Floortje Schuurman is a mother, maker, and thoughtful soul. At 35, she shares her days with four young boys and her husband, in a home where life rarely stands still. Her hands are often full with a skein of yarn, a toddler reaching up, or a snack passed across the room. Still, there is a quiet clarity in the way she moves through it all.
In this edition of A Wildride With, she offers a glimpse into her world. A life shaped not by big milestones but by the gentle repetition of care, craft, and presence.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Floortje. I am mothering my 4 boys Lev (7), Ziggy (5), King (2) and Isaiah (0) together with my loving husband Tom. Interwoven with my daily life with the kids is my business of designing and making clothing.
The main reason why I am able to stay relatively calm and peaceful with my boys is because I can combine my family life so well with my creativity. I always have some sort of crochet/knitting project at hand which instantly gives me so much joy and peace.
What was your wildride?
I already started to write down all our adventures, that on paper might seem pretty wild, but honestly, my wildest ride turns out to be finding happiness in the daily grind. The getting up every morning with the instant chaos of all these kids, the un-specialness of school runs, laundry, groceries, cooking and cleaning. The feeling of an absolute win when I realize I haven’t forgotten anything at home before going to the playground, but also the never ending creative solutions when I did forget something. The being able to still laugh so much with my partner. The deep appreciation for those short moments in the evening when the house is tidied up and quiet again after another day of chaos. Daily grind has definitely been made easy by being able to put the kids in a carrier and having my hands free: think last-minute grocery shopping with hungry, tired and thus whining kids and thank God being able to put the lying-on-the-floor-screaming toddler in a Wildride.
My wildest ride turns out to be finding happiness in the daily grind.
What surprised you most about parenthood?
What most surprises me at the moment is how I experience having four kids, including a newborn, as so much easier as the time where I had only one baby. I think it has a lot to do with having more experience and not feeling so overwhelmed with the ‘newness’ of everything. I also felt so crippled by the fear to damage or traumatize my baby, now I realize they will most probably get their own share of trauma to deal with and this is not something I can control as much as I would like to believe.
What's in your bag?
I don’t leave the house without a knitting or crochet project. A sunscreen from Tallow, which I also use as my regular face cream and I apply regularly during the day when I am outside a lot. My concealer from Charlotte Tilbury, together with an eyebrow pencil, this is the only make-up I regularly wear and I often don’t mind a touch up during the day. There are always some lego pieces or other small kids’ toys scattered through my bag. My hair brush.
What’s your best lifehack for kids?I do my best to make it my main priority to be happy and connected with myself. If I notice I start trying to control the kids to make myself feel better or more at ease, I know it’s time for me to start going inward. Which is not always easy, so full disclosure, there is always Buurman & Buurman as a good last resort to momentarily escape any type of madness, haha.
If you could give one piece of advice to a new parent, what would it be?
Don’t buy into all the feelings of guilt or trying to be perfect. Ultimately what’s best for our kids is for us to just be happy with ourselves. Feeling guilty and not feeling good enough are exactly things that stand in the way of us feeling at peace and content.
Parenthood rarely unfolds in big, defining moments. More often, it’s built from repetition, adjustment, and the quiet tasks that fill a day. A soft pause after a noisy afternoon. A small project returned to between meals. A child soothed by something familiar. These are the quiet details that shape a family. Sometimes, that’s the heart of the wild ride.
