Introduction: Hello, I am David, and I live in Frankfurt am Main. I grew up in a place called Würzburg (southeast of Frankfurt), about 1.5 hours from here. I come from a large family – by German standards – as I am one out of four kids. I’ve lived in Germany most of my life, it’s birth that brought me here. However, I’ve spent some time in Eastern Africa (Rwanda) and the U.S. So far, I have one child.

1. First memory you have since becoming a parent…

The birth of my daughter. The first memory I have is hearing her cry when she was born. I couldn’t see her right away because I was behind a curtain (my wife had a C-Section). But after a few moments, I was able to hold her and I was in fact the first of us who knew we were having a girl.

Man, woman and baby in the hospital after woman gave birth via c-section. Everyone is happy and smiling.

3. What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a new father?

I work for a small company and we don’t have an office in Frankfurt and even now that Covid is, for the most part, behind us, I still work 100% from home. Unfortunately, our apartment is small so trying to focus while a small child is playing around you is tough. Sometimes, I also feel guilty having to work while she wants to play.

4. How becoming a parent has changed you…

It’s definitely a life-altering experience. One of the things I was excited about is hanging out on cool playgrounds again without weird looks from other people. I’m definitely spending way more time on playgrounds now than I used to. A lot of things that were easy in the past now require more planning. It’s still possible to have time with friends and go out every once in a while, but it’s not as easy. And it’s even harder to do for my wife and me together, someone has to be home after all. There’s also a shift in the people you spend time with since a lot of free-time activities suitable for little kids naturally attract more families than a bar on Saturday evening. No regrets though, spending time at a Zoo can be a lot of fun and is definitely healthier than drinks at 2 AM.

Dad holding his small daughter in a baby carrier while they look up at each other.

Cascais, Portugal

Man holding his daughter up in the air, both are laughing and enjoying the moment.

Lisbon, Portugal

6. What advice do you have for fellow new expat parents?

The day or night of birth is really exhausting. As far as I’m concerned, one of the most exhausting things I’ve done in my life, and I just watched. You just don’t know how long it’s going to take and if you’re someone like me, who doesn’t run well on too little sleep, brace yourself, this will be tough. In our case, the first sign that things were going to start came around 4AM, but we didn’t even head to the hospital (the first time) until 10PM, 18 hours later. So there’s a lot of time to kill while you’re already nervous but things are still fairly easy going. Use that time wisely and get as much rest as you can.

7.  Favorite resource for families in Germany?

The Eltern Hub, of course 🙂 Apart from that, I found group meetings with other parents really helpful. I definitely recommend taking a birth preparation class. Some of the exercises we learned there really helped us make birth easier and know better what to expect. We’ve also met our first parent-friends there.  There are also play-groups (e.g. MoniKaffee), that provides a nice environment to play for the kids and a good opportunity to connect with other parents. I also recommend searching the internet for terms like “Ausflüge mit Kindern in” plus the name of the place where you are or going to. That translates to “excursions with kids in ” and will usually give you some nice results for fun things to do in the area.

childbirth in Germanyexpat families abroad