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Third Culture Mama

Raising bridge-builders

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parenting

Multilingualism

The day they asked me to speak to them in different languages

January 19, 2018January 19, 2018 Third Culture Mama

Some of our family’s best conversations happen around the dinner table. I’ll reassure you, some of our worst happen there too. Dinner in a home of young ones is a […]

Education

World-schooling… without the camper van!

September 9, 2017September 12, 2017 Third Culture Mama

There’s a LOT of buzz in my circles around “world-schooling”.  While definitions differ, most people use the term world-schooling to talk about using the world as your school. World-schooling families […]

Third Culture

When cross-cultural kids are rejected by their own family

June 9, 2017June 9, 2017 Third Culture Mama

From this side of the ocean, I don’t have a chip on my shoulder. Those little moments of laughter or mimicking or side comments are natural and usually not out […]

International Move

10 signs you are (more) at home in your new country… (phew!!)

March 29, 2017March 31, 2017 Third Culture Mama

For quite some time, we will recall the immense strain of our family’s recent move across continents, from Colorado, USA to a village in the Rhône-Alpes in France. The process […]

Motherhood

Why you are unfit to mother, why ADHD doesn’t exist in France (and other BS)

February 6, 2017February 7, 2017 Third Culture Mama

You’ve seen the viral articles on the web. “European vs. American parenting: You may be embarrassed!” “Why African Toddlers Don’t Have Tantrums!” Well intended observations being morphed into gross, shame-on-you […]

Third Culture

Where do I belong? The early years.

January 24, 2017January 26, 2017 Third Culture Mama

Could my young children already be wrestling with their cultural identity? In preschool?? As with many profound reflections, this one came about at the table, where precious friends asked us […]

Transition

Making friends in a new land

October 4, 2016November 1, 2016 Third Culture Mama

It takes time to develop friendships, you know, the non Facebook type. Local folks have often made their own group of trusted friends over the years. Expatriates are usually the […]

Motherhood

Calming the Rage

September 5, 2016 Third Culture Mama

Papa was on a trip again and the endless day had finally come to a close. I watched the clock closely for the first possible chance to begin our bedtime […]

Motherhood

Inside my Tuesday home

February 3, 2016February 3, 2016 Third Culture Mama

It’s Tuesday. Gone is the ambition of Monday. Friday seems so far away. Tuesday is on the way to somewhere and it hasn’t arrived yet. My Tuesday home is surrounded […]

Review

All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes

January 23, 2016January 25, 2016 Third Culture Mama

I jumped right into All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, the fifth of Maya Angelou’s seven part autobiographical series and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In this installment, Angelou writes about […]

Birth

Pregnant! Now what?!

November 26, 2015January 2, 2016 Third Culture Mama

Isn’t it such a great thing that we were given a full 9+ months to prepare for the babies that end up in our arms? Even third time round, it […]

Multilingualism

Language-learning: an alive, natural, changing process

October 23, 2015April 1, 2016 Third Culture Mama

When I first thought about this month’s Multilingual Carnival topic on “lost languages“, I didn’t think we had all that much to share. Our kids are all under four years […]

Travel

When kids aren’t a distraction to your calling…

September 29, 2015September 29, 2015 Third Culture Mama

I plucked up the courage to leave my chaotic and needy small humans to invest into my future at Influence Conf this month. The time away was such a gift […]

Multicultural

“They’re gonna hate you for it”

July 16, 2015July 17, 2015 Third Culture Mama

I have been grateful for so many encouraging comments and emails about traveling with small kids, multilingualism, and cross-cultural living on social media. Then, almost out of nowhere, this one […]

Travel with kids

“H” is for…Humility

June 5, 2015October 21, 2015 Third Culture Mama

“I’m going to China, where are you going, Grammie?” Ayo asked last week as if nothing were. I didn’t think much of it at the time but it really marked […]

Multilingualism

Sibling dynamics in multilingualism

April 27, 2015July 2, 2015 Third Culture Mama

Choosing and implementing a language strategy with your first child is often more straightforward than when the next child comes along. We generally speak more to our first-borns, we spend […]

Third Culture

Good grief.

March 26, 2015March 28, 2015 Third Culture Mama

Late last night, I mustered up the courage to flick through my old blog that accompanied me like a best friend from graduate school, outlasting even my first two real […]

Multicultural

Beautiful multicultural books for children

March 3, 2015June 19, 2015 Third Culture Mama

Take a quick tour of the children’s classics in Anglo-Saxon literature and you will see a glaring predominance of Caucasian protagonists. I don’t feel it is wrong to feature white […]

Schooling

The school question

February 26, 2015June 19, 2015 Third Culture Mama

Over the past couple of years, as parents of older kids discussed preschool, my eyes would glaze over. We have time, and we won’t be living in the United States […]

Motherhood

Be.

January 19, 2015June 19, 2015 Third Culture Mama

You know you are getting older when you get all negative about setting New Year’s resolutions. It’s kind of sad when you lose that youthful trust in humanity and in […]

Spirituality

The time I almost missed Christmas

December 17, 2014December 9, 2016 Third Culture Mama

We all have hopes and longings for our children. We want them to learn to crawl, to walk, to talk. We want them to care for others, to be bridge-builders, […]

Motherhood

Inside the frame

November 5, 2014May 7, 2015 Third Culture Mama

After the kids’ naps, we brought them outside to lounge with us four adults outside on this spectacular October afternoon in the Vallée Verte. My parents, Tall Mountain and I […]

Cultural Reflections

This gift of diversity

September 19, 2014January 16, 2015 Third Culture Mama

How desperately, do I want to teach our kids to be lovers of this world. Interesting then, when it actually came to inviting the so-called ‘world’ into our home (without us […]

Motherhood

Hope for this weary mama

June 30, 2014November 24, 2014 Third Culture Mama

Two lanky girls stumbled into the coffee shop. One following the other. They both wore glasses. Their gait was either demonstrative of high intelligence or the insecurity that comes with […]

Motherhood

Mama thoughts at TWO!

March 24, 2014November 24, 2014 Third Culture Mama

We have a two year old! We once marveled at our infant boy’s mini features, wondering who he would become. Today, we already have glimpses of who this little boy […]

Pregnancy

Pregnancy 2.0

August 15, 2013November 23, 2014 Third Culture Mama

In case you haven’t gathered from various social media sites or missed the subtle change from “child” to “children” in the blog description, I am 21 weeks pregnant with bébé numéro […]

Birth

For the birth geeks!

April 9, 2013April 17, 2013 Third Culture Mama

Here is an interview between Future Midwives of America and Aubre Tompkins (CNM, MSN), who is the clinical director of Mountain Midwifery Center. Aubre explains some of the joys of […]

Birth

Maisons & Maternage

March 2, 2013March 5, 2015 Third Culture Mama

You’d think there would be birth centers all over France. Natural birth advocate Michel Odent, is, after all French! This report on last night’s 8pm TF1 news shows that maisons […]

Bringing up Ayo

August 12, 2012January 29, 2013 Third Culture Mama

You know a book is popular when you are 67th on the library’s waiting list for one of the 60 available copies. After waiting nearly three months to secure my […]

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Blogs I follow

  • A midwife on the Path
  • all mussed up
  • Bringing up Baby Bilingual
  • Carrying Wonder
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  • Libby Stephens
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  • Purple Phoenix Journey
  • Sinosplice
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  • the piri-piri lexicon
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Multicultural Kid Blogs
'Raising multilingual children' blogging carnival
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