So your family has been sent
Whether the term third culture kid is new to you, or you’ve been raising children overseas for a while, welcome! On the following pages you will find resources from around the world that have been gathered to support your family’s thriving wherever you may go. You are loved and lifted up.
-Your RDMR FO
What exactly is a TCK?
“A traditional third culture kid (TCK) is a person who spends a significant part of his or her first eighteen years of life accompanying parent(s) into a country that is different from at least one parent’s passport country(ies) due to a parent’s choice of work or advanced training.”
And what are the three cultures?
“The first culture refers to the home or passport culture of the parents. The second culture refers to the host-cultures to which the family has moved or in which they have lived. The third culture refers to the way of life that is neither like the lives of those living back in the home culture nor like the lives of those in the local community.”
There is a broader term that encompasses TCKs, but includes many more experiences and demographics. This term is a cross-cultural kid. “A cross-cultural kid (CCK) is a person who is living /has lived in, or meaningfully interacted with, two or more cultural environments for a significant period of time during the first eighteen years of life.”
Want to learn more? Click here.
(Pollock, Van Reken, Pollock, 2017)
Where can I start?
These books are great resources for parents starting out in raising children overseas:
Website Tips
There are pages dedicated to specific topics and age ranges. The pages Third Culture Kids, Transitions, and Education contain more detailed explanations of the large concepts in order to help give a starting framework if needed before diving into books and research that explain the topics more thoroughly. Throughout the website there are a multitude of links that will take you to websites, books, podcasts, blog posts, and much more. All of these links are in red and underlined and will take you outside of the website. If security is of high priority, it is recommended to use a VPN, as there is some sensitive language on this site and many of those external sites contain more.
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