Before we left for a six-month sabbatical in Buenos Aires, everyone agreed on one thing.
“Kids are resilient,” everyone said. “Throw them with Argentine kids for five minutes and they’ll playing together. Your kids will be fine.”
And my kids were fine, and they are resilient. But did my kids dive into a new culture without any hesitation, just because they are kids?
Um, not so much.
I’m over at Rachel Pieh Jones’ site, Djibouti Jones today, talking about raising Third-Culture Kids–or not. Won’t you join me there?
*Updated with the magic link! Sorry about that!
Better Questions Than “Am I Good Enough?”
This was extremely an interesting read for me… because I am a 3rd culture kid. And I did both of what you did in Buenos Aires with your kids, and what you relegate to a person of “greater strength of character” would do. It struck me odd to have it phrased that way. Because I just did what seemed good at the time on both times – but I highly doubt it has anything to do with what you attribute to: my character. Can’t it just be that it is a different story? I’m sure you wrestled and prayed during that time and felt it the way to go, no? Could it be that it was the process you needed to go through to be where you are today? … I don’t know it just kind of bothered me, because I think you’re pretty authentic. That’s a pretty deep characteristic isn’t it?
Thank you for this insight, Karina. Yes–perhaps I’m being a little hard on myself. It’s hard when expectations don’t match reality, but now, looking back, I did what I needed to do for our family to live there peacefully, period. It was hard, and that’s okay! Wishing I were a different person or my kids were different just isn’t that productive.
Thanks for your pushback 🙂