It’s been a while, but here’s my latest collection of recommended reading – posts connected to international life that I think are worth a second look. This catches me up on most of my list of saved posts “to read later” from August – bring on the September reading!

Dear Expat Parent
The Culture Blend
Yet another great post for expat parents – this one an encouragement that you aren’t alone! Other parents also struggle with the added complications that international life brings to the parenting journey. Includes some great short-and-sweet advice, like “your normal is not their normal” and the encouragement that kids get “something rich” from their expat life.

Want your children to grow into more empathetic adults? Travel with them
Quartz
Great article written by an ATCK looking at research and talking to experts about how international travel and cross-cultural experience (even domestically) can affect a child. The conclusion that such experiences deepen empathy reflect something that came up in my own research – Misunderstood includes a sub-section specifically about empathy.

Daybreak
A not so Turkish Life
Beautiful reflections from a mother of young bicultural kids. I really appreciate her perspective on what their lives will be as she looks ahead to their family’s future. She recognises that she and her partner have different cultural experiences to their children, and is already thinking about how to bridge the gap (as I would call it):
“…emotionally we’ll both be out of their loop unless we make a real conscious effort to be in it. We won’t have felt what it is to be a bilingual teenager splitting their life between two different worlds; we won’t understand how that influences decisions, dreams, plans & personalities until we see the boys doing it themselves.”

Suitcase Habits
TCKay Rambles
I enjoyed this little post about a TCK and her “suitcase habits” – I saw reflections of my own relationship with luggage! I think most frequent travellers have their own tips and strategies and even subconscious connections with bags.

Identities at once
Yukiko and a book
In this lovely personal piece a TCK considers the construction of identity – that it is something shaped by experience and not just handed over at birth. I love this conclusion: “I’ve accepted that simple identity arithmetic is just too simple to be totally representative.” The other line that really grabbed me concerned education – what it means to be schooled in another country/culture’s education system: “I was taught stories and histories which were not my own”. Great thoughts.

Dear Nairobi
Hannah Ras
I love this poem, written by an ATCK who grew up as an MK in Tanzania and Kenya. Her poem reflects something I heard in many interviews – feelings about places which sounded like feelings about people. In this poem, Hannah speaks to Nairobi as to a person, expressing her loyalty to another, and eventual openness to a new “relationship”.

Hello Goodbye
Bunny and Jules
This is raw (with a little language in that vein) but beautiful. This is a TCK heart laid open, along with the connection of people-like-me, and the power of storytelling. Love it.

The Loneliness of the Modern Nomad
Greater Good
Kira’s review of Melody Warnick’s book “This Is Where You Belong” is sweet and touching. Kira explains why she is making the change from constant moves to settling in a place – and shares what she has learned about creating belonging.