Children can be a common excuse for not moving abroad, but they are not a very good one. Ieuan, my three-year-old son, was born in a Hong Kong government hospital. The first words he heard were probably Cantonese. By the time he was one year old he had visited China, Macao and the UK and changed his place of residence to Turkey. He took his parents on all his trips, despite their concerns.
He loves to travel. He gets to see, taste, smell and poke an incredible number of new things. Ieuan prefers to eat spicy food, rather than the bland European variety his parents were raised on and thinks there is nothing special in having Chinese, Indian or Turkish food placed in front of him; to him it is all traditional food.
Travel to Ieuan is normal. He is used to hearing foreign languages, smelling new scents, tasting strange foods and seeing exotic sights. But a new experience can still be frightening. When Ieuan first arrived in the UK (aged eight months) he hated grass, he was more used to the concrete of Hong Kong and found the pointy green blades made his legs itch. For a few weeks Ieuan was dubious about anything green; whenever he passed under a tree he eyed it warily from the safety of my arms.
A child needs to feel secure before appreciating and enjoying new situations. The first few days, or even weeks, are not the time to insist an older child venture out into a new country alone and younger children may not sleep well and suffer from separation anxiety. If you moved from rural New York state to downtown New York it would take your child a while to settle, so of course it will happen in a foreign country; but it can become your true home if you make it so.
Making A New Home Overseas
Children need to know where their home is. If parents refer to home as thousands of miles away back in North America, then your new country of residence will only ever be temporary accommodation and not a real home; children need to know they are staying somewhere permanently before they will ever settle and call it home. When a family moves overseas to live, it is important for the children that the new residence is made into a home. By taking as many favorite personal items with you as you can, your children will know they are staying in the new accommodation, not just passing through. Ieuan considers the following items essential to make him feel at home:
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