The Series: Raising an Expat Kid in China

This is the second in a series of articles, here you find the first: Raising an Expat Kid in China: Who is a Third Culture Kid?. The next two articles will explore: Children during the grade school years, and how teenagers adapt as third culture kids and their thoughts on going to school in China vs. their home country.

This series is written with the voice of TCK adults, expat parents, children, and young adults all currently or recently living in China.

If you make a conscious decision to become an expat anywhere in the world, it’s best to adopt the philosophy, “embracing where you live”. You and your children will get so much more out of the incredible experience of living abroad if you do!

Let’s get started!

Having a baby is stressful!

Don’t get me wrong, it’s probably the most memorable experience in a parent’s life. Have you ever noticed how soon-to-be parents seem to glow when they’re expecting? They kind of seem like they are floating around on a cloud of bliss.

But still, it’s full of huge decisions that could influence you and your baby’s health. Luckily, you have have family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, and a few random strangers that can all tell you how wonderful their obstetrician was, and where they bought the “must have” stroller. [Read more…]

“Imagine there’s no countries…it’s easy if you try…”

These are the words of self-described dreamer and world traveler John Lennon; but also a reality for every child, because for them, there aren’t any countries, there is only their world, and their surroundings. They learn from birth through their own experiences, their parental upbringing, their extended family, from their lessons and teachers at school, their society’s rules and morals, and their peer groups to identify themselves as (insert nation here).

But imagine your child’s school has an international or foreign curriculum. Imagine that the society that surrounds them is totally foreign. Imagine that their peer group doesn’t have a single child that is from the same country as them. When parents decide to live in a another country they don’t have to imagine these situations, they must deal with the reality of raising a “Third Culture Kid”.

“Third Culture Kids”

Third Culture Kids, or TCK, the term for children that grow up in a foreign land, was first put forth by David Pollock and Ruth Van Reken in their book Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds. Pollock and VanReken offer a wealth of data, stories, and information on a variety of different types of TCKs, and there is a lot of data! [Read more…]