I often wonder what my kids are going to be like when they grow up, as most moms and dads do. But I wonder two things the most: is the lack of having definitive "roots" going to affect my children for the worse or for the better and since they're being raised as these professional travelers, will they find it hard to assimilate into every-day society once they grow up?
I am not raising my children the same way that I was raised--where the family (immediate and extended) lived only as far as Baton Rouge or, at worst, North Carolina. I'm raising my children completely independent of my previous life. Sure, we see my parents and in-laws, brothers and sisters, neices and nephews once a year or so if we're lucky; but they aren't able to participate in the Good Friday crawfish boils and Easter Sunday egg hunts at Granny and Grandpa's like I did growing up. And I truly hate that. Truly. But I keep telling myself that I'm giving them something--not better per se, but something --that most parents are not able to give their children: the chance to be true citizens of the world.
I love meeting people in this life (the Foreign Service life) and hearing their stories. I've had colleagues who lived in Lesotho, Africa, during the start of the AIDS crisis, in Guyana in the ER when there were three people to a bed, etc. (I never said they were all good stories.) I love that my kids have different names for things: they call french fries "papas fritas" and peanut butter "mani" and talk about doing things "properly" instead of "correctly" (the way Americans would say it). At this point, my children are 1/3 American, 1/3 Guayaquileno, and 1/3 Canadian Kanuck lol. I'm not ashamed that my littlest guy speaks more Spanish than he does English at this point because all of these things are opportunities and quirks that make my little family different. I sit back and I am amazed at where our choices have taken us these past five years. I fantasize and worry about where our choices will take us in the next five. I wonder if we can handle it, not only together as a family, but also as individuals.
I worry about the fact that my children are going to have to change schools every single two to three years of their lives. But I also marvel at the fact that they're going to have lived in a minimum of six countries by the time they're eighteen years old. My oldest child is already learning his third language, and he's four years old. I mean, that's incredibly cool. It's amazing really. But is he going to be able to function in a group of his peers when he's going through puberty? Only time will tell. I just hope that in the future my hubby and I will still be as sure of the choices we've made as we are right now.
I am not raising my children the same way that I was raised--where the family (immediate and extended) lived only as far as Baton Rouge or, at worst, North Carolina. I'm raising my children completely independent of my previous life. Sure, we see my parents and in-laws, brothers and sisters, neices and nephews once a year or so if we're lucky; but they aren't able to participate in the Good Friday crawfish boils and Easter Sunday egg hunts at Granny and Grandpa's like I did growing up. And I truly hate that. Truly. But I keep telling myself that I'm giving them something--not better per se, but something --that most parents are not able to give their children: the chance to be true citizens of the world.
I love meeting people in this life (the Foreign Service life) and hearing their stories. I've had colleagues who lived in Lesotho, Africa, during the start of the AIDS crisis, in Guyana in the ER when there were three people to a bed, etc. (I never said they were all good stories.) I love that my kids have different names for things: they call french fries "papas fritas" and peanut butter "mani" and talk about doing things "properly" instead of "correctly" (the way Americans would say it). At this point, my children are 1/3 American, 1/3 Guayaquileno, and 1/3 Canadian Kanuck lol. I'm not ashamed that my littlest guy speaks more Spanish than he does English at this point because all of these things are opportunities and quirks that make my little family different. I sit back and I am amazed at where our choices have taken us these past five years. I fantasize and worry about where our choices will take us in the next five. I wonder if we can handle it, not only together as a family, but also as individuals.
I worry about the fact that my children are going to have to change schools every single two to three years of their lives. But I also marvel at the fact that they're going to have lived in a minimum of six countries by the time they're eighteen years old. My oldest child is already learning his third language, and he's four years old. I mean, that's incredibly cool. It's amazing really. But is he going to be able to function in a group of his peers when he's going through puberty? Only time will tell. I just hope that in the future my hubby and I will still be as sure of the choices we've made as we are right now.
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