One Thing I’d Do Differently Living Abroad With Kids

If you’re considering a move abroad or currently living abroad as an expat family, there’s one thing I’d do differently if I had the chance: I’d make my kids write about their living abroad experience in their own words.

It might not seem important right now, but if moving back to the USA is inevitable, prioritize time for your kids to document what living abroad is like for them while still living abroad.

Why?  Because as your kids get older, they might need to lean into those memories and experiences for future opportunities.  College admissions, applying for jobs, study abroad programs, moving again, making friends, or even just to recall toughness, open-mindedness, flexibility, and details of memories that naturally fade over time.

As parents, we take photos and videos, and in my case, I even blog about it.  However,  their experience as an expat kid is not from their perspective, memory, or recollection.  And parents certainly aren’t present all the time, especially when they are at school.

Why retelling or writing about living time abroad is valuable

Living abroad as a young person makes them unique.  It offers a different story to tell.  It offers THEIR story to tell.  And the more they can recall their own story in their own words, the more likely they can retell it as the years pass after moving back to America.

Aside from the personal benefit, having the ability to retell their own story will be important for interviews and even US college essays, according to a college admissions advisor in Texas.

As my family embarks on the college admissions journey, this is truly the one thing that both my son and I agree on.  Why didn’t he write about living in England while he was living there? 

For an 8-year-old, the idea might seem silly.  But as a 15-year-old, he’s wondering and wishing I’d had him write about his everyday life and time as the only American kid in a British class with his mom embarrassingly scuffing the car with the hedges while driving up the insanely narrow school driveway (that’s my memory by the way), and weekends where we explored every inch of the UK within reach…and why he feels like he never needs to “tour” anywhere ever again (his memory). 🤣

These are the brave moments I hope my expat kids remember

Simple ways for kids to record their expat experience

With technology today, there are so many ways for anyone of any age to capture their own story.  It might be in small bites, but when you piece it together, it might be all that your former expat kid needs.

• Traditional writing
• Take videos – Social media is an option here if that’s the only option
• Create a bullet list
• Use voice memos
• Take photos – Instax Mini is great for this!
• Print stinkers – Canon Ivy is great for this!
• Create a junk journal – This is a book with all the random things collected (ticket stubs, train passes, football cards, etc) that you can tape or glue to a page, scribble about, and keep for recalling memories. Your younger children might need your help with this, but it’s a neat way for your kids to refer to their time while living abroad.

Have your kid choose 1 or a mix of all methods.  Documentation could be once a week, once a month, or whatever frequency you can instill in your expat kid to establish a new habit.  My kids wish I’d had them document “their story” at least once before we returned to Texas or immediately upon repatriating.

Friendships hopeful to last – despite moving back to America

Final tips on the 1 thing I’d change

It might seem strange that this is the ONE thing I’d do differently if I move abroad again: have my kids write about living abroad.

But we worked hard to make the most of our expat life.

Sure, we would have stayed longer in the UK if we could, but that wasn’t within our control.

I could have embraced the local British food sooner instead of obsessing about hard-to-find American snacks in the UK, but it didn’t take too long for me to love M&S and Waitrose.  Or the local pub for that matter!

Should I have gotten out more? Seen more?  Perhaps, but I don’t have any regrets about that.

But THIS, for my kids, I do.

So if you’re overseas now with American kids under 18, have them write about their experience living abroad while actively in it.  I promise you they’ll be grateful for it!