I love watching the Colbert Report, he teaches me more about current events than the BBC, local, and national news I hear on the radio every day. A guest on his show today was talking about how it's his mission to challenge all Americans to learn the Gettysburg Address. This inspired me to think about BabyBird.
I joke that she's our 'American brat' but always say she's a kiwi, despite her passport and birth certificate. It's a bit confusing to me - at first I thought of her as similar to those children I taught in Bangladesh. They're known as 'third culture kids'. They're from one country, living in another country (and surrounded by the nationals of that country) yet they socialise with other expats from all over the world (this is the third culture) and live expat lives. But BabyBird socialises primarily with Americans and international students. Jbird and I don't view ourselves as 'expats'. Perhaps because we haven't been sent by anyone in our country, rather we decided to come here ourselves.
I don't think she'll have a Kiwi accent until we move home - not that accents define your culture. I guess I want her to be a Kiwi but when you consider America and it's immigrant roots, maybe she's about as American as you can get. Unless she spends the majority of her life in New Zealand which may or may not happen - that's yet to be decided. Perhaps we'll end up in Istanbul. Anyway, considering this I realise that I have a duty to teach her both sides of the story, in an unbiased/non-judgmental way. I can't be disparaging about her country.
I look forward to thinking about this more and incorporating it into our family values.
