Two posts in two days, whaaaaat? Am I getting better at blogging? Hopefully haha!
I don't know if everyone saw it, but I posted a poll on my instagram story asking what I should blog about today, and it was so close. "Third Culture kid" won with just a couple of votes, it could've been a tie. For those of you who voted for "toxic relationships and the effect it has on children", don't worry, a post about that will come soon.
What is a third culture kid? According to google the exact definition is "Third culture kids are people raised in a culture other than their parents or the culture of the country named on their passport".
That is exactly how I was raised, and how the majority of my friends grew up. I am forever grateful for that and would like nothing more than for my own children to grow up that way.
The benefits of growing up as a third culture kid
- Getting an understanding of other peoples religion, beliefs and upbringing
- None or extremely small amount of racial judgement but instead open-mindedness and cultural empathy
- Making many friends all over the world
- Receiving an exposure and understanding of several different languages
- Befriending and learning from other people with similar backgrounds but with completely different views.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to blend in
- Having a larger variety of educational opportunities
- Knowing the importance of now and gaining an early maturity
These are the exact reasons to why I would like to expose my son to a childhood of getting to know the world, in the same way that I did. Of course there are challenges to this way of living, just like there are with everything else. Some of the challenges here are; having an ignorance of home culture, not being proficient in their mother tongue, lack of full ownership of any culture and losing many friendships along the way; but in my opinion and experience, none of that way up to the amazing abilities it'll let you achieve. My son is almost 3.5 years old, he's been to three continents and nine countries; and he's about to move to his fourth country, if the three months in Australia count. Hopefully we'll stay at our new destination for a few years longer; at least long enough for Noah and myself to make long lasting friendships and memories, but I am also hopeful that it won't be our last destination yet.
To you third culture babies reading this? Can you relate? Is there anything I missed in this post? Elaborate and let's talk about it!
Here are three adorable throwback photos of Noah from Australia, Sweden and Spain. Is he not the most beautiful little boy?
