10. You memorize expiration dates: passports and resident cards – because if you don’t and they expire you know how much it will be to get it all worked out.

9. Home communication becomes a mixture of words and phrases from various languages. (eg. Chinglish)
8. Airport security doesn’t scare you – even with all the changes.
7. Who needs Google Translator when you have a live version living with you? (kids always learn the language quicker)
6.Vacations are planned by looking at countries not gone to.
5. You know certain words like fever, diapers, toilet in many “foreign” languages, but are not fluent in any of them.
4. You don’t need to print off the directions for filling out a passport, because you do it often enough between you and your children.
3. You know the guards and office workers at the Embassy from all the visits for passports, citizen abroad papers, etc.
2. When your child(ren)’s friends come over to the house, your living room looks like a mini United Nations.
Though this is number one, it does NOT in anyway count as my favorite – I’d say it is the hardest of all…

Drum Roll, please……

1. You take your child to college in another country and watch them grow/struggle to figure out who they are as a TCK.

And there you have it, my Parenting TCKs Top Ten

Your Turn: Anything you’d add to this list? Please comment below.

Related articles

• Are you an ATCK raising TCK’s? (expatsincebirth.com)
• Meeting a Famous TCK (raisingtcks.com)
• Bringing home the TCKs (iwasanexpatwife.com)
• How to Help a Third Culture Kid Make the Transition “Back Home” (thirdcultureteacher.com)