Father's Day!High time to put all dads in the spotlight!

“Together with my girlfriend Margot, daughter Zephyr (almost 4), and son Arlo (8 months old), I live in Haarlem. We've been living here for almost 2 years now and it's great: Haarlem is a great city and yet we are still close to Amsterdam, with the forests and beach just around the corner too.''

''In addition to being a father, I'm also the Marketing Manager for a company that inspires people to live more sustainably. Margot is COO for a well-known lingerie brand. Fairly busy jobs, so it's great when you have a babysitting service like Charly Cares to fall back on.”

“At the moment, I work from home a lot, only spending about 1 to 2 days a week at the office. Ultimately, I want to spend about 3 days at the office and 2 days working from home; that would be the perfect combination. Instead of spending time commuting, I now have time to bring the kids to or pick them up from daycare, and the mornings are a lot more relaxed.

Our work allows us to have a good balance between that and raising our children. With the working from home, it's now easy to combine the two. We are usually not in a rush. With exceptions, because sometimes you have those mornings where you are just constantly in a hurry: feeding, changing diapers, getting dressed, tidying; until a cup falls over or another one spits something up and everything starts all over again.”

“When not at work, I try to be outside as often as possible. I love all kinds of different sports: surfing, running, swimming, cycling. Nothing better than finding a trail and going for a run through the forest on a sunny day. Sometimes I'll bring Arlo in the pram, a better combo simply does not exist! But I do really prefer to do things like that together with Margot. Unfortunately, that can be difficult with two kids. Charly Cares really offers a solution in that case! With our busy jobs and the occasional time we take for us together, it is always nice to have a babysitter on hand.”

“In addition to time for each other, we also find having the occasional moment to ourselves very important. Margot and I will often discuss it beforehand and leave each other free to make arrangements. If necessary, the grandfathers and grandmothers are also regularly available to jump into the breach.”

“The best moments of the day are the moments I can spend outside with the kids. Going to the playground or the beach together, cycling with the electric cargo bike: I love it! Margot and I will sometimes take turns going for a run in the dunes and then the other one will follow on the electric cargo bike. Zephyr will really encourage you, super sweet. Afterwards, we'll treat ourselves to a nice cappuccino at a good cafe and some cake for the kids. Or we'll have lunch on the beach!”

“Fun fact? I like to cook and do so regularly. We eat almost exclusively vegetarian meals and my favourite cookbook at the moment is Simple by Ottolenghi. I try to get Zephyr to eat with us, with varying degrees of success, she is going through a stubborn phase at the moment. Arlo, on the other hands, is a beast, he will eat anything you put in front of him. We usually make our own baby snacks for the whole week using a steamer.”

“But it's great that, with Charly Cares, you get the opportunity to get acquainted beforehand, which makes it so you have to be less nervous about the actual first booking. I think it's important that a babysitter is confident and experienced, as that makes it easier for us to trust them to handle the care of the children. We also think it's important that they are nice to the kids and that they genuinely like to babysit, you can sense that and they show it. Lastly, trust needs to grow, but the Babysitting Angel who visited us was very caring and sweet to the kids, so it immediately felt right.”