Moving Overseas With Kids - A Family Travel Guide

Resources and Advice For Living Abroad With Your Children

Some of the best advice for parents comes from adult Third Culture Kid's (TCK) who insist that they just needed to be heard in relation to not wanting to move.

Although they may not have been able to stop a move, they would at least liked to have been able to express their dissatisfaction and know they were really heard and listened too.

It is very important for children to be able to say goodbye to one place before arriving in another, in fact many people feel that if you don't say goodbye properly you'll start off on the wrong foot in the next location. This applies equally when you leave your home country for the first time but also when you are moving from country to country or indeed back to your passport country.

It is very important to allow children time to meet friends and say goodbye, even to perhaps make a memory gift to pass to them. Gather items that represent your time in the country you are leaving to remember it by. Ensure that you allow a time for sadness and sorrow but with the happy expectations of a new adventure to come.

An analogy often used with TCK's is that they are people coming from yellow land. In yellow land all the people are yellow; they think yellow thoughts and do yellow things. When they move to blue land, everything is blue; the people think blue thoughts and do blue things. It is hard to adjust because you are so yellow! However, after a while, you start to understand and learn about blue things and blue thoughts and the things the blue people do! After a while you turn green-you are a combination of the two cultures. Once you return to yellow land, things are not quite the same again for you are now green.

All in all, the life of a Third Culture Kid is a beneficial one for most people : learning to respect others cultures and religions, exposure to languages and an ability to adapt to difficult situations opens many doors later in life -something that any TCK would appreciate! Moving overseas with kids is a wonderful adventure for your family.

Tips For Moving Overseas With Kids

Do let your child express his/her feelings Do acknowledge their frustrations/anger

Do research the country you are moving to with your child

Do let your child say goodbye properly to the place you are leaving

Do expect an adjustment period when your child has mixed emotions

Do keep traditions from home alive in your new home

Do maintain regular ties with family back "home"

Do bring items (e.g. framed pictures) and put them in each home you live in a similar place

Do involve your child with any decisions that may affect him/her if possible

Do get your children a copy of

Sammy's Next Move. This book features Sammy The Snail who moves abroad with his family.

Moving Overseas With Kids, Ideas For Your Family

Maintain ties to your passport country. Keeping contact with family through letters, email and parcels or other items from your passport country. Grandparents can record stories on tape for younger ones so they can still read to them at night! Celebrate the festivals and things you would in your home country-share these things with your new host countrymen.

Keep traditions in your family alive by maintaining routines. If every Saturday was movie and popcorn night before, continue it in your new country. If you hung framed photos of the kids in the doorway put them up in a similar place in your new home.

Sammy's Next Move is about an adventurous young snail who travels the world with his family. Your children will learn to face their fears of moving to a new country as they read about his journeys. Order your children a copy of Sammy's Next Move.

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