Almost Local

“Where are you from?”

My oldest was at football when a boy asked her that. “Singapore,” she said — because that’s true, she was born here. He looked at her, genuinely confused. Blonde hair, blue eyes, tall for her age. “You don’t look Singaporean.”

She came and found me after, half-laughing, half-needing to check something. “Mom, I was born in Singapore, right?”

“Yes, you were.”

“But you and Daddy are Dutch. So I’m actually Dutch. Even though we live in Singapore.”

I said yes to that too. And then stood there for a second, because I’m not sure I’ve ever explained it to myself that neatly.

So, what are we?

All three of our kids were born here. Their favourite food is chicken rice, not a sandwich with gouda cheese. They’ve been going to a mixed Mandarin/English preschool since they were 18 months old. V is 7, F is 5, A is 1.

If you’re counting, that’s three little contributions to Singapore’s birth rate. Except we’re not Singaporean. We’re Dutch — passports, nationality, all of it — but we go back to the Netherlands maybe once a year. We’ve been in Asia for 12 years now: Malaysia first, then Singapore. And we’re not here on an expat package either. Local contract, local salary, local groceries.

Which is sort of the whole point of this blog’s name. Not an expat, not quite local. Almost local.

What “almost local” looks like, practically

It looks like ShengSiong and Fairprice runs, the occasional Redmart delivery when I’ve completely run out of time. It looks like cycling to work — on the sidewalk, because I still haven’t made peace with Singaporean drivers, twelve years in. It looks like a household where the kids correct my Mandarin more than I correct theirs.

It’s a strange, specific in-between. Not visiting, not fully “from here” — just living an ordinary, slightly chaotic life, in a place that’s ours without technically being ours.

Why I’m writing this

I’m Daniëlle — mum of three, and founder of ActiveWomen, where I help women in Singapore feel strong and confident in their own bodies through real-life, non-aspirational strength training. That work — and my book, Strength Through the Messy & Beyond — is where most of my week goes, and where most of my “expert” opinions live.

This blog is the rest of it. The everyday, unfiltered version — navigating the school system as a foreign-born long-term resident, choosing sports and tuition for three very different kids, the small identity questions that pop up mid-football-practice and don’t really have a tidy answer.

I don’t have this figured out. I don’t think anyone raising kids across two cultures does. But twelve years in, I’ve got stories, and I’d rather tell them honestly than pretend we’ve got it all sorted.

So — welcome to Almost Local.