandson of a Dutch immigrant. But for years I’ve been dealing with a very difficult mother in law. We suffered through the dull Christmas season where presents were seen as a sin and one was enough. Lots of sugar and sweets. I would very much agree with the Calvinistic way of life that someone mentioned and is quite depressing and dull. I feel that with every visit there is some sort of argument although I try very much to get along with his mother. Often times I regret not finding a nice English fella. Life may have been more fun and easier.
Whoa, am I feeling lucky with my Dutch parents-in-law after reading such post (sorry, Shallow Man, only now discovered your blog and reading it slowly backwards)! Both of their sons have foreign wives, one Chinese, one Latvian (me), and they’ve done their utmost to make us both feel welcome. I could as easily imagine a similarly snobbish attitude towards someone from “Eastern Europe” (though us, Latvians, insist we’re from Northern Europe). Of course, that doesn’t mean we didn’t get any cultural clashes in the beginning. I guess, parents-in-law are generally a question of good or bad luck, be it Dutch or from the same origin as oneself.
Yes, there are small minded people everywhere, even here in the Netherlands. As an educated adult with a family that loves to spoil others on gifts, I have to say I never met people like the families in these stories. This probably represents the least representative story on your blog ever (which I happen to love, so I don’t say this lightly).
Hi Elise,
When working with such a small sample of contributions (so far) this is likely to happen (i.e. not totally representative) however, I’m receiving more input. The reality is that I’m just contributing the experiences of a couple of people and I agree that there are tight fisted and rude people everywhere. I’m sure that a Dutch person in the UK or Bulgaria would have other interesting stories to tell. 🙂
Its not the case Elise, the good experiences are far and few compared to the horrors if being married to a Dutchie. The men are truly adorable but their, families, friends, neighbours, UUGGHHH
How can I say ? Knowing is part of my profession. 😉