Can you be alone?

At some point of your life you probably came across situations when you had to be alone, either because your partner was travelling; your children were at their grandparents house and many others. To some these situations can be dealt with no problem, but to others much harder. In these moments we can feel lost, not knowing what to do and often even bothered by this feeling. Of course it all depends on your age and the situation you are in, but overall this requires some reflection.

Leisure on the expat's life!

Whether are men or women, single or married at some point on the your process of adaptation in a new country you'll feel the pressure imposed by family, friends and often by ourselves!

Parenting taboos!

Talking about sexuality, drugs, physical and psychological violence, gender and death are still taboos in our society. However these subjects are progressively being treated with more respect and freedom.

Live among other cultures!

One of the great blessings and challenges of leaving our country of origin is living with people from different cultures. However, this is not an easy task for anyone; requires patience and the ability of knowing how to respect the habits and characteristics of other people.

Challenges of an expat partner!

Contrary to what many people may think to be an expat partner has its ups and downs. Moving to another country is an adventure for the whole life. It’s scary, exciting, intimidating and inspiring in equal measure. There are ups and downs in every moment of planning, packaging and moving.

Respect for the rhythm !

                                                                           Photo by @sysmstudio

In some situations we use to say children are slow…slow to eat, to dress, to walk, to obey and many others. But are they indeed slow ? And compared to what?

Betty & Cat: a bilingual book to kids!

As I wrote in others posts, one of the biggest challenges that families with children have is bilingualism. As I mentioned in this post, there are some strategies that you can follow to make this process easier. But to illustrate one of those strategies I am going to share a book that I got to know a few weeks ago and I feel in love with.

Bilingual children and the value of languages!

As I wrote in the post "raising children in another culture," raising children in another culture involves many changes and challenges for both parents and children. A frequent concern of parents is bilingualism, but not only about possible language difficulties with the use of two languages, but how to make the child or even the teenager value this new language and realize the benefits that this new language brings and the cultures it gives access to.

Family Migration: Talking about Losses!

In this week's post I continue to treat the issues concerning family migration. If you haven't seen any of the posts yet, I invite you to read old posts, ‘Third Culture Kids' and ‘Raising children in another culture. 

If like me you went to live in another country, or even have friends and relatives who went living abroad for whatever reasons, know that you're not the only one. Since the 1980s more and more men, women and whole families have left their country of origin.  The US, Canada and Japan are the most sought after countries.

Raising children in another culture!

As I wrote in other posts, leaving your home country involves many gains and losses. Most of these will not be so noticeable and it may take you some time to get everything in perspective. 

When a family with children, whether they are small or not, leaves its country of origin, it also affects the pros/cons and new challenges appear.

So Where’s Home?

Continuing the POLH theme (I suggest reading that post), I'd like to share a short documentary by a Georgetown University student with you.

The documentary explores the different perspectives and construction of the personal identity of the so-called 'Third Culture Kids', people who have spent a significant part of their development years outside their country's culture.