In Netherlands, children make appointments with their parents to meet them.

Let that sink in.

I was really shocked when one of my Dutch colleagues casually told me one day that he couldn’t make it for our plans on a particular day because he had an appointment to meet his mother. If he didn’t see her that day, it was hard to reschedule.

I was like huhhhhh… what in the world?

And here my mom panics if I don’t call her one day or don’t reply to her text. She calls me whenever she sees me online on watsapp—no warning, no nothing.

Don’t want to change that though.