Characteristics of Expat Parents - Just Another Blog By BrnoExpatMom

Being a parent is already hard enough, but parenting your cute, precious little energy bombs in a foreign country brings a little extra to the situation, of course the great things outweigh the bad, at least that is what we think so far.
I searched online information about how the expat parenting is done, what are the common traits of expat communities and, particularly, how to the parents living in foreign countries are different from those who live in their native country.  I strongly believe the expat parenting has some peculiarities that are more prominent, we are a different segment of society groups and even if we prefer the global type of thinking and living, our behavior as parents is strongly shaped by the socio-economic context of the country we chose to relocate to. As not much information is available online - for example, statistics or real life opinions about the differences between the two groups, I came up with my own view on this. Far from me to label people - I trust that all parents are doing extremely wonderful jobs, both categories are special and admirable groups, but today's post is about the special traits of the expat group, because that is the one we belong to.

So, what are the few characteristics of expat parents? Here are my thoughts:

1. Expat parents are more aware and responsible - don't get me wrong ALL parents are aware, responsible and maybe is wrong that I label the expat ones as being more responsible, but someone has to say it. We know we are the only ones around our children and do our best to fulfill our roles with maximum development and responsibility. If I were to see this trait as negative one, I would say, we expats tend to stress more about this child raising activity...

2. Expat parents spend more time outdoors - the reason why, is simple, at least in my opinion - we don't have anyone to go & ask to help us with the kids, so spending time outdoors is the only way to keep us all from going completely nuts

3. Expat parents tend to raise children according to the attachment parenting approach - while this approach is a commonly adopted nowdays by most parents, I think the expat ones are more in tune to this type of parenting

4. Expat parents tend to restrict more / completely the screen time and access to smart devices to their kids, at least in the early childhood period - this goes without saying, derives from the obvious characteristics at points 1, 2 & 3 above

5. Expat parents tend to be tad  more optimistic & thankful about life in general - we are happy and thankful for all we have, we learned to appreciate the little things.

While these characteristics do belong to all parents, my opinion is that in the expat community they are much more defined, expressed and present.



Dear expat parents, please correct and add your thoughts on this topic. What are your opinions?

Thank you - blogger platform - for allowing me the liberty to ramble my own opinions freely here, to the delight of my beloved audience.






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