BEST THINGS FOR YOUR KIDS ‘ RAISING ABROAD’
BEST THINGS FOR YOUR KIDS ‘ RAISING ABROAD’
The toughest step is the first one. My four-member American family moved to London in 2011 after months of preparation from New York City. The list of responsibilities we had was never-ending: storage, bank accounts, taxes, schools.The following step is, however, always simpler. A year later, moving to Singapore from London was simple: purchasing one-way tickets, booking an online apartment, and switching SIM cards. After five years, we’ve evolved from expats to “perma-pats,” joining the approximately 9 million Americans who have left the country in search of opportunity, many of whom have no desire to return home. Mini sabbaticals in Berlin, Dubai, and San Francisco are on our itinerary. Every year or two, we want to move to a new city.
It has become impossible to imagine our two kids growing up any other way. My seven-year-old daughter recently announced her chosen career path as “explorer.” Having already notched 60 trips to 30 countries, it’s not clear that she’ll ever live anywhere for long. Our five-year-old son loves being on the move, too: He gets to see different cars and trucks in each city. Together, they are practically the poster children for the Samsonite scooter suitcases they ride as they whiz around airports. Taking trips to Thailand, Laos, and China is the norm for our kids. They’ve become bilingual in Hindi and English at home and learn Mandarin in the classroom. No student graduates from an international school in Singapore speaking fewer than three languages.
This is my plan to keep my kids from getting outsourced or automated. They’ll be multilingual. They’ll have global street smarts. They will prize mobility over sedentary nationality.
But they will still be as American as apple pie. The international culture they’re immersed in is dominated by American English and pop music. In a way, the more they move around, the more the common denominator remains being American—a global American. Or, in this age of cities driving the world forward, my daughter considers herself first and foremost a “New York-ista.”
The world is fraught with political populism and talk of borders going up. Don’t believe it. Today, every country in the world is capitalist. Dozens of countries are modernizing and offering world-class infrastructure and safe and healthy lifestyles. Around the world, globalization is marching forward on the shoulders of pragmatic governments strategizing for seamless connectivity to trade partners and markets—no matter what some politicians might say.
BEST THINGS FOR YOUR KIDS ‘ RAISING ABROAD’
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