Third Culture Kids Resources | Articles
Life as a TCK
“Ah, the life of a child growing up in more than one culture! He must always put together clues from familiar-to-him cultures to make sense of his current situation. Before this moment, my son’s only ‘parade’ experience was the king’s ride through the city. It also had flags and crowds but no thrown candy! Other ‘new’ items were discovered that trip—wall-to-wall carpet, drinking fountains, public bathroom hand dryers, and free soda refills—leading to raised eyebrows and a smile. Welcome to the world of a TCK.”
In this article, the author dives into 6 reminders that TCKs need. I can relate to each one as an adult TCK, especially how, even in change and people leaving, God stays the same.
As someone who grew up as a TCK and is now working with TCKs, this is a great article! It gives some great questions to ask TCKs and puts them into the perspective of the TCK and what they want to be asked.
This article isn’t saying that being a TCK is not a good life. What it is saying is that there will be good times and hard times no matter where you live. The author writes that, “it’s not always easy, it’s not always fun, it’s not always comfortable. My hope is that this is a truth we can pass on to our kids: that striving for our best life is less about the perfect environment and endless opportunities and comfortable relationships and more about just being obedient.”
I really like this article because it talks about TCKs living in between. TCKs have connections with more than one place and so they are constantly going back and forth between languages, cultures, food, friends, etc.
“Home, for us, is not a location to point to or a person to embrace. It is mixed and muddled and meaningful in its indescribable, life-defining Homeness. Sometimes it buoys and charms us. And sometimes it reminds us that we can’t return again (the pain of that is visceral). We’ll never know that world as it was when we breathed in it.”
“As TCKs mature, they begin to discover their color, the color that doesn’t change out of fear of being found out, but instead the color that they are proud to be wherever they are. Because of their diverse background, this identity may not look exactly like any one place or people, but it is instead a beautiful and healthy mixture of all the cultures that have made them who they are.”
“In many respects, we hare Hidden Immigrants: we may look, act, talk and dress like we’re from right down the street, but internally we identify with other places. But it goes beyond behavioral differences. From our time in other cultures, some of us may have ‘absorbed’ different attitudes about modesty, morality, theology, gender roles and authority.”
Great questions to think through as you interact with TCKs.
