On April 18, 2016, Tarja van Veldhoven and Agnès Battlori Benet posted the very first post of the Delft MaMa blog. This April we’re celebrating the blog’s 3rd blogiversary!
I talked with some of our past editors about their experiences working with the blog and if they wanted to share some memorable posts for your reading pleasure. As I tried to map a timeline of people who helped run the blog, I quickly realized that while Tarja and later Marie were major coordinators of the blog, there were MANY contributors that helped keep the blog running smoothly. While I haven’t been able to track you all down, know that we appreciate you! Happy reading…
Beginnings: Tarja and Agnès
Agnès: Tarja and I started together but she was the true leader and I was more like a sidekick. She was in charge of coordinating writers and getting in touch with them and so.
Agnès’s favorite posts were the ones on King’s Day and on World Book Day (Saint George) in 2016 and one in 2017.
Tarja: When it comes to gems, I remember Marie writing a blogpost about learning Dutch in Delft, which I think is relevant to publish, or better yet, update, every once in a while. There are always new people coming in, and many struggle with the same basic questions, among which is learning the language.
Transitions: Oriana and Marie
Oriana wrote for the DMM blog for a couple of years, and she liked doing that: My experence was that people really enjoyed reading about Dutch Culture and traits and stuff… I wrote more about that than about kids stuff.
Marie helped Tarja run the blog after Agnès moved on to other things, and eventually took over after Tarja moved back to Finland. After Marie took on leadership responsibilities as Delft MaMa’s chairwoman (read her year in review here), the blog remained silent for a few months until I stepped in with a suggestion for improving the blog and ended up becoming the new editor.
Revamping the blog: Kate and Onica
I quickly found help in Onica King, and our first post of the revamped blog kicked off a new year–and probably served as a 2nd blogiversary without us realizing it! Onica has since moved on to other things, with her last post being a survey of how DMM couples met. Her valuable insights and humor is sorely missed!
At about the same time, Kathryn Roscoe also joined us as a proofreader. We’ve since added Candice Lamothe to our team of proofreaders. Although they are not credited as editors, we wouldn’t be able to publish timely and edited pieces without their help.
I have to admit that running the Delft MaMa blog is not a job for one single person. (Hint: we’re always looking for more volunteers!) This blog belongs to the community, and it’s been amazing to see the voices of different women on this blog, sharing their life experiences and contributing to the wealth of knowledge that we have. I look forward to seeing more years of faces and voices on the blog.
[Note from editor: I want to thank my team of proofreaders, Kathryn and Candice, for helping me behind the scenes with proofreading the posts before publication. There’s no way we could keep up with the blog schedule without you! Thank you.]
A year in review: 2018-2019
While we called the current blog “DMM blog 2.0”, it really hasn’t changed much. This blog has always been about the Delft MaMa community, written by the community. The richness of voices have contributed to a vast shared knowledge.
We have not run any “Delft MaMa of the Week” posts since Marie’s time as blog editor, but we still see many posts about different moms in the community, the things they do, how they enrich us and how we can enrich them. I loved reading the interview with DMM founder Lucie, about Delft MaMa’s humble beginnings and seeing Delft MaMa grow past her wildest imagination.
We’ve also seen lots of useful posts about getting settled, getting out with kids, and just in general understanding how things work “Delft style”, whether it be school, birthday parties, swimming lessons, or even getting a pet. We’ve also seen posts about Dutch culture and world traditions such as Halloween and Chanukkah.
Parenting Blog of 2019 Competition: Amsterdam Diary
We’ve also been nominated by Amsterdam Diary for the Dutch parenting blog award of 2019! Read here for more information how you can vote.
Looking ahead: 2019-20
I’m looking forward to seeing more local female entrepreneurs featured on the blog–seeing how they started and what challenges they face as they continue to grow their businesses. I’m also eagerly awaiting the next post in the Legal Mom series… with such a diverse community as ours, we have much to learn about making our way in a new place.
There has been a lot of conversations on the DMM Facebook page (with over 1,700 members!!!!) that would be nice to be preserved on the blog for future reference somehow. I know I plan to talk more about time management in a future post… once I’ve had a chance to practice some of the fantastic tips passed along by other moms in the community!
I expect to see the blog team continue to evolve and am very curious to see what the next year will bring! I also hope that we can continue to improve visibility of all of the people who help with the blog. As always, we’d love to hear from you if you want to get in touch with us! If you leave a comment and don’t hear from us, do contact us via e-mail.
Thank you for joining us as we looked back over the life of the DMM blog. Coming up will be a short announcement about our entrance in Amsterdam Diary’s Best Dutch Parenting Blog of 2019 competition! Our next regularly scheduled blog post will be the second in our local entrepreneur series as Julia Candy interviews Jie Li, aka The Cake Researcher. See you soon!
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