Raising your kids abroad...

[aurays]

It seems like nowadays a lot of parents are moving to other countries because of work, and their children are dragged to new places with different cultures and languages, many times on short notice.

I wanted to hear your experiences if you had similar situations before.

Also, opinions on the best way to make sure that the first few weeks after the movement are not too stressful for the children and how to prepare them for the big change in their lives.

 

[akmom]

I never moved overseas, but my dad had a new job every few years. I didn't care for it. I think it could have gone better if my parents weren't so reclusive. Some years they homeschooled us rather than keep registering us at new schools. Ugh, that was the worst.

I think one of the worst parts was that my parents always scrimped on housing. They couldn't justify buying a home for a temporary job, so they'd settle for cheapest, most awful little places to live! They didn't think it mattered because we wouldn't be there long. But when home is all you've got, it's worth having a decent one. My best childhood memories were when we lived in houses with yards to play!

 

[aurays]

Thanks for sharing your story, I guess it's difficult to find the right balance between what is easy and what should be done for the kids. Especially because many things you probably don't see like they are important but they can be for the kid and stick to their minds for years.

 

[page16]

When I was a kid, I moved around a lot. Nearly every year, we were in a different school.My birthday is the beginning of September and it was the habit for kids to bring candy to school and share it with the classmates when it was your birthday. I remember going to school with a bag full of candy and thinking wth? I'm so not going to share my candy with a bunch of kids I don't know, so I kept it all to myself, it took me days to eat it all.
I was a loner and didn't feel the need to get to know the kids in school, so I mostly stuck to myself throughout childhood.
At one point, we moved to a different country. The awful part was the language and understanding what everyone was talking about. While the language there was closely related to my own, many words were different, and especially the accents. Half of the time I was clueless. One time I was very thirsty and asked for some water. The teacher didn't understand what I was asking. I went and got my sister and she tried it, no luck either. It wasn't easy overall from what I remember.

 

[aurays]

Very interesting story page16! I really liked to hear how even with a similar language you still had big difficulties at school. Did your parents see how hard it was sometimes for you to get to know other kids and to get along in school?

 

[page16]

I don't think they did. It's a bit of a long story, but no, I doubt that they noticed. School was considered a necessary evil, it was considered that way by us (kids) as well as by our parents themselves so neither them or us cared much about how things were going in school

 

[aurays]

Hmmm, too bad. I guess things could have gone differently.

 

[Hassty]

My parents moved a lot and my brother and I too. My brother changed fewer countries and cities than my parents and I, but he also remembers how awful it was to explain in poor English that you came from Germany, but no, you know German even worse, because you are Poles. As a result, I learned English, then German and Polish, but only thanks to the fact that I entered college at the faculty of translation. Here https://theroomrooms.com/ you can read in more detail about what this profession can give you in terms of career development prospects.

 

[nellie]

First of all, kids will need all the support that can be provided both by parents and by society. I've written a dissertation methodology paper on this problem and you can read it.

 

[MilkyF]

As for me, I think that it is a big stress for a kid to change his/her place of living. It means to start a new life almost

 

[RandyGold]

That is not bad that the child learns the new language and the new culture. They are very adaptive

 

[Klissop]

I grew up in a bilingual family and I have always liked that I understand both my parents' languages equally well. This really helps in the further learning of new languages and opens up more opportunities for the child. For example, I didn't know English until I was 22. When I was offered a job abroad, I strongly doubted that I can handle it, but decided to take a chance. Now I know English well, but still, there are really many words, phrases, slang that are unknown to me. I'm working on this. For example, by reading the latest articles on world events and watching informative videos in this application for a mobile device. I'm sure that my free time isn't wasted because I see progress and vocabulary expansion.