So, picture this: in a quiet apartment building in Amsterdam, the yelling from Annelies and Michiel could be heard all over the hallway. “What’s wrong with you this time?! How much longer?! I’m so tired of this!” Her voice carried through the whole entrance.
Just then Sanne and Matthijs were heading up the stairs. They froze right there, like they’d run into something invisible. For a second their eyes met, and in that quick look no words were needed. Both got it without a sound: better to head out now. They sighed at the same time, turned around and slipped away from the building quietly. No chance they were going back to the apartment that night.
Who’d want to spend the evening stuck listening to parents go at it non-stop? Definitely not them! The twins walked straight over to the next building where their oma Catharina lived. Lately her place had turned into their real refuge. What used to be just weekend visits had become almost every single night.
Things at home had gone completely unbearable. The parents were so caught up in shouting at each other they forgot about everything else. Worst part was they kept trying to pull the kids right into the middle of it.
One minute Annelies would spin around to Sanne and demand, “Tell me I’m right, you agree with me, don’t you?”
The next Michiel would jump in on Matthijs without waiting, “No, I’m the one who’s right here! Back me up!”
Sanne and Matthijs stayed silent. They didn’t want to pick a side or get dragged into the endless mess. They just wanted some quiet, some calm and warmth, the kind they always found at oma’s.
These scenes played out every single day, like a broken record nobody could bring themselves to stop. The kids had learned to spot the early signs from far off. The tone in a voice, the way someone moved too sharply, those quick glances between the parents, all of it screamed time to leave. Who wants to grow up in that constant edge where any normal talk can flip into a full-blown row in seconds?
The twins couldn’t wrap their heads around what had kicked off this whole disaster. Their family had never been picture-perfect, not like in some ad, but the parents used to know how to work things out. Fights happened now and then, sure, but they wrapped up with actual conversations. Mom might look annoyed, dad might get a little loud, but half an hour later everything was smoothed over. Everyone would sit down again, have a cup of tea and chat about weekend plans.
Then about two years back it all shifted. It felt like someone had quietly swapped the old parents for these new versions who found reasons to argue in the tiniest everyday stuff. A dirty mug left on the table? A whole speech about not paying attention or showing respect. A shirt hung on the wrong hook? Sharp digs about keeping the house in order. A teaspoon forgotten in the sink? Almost like a crime that deserved a long lecture!
One evening Sanne sat in oma’s kitchen, stirring her tea without really thinking. She watched the amber swirls in the cup for a long time before she asked with real sadness in her voice, “How does it even happen like this, oma? Everything changed after their vacation together. What went on there?”
Oma Catharina paused for a moment, set her cup on the saucer and softly ran her hand over Sanne’s arm. She only had guesses about what caused the family trouble, and those guesses didn’t make her happy at all.
“The grown-ups will figure it out themselves,” she answered gently, keeping her voice steady. “Sometimes people just need time to see the right way forward.”
Sanne nodded, but doubt stayed clear in her eyes. She knew oma was keeping something back, yet she didn’t push. What was the point if they still treated her like a child and wouldn’t share anything serious?
“We can’t stand these fights anymore!” Matthijs burst out with frustration in his voice. “Can’t get homework done right, can’t even read a book in peace! I can’t even remember the last time we all sat at the table together. If it’s this hard for them to be around each other, they should just split up, it’ll be easier for everyone!”
The words came out on their own, but they carried the truth of the last months. Matthijs spoke for both of them, he knew his sister felt exactly the same. There hadn’t been any real quiet at home for ages: either mom would snap something or dad would answer back irritated, and straight away another argument would start with nowhere to duck out of the way.
“Matthijs…” oma sounded thrown off. She set her knitting aside, looked straight at her grandson and slowly shook her head. “Have you thought about what happens if they do split up? You’d have to be divided. Are you ready to live apart from Sanne?”
“We’ll live with you!” Sanne said at once, giving oma those pleading eyes. “We’re already here almost all the time anyway! You wouldn’t mind, would you?”
Oma Catharina stayed still for a bit. She understood exactly how the grandkids felt, saw how heavy it all was for them and how worn out they were from the constant rows. On one side the kids would be safe here in a calm, friendly spot where they could do schoolwork without any shouting, read books in real quiet and just feel looked after. She loved them more than anything and was ready to wrap them in care.
On the other side, what about their parents? How to explain that the kids no longer wanted to stay at home? Would the parents even agree to it? And if they did, how would it change how they got along with the kids after? Could the whole thing end up causing a total break?
“Let’s not hurry into anything,” she said after a deep breath. “I’m always glad to have you here, you know that. But first let’s try talking things through with your mom and dad. Maybe together we can find a way to sort it all out.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll speak to them ourselves,” Sanne said with real confidence, smiling bright. Oma was nearly there, and that mattered most! “Just please don’t turn us down! We honestly can’t be there anymore! It’ll be better for them living separate, otherwise one day they might actually hurt each other! I saw dad almost swing at mom yesterday… He didn’t hit her, honest! But he was right on the edge.”
Sanne went quiet, the scary moment coming back to her. She’d gone into the kitchen for a glass of water and stopped in the doorway: dad stood half-turned toward mom, his hand shooting up fast, mom instinctively pulling back. A second later he dropped it again, but for Sanne that second had stretched out forever.
“Come on, oma, just say yes!” Matthijs backed his sister up. He moved closer and took oma’s hand like he was scared she’d still refuse. “We’ll help you with the house in every way. Just don’t send us back there. They barely even notice us anymore! Yesterday I went to dad about a parent meeting. You know what he told me? ‘Go ask your mom!’ So I did. Guess what mom said?”
“Go ask your dad?” oma asked softly, already knowing the answer.
“Spot on!” Matthijs gave a bitter little smile. “Then they spent another two hours arguing over who would actually go. Sat in separate rooms yelling down the hallway at each other. And I just stood there listening.”
“I asked them both to sign a form for a museum trip,” Sanne added, eyes down. Her fingers kept twisting the edge of her sleeve. “Now I’m the only one in my class who can’t go. Neither of them signed it. Instead they started fighting all over again, mom shouting it was dad’s job and dad insisting mom should handle school things.”
Oma Catharina watched her grandkids and saw how deeply tired they were. This wasn’t ordinary kid exhaustion, it was the kind that builds up over months when every day feels the same, when there’s no family warmth left, just constant fights instead of any real support, just indifference.
“And it’s always like this,” Matthijs sighed, letting his shoulders drop. His voice sounded worn out, like he’d repeated it hundreds of times already. “Anything we bring up turns straight into a fresh argument. We don’t even want to come home anymore. A couple nights ago we got back at eleven and did they get mad at us? Nope! Just told us to go to bed without even asking where we’d been. Then later they spent ages blaming each other for raising us wrong.”
The teens sighed together again. In the last few months they’d really started wondering if the parents splitting up was the only way out. But the thought of being separated from each other scared them, because that would happen right after any divorce. One of them would end up with mom, the other with dad, and their usual closeness would shrink down to just occasional weekend visits.
They’d go over the different possibilities in whispers at night when they were alone in their room. Once Matthijs joked about just running away, grabbing their bags and heading wherever their feet took them. He said it with a grin to ease the mood, but Sanne took the idea seriously. Her eyes lit up for a second, then she said quietly, “What if we actually did leave? Even just for a couple days…” Right then both of them understood the home situation had gotten so bad that even the thought of running didn’t feel completely crazy anymore.
And that’s when it clicked for them: oma! Why not just move in with her? The thought hit them both at the exact same moment, like they were thinking in sync. Sanne put it into words first: “What if we ask oma if we can live with her? She definitely won’t yell or fight. And we won’t have to listen to those endless arguments…” Matthijs picked it up right away: “Yes! She’s kind and always backs us up. Plus her apartment is big enough, we’d have plenty of space.”
They started picturing what the new life could look like: quiet breakfasts, being able to do homework without any noise, evenings playing board games with oma. No shouting, no blame, no need to hide away in their room just to stay out of the line of fire. For the first time in ages a bit of hope warmed up inside them. Let the parents work out their own problems, the twins would finally get some real peace, that’s what they kept thinking while imagining life at oma’s…
“Mom, dad, we need to have a serious talk,” the twins said firmly, standing right in front of their parents. They’d waited until evening when both were home and walked straight into the living room. Sanne held tight to Matthijs’s hand, it helped her stay steady. “But first you have to promise you’ll listen all the way through before you say anything.”
Michiel looked up from his phone, clearly surprised. Annelies, who had been sorting things on the couch, sat up straight. They both looked like the kids had said something completely out of line.
“This is all your doing with how you raised them!” she snapped, folding her arms. “The kids are already laying down conditions for us! Like we have to answer to them now!”
“And who’s the one talking!” Michiel shot back at once, dropping his phone. “I’m always working to keep this family going. You’ve been with them all the time! So what exactly did you teach them? Why are they the ones giving orders now?”
The twins glanced at each other. They’d expected something like this, the conversation sliding right back into the usual back-and-forth blame. But they couldn’t back off.
“Stop it!” Sanne cried out, her voice close to breaking. She stepped forward and tried to speak clearly and calmly even though everything inside her was shaking. “Matthijs and I have talked it over and we think you two need to get a divorce.”
The room went completely still in an instant. Annelies froze with her mouth half open while Michiel slowly got up from the couch.
“Well that’s some news!” mom’s voice came out sounding dangerous. “Sanne, you’re still way too young to be telling grown-ups how to live their lives! And what else have you two ‘decided’? Maybe split the apartment up for us while you’re at it?”
“If you don’t get divorced we’ll go to child services,” Matthijs said, gripping his sister’s hand hard for strength. His voice stayed steady even though deep down he wasn’t entirely sure he meant every word. “And then, dad, you could lose your job. Your company doesn’t like scandals, right? You’ve said yourself that reputation means everything.”
“And you, mom,” Sanne went on, looking her straight in the eye, “the neighbors will stop respecting you. They won’t even want to talk to you! Everyone already knows how you two yell at each other, and we’ll fill in the rest!”
“They’re threatening us! Just look at them!” Annelies finally managed to get out, moving her gaze from one child to the other. “These are our own kids! How can you treat us like this?”
“We’re not threatening anyone,” Matthijs said quietly but with real certainty. “We just want you to see that living this way isn’t okay. We’re exhausted! Exhausted from all the yelling, from you not really hearing us, from every little request turning into a huge fight.”
“You’ll get divorced and move apart, and we’ll go live with oma,” the twins finished together like they’d gone over it beforehand. “It’ll be better for everyone: us with some peace, you without all the constant fighting. We don’t want to keep being stuck right in the middle between you two.”
The parents just stood there frozen. For the first time in ages they had nothing ready to say back. Normally in talks like this they’d jump straight into arguing, cutting each other off and pointing fingers, but right now both of them seemed struck silent.
Their thirteen-year-old kids were acting in a way nobody expected! Sanne and Matthijs stood side by side holding hands and looked at their parents with steady eyes, no usual shyness left. And they were bringing up serious things the adults had been trying hard not to think about.
The couple had thought about divorce themselves more than once. But they always hit the same wall: who would the kids end up with? Splitting the twins felt impossible, they were so close, always did everything together and backed each other up. The parents couldn’t picture pulling them apart and forcing them into separate houses with visits only on weekends.
The idea of the kids staying with oma had never come up before. Somehow it had never crossed their minds, maybe because both parents were too wrapped up in their own grudges and complaints. But now hearing the suggestion from the kids, Michiel and Annelies found themselves wondering: what if this really was the answer? Oma loved the grandkids, had a big apartment and was always happy to see them… Maybe this could actually fix at least part of the problems?
“I’ll call my mother,” Michiel finally said through his teeth. His voice came out rough, like getting the words out took real effort. “If she agrees…”
He didn’t get to finish. Annelies cut in sharply, and her voice carried such tiredness it even surprised herself:
“Then we can finally stop putting each other through this. Call her. I’ll be glad not to see your face every single day.”
Her words hung there in the air. She hadn’t meant to sound so harsh, but after years of piled-up hurts and letdowns the words just came out on their own.
“And I’ll be thrilled!” Michiel answered, trying to cover up the pain her words caused with a bit of irony.
There wasn’t any real anger in how he said it, just a bitter smile at what their family life had turned into. He pulled out his phone and slowly dialed his mother’s number. While the rings went through, both parents kept looking away from each other, avoiding any eye contact. They still didn’t know where this conversation would take them, but they understood: the point where things couldn’t go back might already be behind them…
That day the Van den Berg family made a decision that changed everything. It all began with a long talk between Michiel and his mother. Oma Catharina listened carefully without interrupting, only asking a few questions here and there to understand better.
When Michiel had finally laid out the whole story, a quiet moment followed. Oma took a deep breath and said, “If you both really believe this will be better for the kids, then I agree. They’ll be safe here with me and I’ll look after them properly.”
By evening the couple met in the kitchen, the first time in a long while without any shouting or throwing old complaints at each other. They sat down across the table and started going over the details. Little by little they came to the same conclusion: divorce was the only sensible step. The kids would move in with oma and the parents would send her money every month to cover their needs.
Still, nobody planned to just leave the kids to fend for themselves. Both mom and dad promised they’d come visit on weekends, but on different days so they wouldn’t run into each other.
“I’ll come by Saturday morning and take them out for a walk, you can come Sunday,” Michiel said tiredly, and his wife-to-be nodded in agreement. “That way it’ll be simpler. The important thing is the kids don’t feel like we’ve abandoned them.”
Their main aim was to cut down contact as much as possible and avoid starting any new fights. They agreed not to talk badly about each other around the kids, not to try winning them over, and not to hash out their issues when the twins were there.
“We’re still their parents,” Michiel said. “And we need to keep being that, even if we’re not married anymore.”
As time went on it turned out the choice worked really well. The kids could finally relax and live like regular teenagers. Sanne joined an art club, something she’d wanted for ages but never had the space for because of all the worry. Matthijs started playing soccer and made new friends on the team. They began spending proper time together again: walking through the city, going to the movies, chatting about school without worrying a fight could erupt at any moment.
Their schoolwork got steadier too. Now they had a calm place to study with no yelling or arguments breaking their focus. Homework got finished without any stress, and that showed straight away in better marks. Teachers even commented, “You’ve really become so focused lately, you two! Keep going like this!”
Bit by bit life settled into a new pattern, not perfect but steady and predictable. The kids stopped hiding away in their room, stopped flinching at loud voices and stopped worrying about every little thing. They just got on with living, the way teenagers should when they’ve managed to find some real support in hard times…
Five years later life for the Van den Berg family moved along steadily and calmly. Sanne and Matthijs had settled into the new rhythm: school, clubs, time with friends and cozy evenings at oma’s. The parents still visited on their separate days, each taking their turn with gifts and attention but without any old complaints. Over those years they’d learned to talk to each other calmly and politely, without the old sudden bursts of anger.
The first time the ex-spouses actually spoke face to face was at the twins’ graduation evening. The school put on a proper celebration and both parents showed up. They kept a careful distance at first, sitting at opposite sides of the hall, but slowly things thawed.
When the dancing started Michiel walked over to Annelies unexpectedly: “Fancy a dance? For old times’ sake.”
She paused for a moment, then nodded.
After the evening they sat together for a long time in the schoolyard watching the new graduates having fun by the fountain. The talk just started naturally, first about the kids then moving on to the past.
They chatted a lot that night, remembering the good parts of their marriage and acting perfectly decent the whole time. They didn’t bring up old hurts, just the nice things that had once tied them together. The twins watched from a distance and couldn’t help feeling glad. Still it hurt to see the two people closest to them treating each other almost like enemies.
But then out of nowhere the very next day Michiel and Annelies asked the kids to meet at a cafe. Over a cup of tea they looked at each other, took each other’s hands and Michiel announced with a big smile, “Kids, your mom and I have been thinking and we’ve decided to get married again. These past years made us realize our feelings never really went away! We still love each other and we want to be a family once more.”
He sounded genuinely happy, like this was the best news he could share. Annelies smiled brightly, clearly hoping for an excited response.
The twins looked at each other, their faces darkening right away. Sanne’s eyes showed clear disbelief while Matthijs clenched his fists under the table. Back on the same old path! What on earth were their parents thinking? Could they really live together without the same old fights?
“Are you serious?” was all Sanne could manage.
“Absolutely,” Michiel answered with full confidence. “We’ve both changed. Learned how to really listen to each other. And we want to give our family another chance.”
The kids stayed quiet. Inside them all kinds of feelings were clashing: part of them wanted to believe the parents had truly changed, but another part feared the same old pain coming back again.
They didn’t try to talk the parents out of it though. They didn’t even comment on the announcement, which left the parents feeling really hurt. Annelies looked at them confused: “Aren’t you happy for us? We thought you’d be glad.”
But the twins just glanced at each other and shrugged. What were they supposed to say? “Don’t do this, you’ll only mess up your lives again”? The words wouldn’t come out. They didn’t want to seem heartless, but they also couldn’t pretend everything was fine.
The rest of the get-together didn’t go smoothly. The parents tried sharing their plans while the kids nodded politely, but their thoughts were clearly elsewhere. On the way home Sanne said quietly to her brother, “I hope they know what they’re doing.”
Matthijs just let out a long sigh in reply…
“So we’re applying to university in Groningen?” Sanne opened her laptop ready to look through the different programs. “Somewhere far from all this craziness. I can already picture how this whole circus is going to turn out!”
“Of course we are,” Matthijs said firmly, and there was a tiredness in his voice that sounded older than his years. He ran a hand through his hair like he was trying to shake off the weight of the last few months. “They might manage to stay peaceful for a month, two at the most. Then it’ll all start up again: the yelling, doors slamming, all the accusations… I don’t want to stay trapped in their relationship anymore. I don’t want to wake up every morning wondering what kind of mood they’re in and which one of us is going to catch the next load of complaints.”
He got up and paced around the room, automatically picking up scattered textbooks. The same thought kept circling in his head: why do adults who are supposed to show wisdom and steadiness end up acting like moody teenagers? Why do they keep stepping on the same mistakes instead of actually fixing things?
“We have to get out of here,” he repeated, stopping by the window. Outside the light was fading slowly, turning the city soft orange. Matthijs stared out like he was trying to catch a glimpse of what was coming next. “Far away. Far enough that their fights can’t reach us anymore. Let them sort themselves out. We’re not their counselors, not their go-betweens, not their punching bags. We’ve got our own lives and our own dreams, and I’m not letting them wreck it all with another round of this parental madness.”
“When are we sending in the applications?” Sanne asked calmly.
“Tomorrow,” Matthijs answered straight away without any hesitation. “That way we won’t have time to second-guess it.”
The girl nodded without a word, eyes still on the screen. Pages from university sites flashed by, she’d spent a whole week checking programs, dorm options and what kind of work might be waiting after graduation. Her notebook next to the laptop was filling up with lists: good and bad points for each choice, what documents they’d need, deadlines and contact details for the admissions teams.
“The main thing is we can study in peace without getting pulled into their drama,” she said quietly, almost like she was wrapping up her own thoughts. “It’s good we’ll be so far away.”
“Exactly,” Matthijs agreed, sitting down beside her. He leaned in a little, reading over the lines on the screen. “And when they start fighting again over who’s to blame we won’t even hear it. Let them call and complain and try to drag us into some ‘family discussion’, we’re done being part of that. And that whole idea of ‘giving the relationship another chance’,” he added with a bitter little smile, “that’s their decision, not ours.”
Annelies and Michiel went ahead with the second wedding anyway. This time they deliberately kept it simple: no big party, they didn’t want the extra cost or the attention and honestly they didn’t feel like anything over the top was needed. It was just a quiet ceremony at the town hall followed by dinner with the closest people, parents, a few friends and the kids.
In the photos from that day they looked genuinely happy. Smiles, holding hands, looking at each other with real warmth. You could see their fingers linked, gentle glances and small touches. It seemed like all the old hurts had been left behind, that the years apart had helped, and that now they knew exactly what they wanted with nothing but good times ahead. Looking at those pictures the kids couldn’t help wondering if maybe this time things really would turn out different.
But no, unfortunately not. The first weeks after the wedding stayed surprisingly calm: the couple tried to be more thoughtful with each other, said thank you more often and stopped picking at small things. Yet slowly the old patterns crept back in. After just a month raised voices were back in their apartment. At first it was quiet but pointed jabs: “You left your stuff lying around again?”, “Why didn’t you tell me you’d be late?”, “You could help out since you’re home anyway.”
Then full arguments broke out. Fights started over nothing: someone left wet towels in the bathroom, someone forgot to pick up bread, someone had the TV too loud… Words got sharper, voices louder and the gaps between fights got shorter.
And after two months, just like Matthijs had predicted, things hit the breaking point. One evening a simple disagreement over who should buy the groceries blew up into a real storm. Michiel lost control and threw a cup against the wall in anger, it smashed with a loud crash and pieces scattered across the kitchen. Annelies, just as furious, grabbed a plate off the table and smashed it down on the floor hard. The sound of breaking dishes rang through the whole apartment.
After scenes like that the parents always ended up calling the kids. Every time it started the same way: one of them would dial while still catching their breath after the fight and immediately unload all the built-up hurt.
“Can you believe what he said to me today?” Annelies would be close to crying when Sanne answered. “He doesn’t even try to understand me!”
“Son, you have to see my side, she has no control over herself at all,” Michiel would tell Matthijs in an upset voice. “I’m doing my best, I really am, but she acts like she’s looking for reasons!”
But Sanne and Matthijs had learned to cut those rants short gently but firmly. They no longer let themselves get pulled into long back-and-forths or try to decide who was right and who was wrong. Their answers stayed short and steady.
“Mom, I’m in class right now, I’ll call you back later,” Sanne would say calmly while checking the time: twenty minutes left before her lecture, but she didn’t want to hear another long complaint.
“Dad, I’ve got urgent work, let’s talk about this on the weekend,” Matthijs would answer without looking away from his laptop. He knew if he let the parent keep talking the call would stretch into an hour and then he’d have to spend even more time calming them down.
“Later” and “on the weekend” always got pushed off. The kids came up with excuses, studies, side jobs, plans with friends, and gradually the calls from the parents became less frequent. Sanne and Matthijs didn’t feel bad about it: they were simply protecting their own peace and time, knowing there was nothing they could do to change what was going on between their mom and dad.
The twins really did have lives of their own now, busy and full and far away from all the parental drama. Each day was built around their own worries, interests and plans instead of waiting for the next fight behind the wall.
Sanne threw herself into studying psychology. She liked learning how people’s minds work, why they do the things they do and how to help someone going through a hard time. In her third year she started volunteering at a center that supported teens from difficult homes. There she ran group sessions, helped the kids put their feelings into words and find ways through tough situations. Sanne saw bits of her own past in those teens and tried to give them what she’d once missed: real attention, support and the feeling that someone was actually listening.
Matthijs found his place in IT. From the very first years he got hooked on programming, the logic of code fascinated him along with the chance to build systems that actually worked and solve tricky technical problems. He spent hours at the computer learning new languages and joining student hackathons. In his fourth year his team came third in a regional competition for mobile app development, which gave him real confidence and showed he was heading in the right direction. Matthijs landed a part-time job at a small IT company where he quickly proved himself as someone reliable and capable. Working on actual projects taught him how to team up with colleagues, manage his time well and come up with solutions when things didn’t go by the book.
The twins started making plans for the future without constantly looking over their shoulders at the parental fights. Sanne dreamed of starting her own practice helping families learn to communicate better. Matthijs was thinking about launching his own business one day. They’d sit in a cafe over tea and talk through ideas, sketch out plans and write everything down in notebooks. In those moments they felt they had solid ground under them. They had a direction. They had a life that was truly their own.
When Annelies and Michiel tried yet again to drag them back into their problems, calling in tears and starting to explain how awful everything was and how they just couldn’t understand each other, the twins answered calmly but without any room for argument. They’d already talked through how to handle the call so they wouldn’t lose their cool or slip back into the old role of mediators.
“Enough, you two, sort this out between yourselves,” Sanne said firmly. “You’ve got your own life and we’ve got ours.”
“But you’re our children!” Annelies sobbed. “You have to support us!”
“If you acted like normal adults instead of little kids we would support you,” Matthijs shot back right away. “You made a mistake getting married again and now you’re still making each other miserable. You can’t live together without fighting, so why keep torturing one another? Just get divorced and go your separate ways already.”
The words might have sounded harsh, but the brother and sister simply wanted to live in peace.
