I am considering moving there with a 1 and a half year old and I will possibly have another one on the way by then.

I don’t understand much about how maternity benefits work and could use some help from someone:

- is there any maternity leave past the 16 weeks? Or do mothers generally go back to work when the child is 2-3 months old?

- is there the option of free daycare or is everything paid?

-if both parents work what do you do during kids’ vacation time?

- is it possible to live with two minimum incomes, rent of 1000 eur per month and two kids?

Where I live now we have paid maternity leave until the child is two, then the option of (almost) free daycare once he’s two. So I would be very interested to know what the dutch way of having and raising kids is. I do know they are said to be the happiest kids in the world :)