Our discussion this week is all about TCK friendships. This topic can be a tough one, but it's oh so important for the health and happiness of our kiddos in their life overseas.
In this episode we break down the discussion into the Early Years, the Middle Years (aka "The Hay Day of School Age Kids"), and then on into the Tween and Teen Years. We talk about things we have done to help our kids develop friendships, our successes and failures, how our perspectives have shifted over the years, and what it looks like to be proactive in creating opportunities for our kids to find friendship.
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I remember standing on my balcony in Cambodia when I was younger, the streets bustling with life below, and watching the sunset take over the sky with such theatrical colors of warm pinks, peaches and gold. It was so brilliant. Too brilliant, perhaps.
In the USA, people like to bask in that brilliance, you know? Get a nice, golden tan. Where I grew up, people shielded themselves from that same brilliance (well, those who could afford to). The Cambodian sun is hot, brutal, and unforgiving.
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When I was in college, I lost my passport.
At the time, I studying in the States and my parents were living in Kenya and I was scheduled to fly there for Christmas a few short weeks later. Honestly, looking back now, my parents were way too nice about this, and we got an expedited new one that arrived in time for me to still be able to go. I probably was not as stressed as I should have been about getting the replacement (nor felt as guilty as I should have about losing it in the first place), but I did feel the loss of that passport – the actual object itself – deeply.
Read MoreI don’t know about you, but I find it very hard to believe that Elf has been around since 2003. It quickly became one of the Christmas movie classics — right up there with Home Alone, The Santa Claus, and It’s a Wonderful Life. I know I don’t need to convince you to watch that movie (as if you haven’t watched it more than a few times this month alone). But, like any movie that’s watched over and over again because it never gets old, I began to pick up on details I didn’t notice the first two dozen times.
This year, as I sat and watched Elf with my children, I couldn’t help but relate to Buddy on a whole new level. Why was I feeling so seen and understood by this movie? Then it hit me — Buddy is an expat. Even more than that, Buddy is an adult Third Culture Kid.
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