One of the hardest things about expat life is all those goodbyes. They don’t seem to get any easier. But there is an upside…
moving with kids
Our Favourite Children’s Books – Book Recommendations from Expat Kids
Is there a greater gift than the gift of a book? I honestly don’t think there is. Books can transport us, they can offer comfort. They can teach us about the world and about ourselves. They can be an adventure, a refuge, and inspiration, a solace. And it’s a pure pleasure to give a child […]
When Your Expat Plan Doesn’t Go To Plan…
Just when everything starts to feel right, everything changes again. Sound familiar? Yep, another move is on the cards. This was not in the plan. The *plan* was to do 3-4 years in Bangkok and then move back to England. Well, that plan didn’t happen. I worried about a lot of things before we moved […]
Expert Tips on Making Your Expat House Feel Like Home
A big part of any relocation is getting settled in your new expat house. But often this means a furnished flat, full of things you haven’t chosen. Or a house where none of the things you have shipped seem to quite work. So what can you do to make your expat house feel like home? And how […]
Expat sometimes means extra effort
When you’re an expat you can gain a lot (and not just the ‘bread and wine’ pounds I have found here in Germany) but also miss out on a lot. I have missed big birthday celebrations, family weekends away, school reunions (phew!), hen weekends, weddings and the arrival of babies. I don’t like missing out. So I […]
Monocultural Mum and the Third Culture Kids
I have lived away from home for four years now. Which in some ways is not that long really – equivalent to the length of time it took to do my degree (which included a year in France, not a repeat year…). However, when I think back to boarding the plane to Bangkok back in February 2013, what […]
Moving schools mid-year?
Moving schools is always hard. Moving schools mid-year is even harder. We moved our daughter half way through a term when we moved to Bangkok. My advice based on this? Avoid it if you can. And in an ideal world, we would avoid it. Every move would be timed to coincide with the start of […]
So, you might be moving overseas?
One of the things I personally find hard about being an expat is that tricky stage when you think you might be moving overseas, but nothing is confirmed. I wrote about this in my post ‘We Might be Moving’ (see here). Judging by the comments and messages I received, it’s clear that I am not […]
Expat Move with Kids?
So, we all know that making an international move can be stressful (click here for more on that…). But looking back I realise the thing that stressed me out the most was concern about my children. Are we doing the right thing? Will they be happy? Will they like their new school? Will they hate […]
The Expat Move – aka ‘The Third Most Stressful Thing’
When planning our first expat move, I read an article which said that in terms of stressful life events, moving house ranks third – behind the death of a loved one and divorce. Our first expat move was a big one – from England to Bangkok. And I was definitely super-stressed. My daughters were young, […]