It’s not just about language! You know how I get on my soap box when it comes to multicultural families. People so often continually ask questions about your kid’s ability to juggle with two (or more) languages; how they talk to you, converse with their school mates or their grandparents or even their siblings – important questions, I agree. But what interests me above all is what do I bring from my childhood, from my home-culture and want my own children to experience, to do and to celebrate? There is definitely not just the language but indeed, cultural heritage as well!
Easter provided us with fantastic lesson on that front. As a Franco-German family living in Britain our holidays took us this year –not as usual back to our families- but to a different country. We took the train to leave the island under the channel, past through many different landscapes in France, to finally exit the train at our final destination: Barcelona. How exciting: a new city to explore, a new language to try, a new gastronomy to savour and last, but not least, alternative weather conditions to experience.

A few weeks prior our trip we talked about how we could possibly celebrate Easter, “far away from home”? I brought from my own Christian childhood memories of the recipe for a lamb-cake and my husband could not imagine having Easter without colouring eggs (which by the way is a hassle in Britain, as most of the eggs are brown!) and both of us love the quantities of chocolate collected during an Easter Egg hunt in the garden. Great, but how can we transfer this to a 30m2 flat in central Barcelona with no oven and no garden? Our parental decision was rapid, as we wanted our children to know what goes on at Easter in both of our home-cultures so we allowed some space for that in our luggage. Continue Reading

In April 2014 I was in the starting blocks for my first interviews with bicultural couples. Now, thirty-something meetings later, I have a massive bunch of stories, quotes and comments. They come straight from the daily life of multicultural parents, highlight their experience and show how diverse and personal their upbringing style is. Bringing Up Children between Cultures is the working title of my book project. You can follow the up and downs of my writing journey, and also read some very exciting insights from the parents themselves on Twitter: #FamBtwCultures
What started as conversations, interviews and meetings with couples and single parents is becoming a book! A book about multicultural parenting, about the pros and cons of raising children between different languages and cultures, about everyday stories that may inspire you and be a starting point for thoughts and conversations with your partner, friends and other families. Continue Reading

I don’t know about you, but at home we have some funny quotes we love to repeat. One of them is “sharing is caring” (with a particular long “aaaa”) which reminds us of a particular Dad in a Eurostar who couldn’t stop chanting this phrase to his two year old daughter. Despite the fact that sharing is an incredibly difficult process for a toddler (compared to if we had to learn Russian in two days), he patiently persisted (with this message).
Don’t worry, this is not one of my crusades upon the British style of upbringing! I am serious, I want to give a huge compliment to this particular thing I love in my new country. People are caring.
Sure, I did notice it whilst exploring various charity shops – a fabulous concept which is a big step up from just a second-hand shop, as you give your things away for a good cause! Or surfing on the Freegle website. Did you know that Freegle is British? Their idea: building an internet-based service where you can offer things for free or ask for things others may not want to use anymore.
As a family we are particularly interested in all children-related stuff: clothes, books, some toys… so we also like bagging a bargain during “Nearly New Sales” from schools or the NCT (read more here), a very well organised and planned event which gives you the opportunity to shop second-hand and sometimes as new!
But the kindness and the caring character, which I have discovered more over the last few months, is free and practically brought to your doorstep. “I like this British custom to give things away you don’t need anymore” confides my Italian neighbour to me last week. She came around with a bag full of unused nappies, wondering if our little one could use them. It made my day, not the nappies, of course, but this shared generosity; because when somebody gives you something for free, one day you will do the same and, in so doing, sow a bit of happiness.