A BREAF ESSAY ON PARENTING INTERNATIONALLY; ABOUT WHAT WE GENERALLY DON’T KNOW, AS TRAVELING PARENT/S.
Growing up traveling, especially during the first developing years of a childs life, mostly causes the child to become bilingual, with is in fact a very precious and amazing factor, much like one of the greatest grand gifts we could give to our childs life, as both the left brain and right brain will develop in such harmonious ways, that both parts of the brain will be working rather equally, compared to that of most other children, who grow up in one world of environment, with one only language.
When a person is born into an international Life, it would take some great efforts of the parents and/or caretakers, to make sure this child becomes very well connected to the rest of the family, to prevent that high risk, or in most cases, the enviable, that the child will eventually be all alone in a cold hard world, without any unconditional loving backing his/her sense of life, which does feel overall different, but which you will only know once you get to experience it (and then you’re gonna need to know others who fully understand what you’re experiencing, otherwise you gradually start feeling more and more alienated).
Luckily for the international life styles of today, we are rather spoiled with communication tools, compared to that of the old days, of the generations before us, where all people had was a stationary house phone at home, while in some countries, not even half of the population had the luxury of having a phone. So keeping the close connection with loved ones, was a whole different and much harder challenge in the past, that most people hardly even thought about in this way, and even if the longing for it was there, it just seemed inevidable and even impossible for most people, to keep connected well enough with your close and favourite ones.
In most normal lives, more stationary lives, a child usually will have a whole network of school friends and neighbourhood friends, some of those will stay in contact throughout life, some of them will have a closer connection, and some few, mostly just one or two, will come very close to being like world-family. Especially if the child didn’t change schools much, or at all. And that’s all besides having family in general.
But the child born into traveling, growing up in different worlds, will have a psyche that has grown used to the change of scene, the change of environment that traveling inevitably gives you. This become integrated in the child’s first and completely defenceless developing years, until age the age of 6 or 7.
So depending on the child’s own nature, some other influences along the ways of growing up, and eventually of course the circumstances, this child will much more than likely, in some way, grow into a traveling life, or even become a real globetrotting person. …which is a lifestyle that disconnects you from having close circles of friend, proper networks in life, as time flies and years go by creating less personal connection, and more distance between this “child” and the other humans they know, which becomes a very lonely disconnected person at some point.
And not to forget, that a child who grew up like that, have surely always been different than the rest, and inevitably have felt different most of the time in their childhood, and out into their adult life. This all becomes much more severe, as being a rootless traveler, a globetrotter, also causes you to experience much more in general, which in time become a whole massive lot compared to others, so that also creates a gap between you and the others, and while the lifestyle itself of course also causes and allows you to be developing more independently, you actually get to grow much more of what is more purely just of pure you, which is not normal and not common in our World of course, as we don’t all live a total traveler life.
Having all the experience, I notice that most traveling and international parents, don’t have anything to make them notice these very important factors, that can, roughly said, both make or break your child.
I never wanted to be a teacher, but I do love helping people, and I do happen to have that skill, of being able to make more complex things understandable, even if the student’s previous teachers (who even have the schooling to be teachers) didn’t manage to clarify the subject to the student’s understanding. I’ve even managed this perfectly well, with subjects that I myself was not even very good at.
Teaching and helping people, are when done right, are very similar, except from the fact that helping through coaching, becomes a very personalised and individual journey, compared to that of common teaching, which remains rather impersonal and general.
Helping people with things that are important for a good life, and make a megalithic difference in the bigger picture down the road, does feel like a calling, always feels right, and has always been successful.
– Written by SmilaZ
SlavoMila Zachova is available
for coaching parents, on the subject of bringing up and raising a child internationally, while being traveling parents.
Contact S.Mila Zachova
For an introductory meeting, online* or in person*, just send your message to the following number +4915145144460
* Meetings online
are done via Skype, WhatsApp or Telegram, fb.-messenger, or if possible even through your preffered call or video-call service.
* Meetings in person
are at the moment possible in Munich, in Germany.
Intro. meeting charges are transfered either via IBAN or PayPal, before the meeting-call
30 min. € 50,-
1 hour € 80,-
(weather in person or online)