I live in the Netherlands and speak several languages. But when I became a mother, I had to learn a whole new vocabulary

For me, becoming a mother was an experience as disorienting and confusing as moving to a new country. I had to learn new behaviours and customs as well as which brands of nappy and baby food to buy. And little did I know that moving to the Netherlands after the birth of my first child would entail having to learn a whole new tongue besides Dutch.

I’m not talking about motherese, the high-pitched singsong ways parents speak to their children, but about the highly specific language mothers and fathers around the world now use to talk about being parents. And even though I spoke Polish, German and English by the time I had my eldest daughter (and have since learned Dutch and a bit of Russian), I struggled with this particular one.

Olga Mecking is a writer and journalist, originally from Poland, who lives in the Netherlands. She is the author of Niksen: Embracing the Dutch Art of Doing Nothing