TCKs

The Who-Has-Lived-in-More-Countries Competition

/ Emma-Jane Austen-Jones / 6 Comments

I feel really really really peeved today, following a conversation with one of those irritating expat wives who thinks she knows it all. These women get on my nerves. Let’s call her “Betty”. (I know she writes a blog too – about her fascinating travels, of course – so I wouldn’t want her to be identifiable.)

Anyway, so I was at a lunch with a few ladies, having a nice chat with Michelle (argh! should I tell her about what her husband did?! Awkward!!), and then this Betty pipes up and starts going on about their last country, and all the other ones she has lived in. She listed all the countries, and while other people were trying to talk about something else, she just kept at it. So annoying and immature! I’ve lived in more countries than you, Ms Betty Boo, so you can just stfu!!

Finally, someone else managed to get a word in, and the topic changed to expat/ third culture kids, and how fun it is for them to move around all the time. Then, Betty threw herself with full force back into the conversation, but this time tried to tell everyone how her kids are so much more third culture than everyone else’s!

My kids may be younger, but they’re just as TC as hers. I hope she leaves soon, and then she can add another country to her stupid list.

The only thing that is making me feel slightly better is that I noticed they’re opening a new Vietnamese restaurant in the Paragon. There’s really nothing like a good pho.

Are Expat Kids Lucky?

/ Emma-Jane Austen-Jones / Leave a comment

Because of my interest, and growing expertise, in psychology, I have decided to start a new page, to discuss issues faced by expat children. From what I hear, some expat children and young people struggle with the transitions, so I want to explore that. Not my kids, of course. They’re totally well-adjusted and we’ve never had any trouble from them. They don’t even mind long haul flights; they just sleep, especially if I give them that anti-allergy stuff.

Saying that, since we got back from the UK in the summer, Milly has started kicking the dog, which is unlike her. She’s quite big (not fat, you understand, just bigger than other kids her age, probably because she was exclusively breastfed), and the dog is quite small.

So I’m not sure what that’s about. I hope she stops soon. The dog hopes so too LOL : )

Anyway, because I don’t have any readers’ questions, I thought I would start this page by asking Clara what she thinks is an important issue for expat kids, and then discuss that. She mailed me yesterday, and we had our first Skype session, hence… (drum roll please lol!)….. On the Skype Couch with Emma-Jane. My first topic is whether expat kids are lucky, and you can read it here.

 

Expat Kids

/ Emma-Jane Austen-Jones / 1 Comment

I was Skyping yesterday with my cousin in the UK, Clara. She’s a v cool and v knowledgeable woman. She started out as a clinical psychologist (I should have done psychology instead of blooming law because I’m so empathetic; often I can just tell that people are sad or upset without them even saying they are), and then she became a full-on psychotherapist – she trained at the Tavistock so she knows her onions – specialising in children.

Because of the 6-month counselling course I did, and my natural empathy, Clara and I have some great chats about expat kids. She was an expat kid herself, and although I don’t always agree with all the stuff she comes out with (no offence Clara, but sometimes therapists can just be so know-it-all and patronising… Not you Clara!! Love ya!), she has some super interesting insights.

So after talking to her, I was thinking that I might do another course in child psychology. Maybe a much longer, more in-depth one this time, like a year.

What I’m also thinking is that I could add a page to my blog of Clara and Emma-Jane discussing expat kid issues. Then people could send in their questions, and I could ask Clara for her expert opinion, as well as adding my own perspective, from an expert expat on the ground, as it were, thereby developing my abilities as a psychologist. I could call it On the Skype Couch with EJ and Clara.

Leave a comment if you have anything you would like me to ask Clara about expat kid issues!