This workbook is a companion to Lauren Wells’s first book, The Grief Tower. In Unstacking Your Grief Tower, the principles of the grief tower metaphor are broken down into applicable sections for adult TCKs (aTCKs) and each chapter ends with reflection questions and space for the reader to write their answers.
TCK life is full of losses from moving and being in a mobile community where others are coming and going around you. Taking the time to process the accumulated grief is important and this short workbook is a great resource to help with that.
This autobiographical collection of essays was a joy to read. Adele Barlow is a TCK with Malaysian and Kiwi parents who grew up between Hong Kong and New Zealand. Her search for identity and meaning is a very relatable TCK issue and she writes about it in a fresh way, sharing anecdotes from her moves, relationships and therapy sessions.
I’ve read a lot of stories and essays about TCK identity and sometimes get tired of them but I enjoyed Barlow’s writing style and her candidness. I found myself cheering on her progress and eager to see the conclusions she came to in her self reflection.
The following chapters are many and stand alone, but also work well as a cohesive whole.
- Congratulations: You’re Raising a TCK! by Patricia Linderman
- Bombay baby: Pregnancy Abroad by Karryn Miller
- Right Next Door But Worlds Away: Our Adoption Story by Gretel Backman Patch
- Overseas Schools: A Parent’s Guide by Anne Allen Sillivan
- British School Overseas by Katie Jagelski
- French School Overseas by Rory Burnham Pickett
- Looking at the Boarding School Option by Rebecca Grappo
- Homeschooling in the Foreign Service: Doubly Unusual! by Amy Macy
- U.S. College Admission and the Foreign Service Teen by Francesca Huemer Kelly
- Comparing Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate
- Gifted and Talented Children in the Foreign Service by Leah Moorfield Evans
- The Art of Acquiring a Second Language by Jen Kirk Dinoia
- Living Overseas When Your Child has Special Needs by Lauren Salazar
- When Kids Struggle Overseas by Rebecca Grappo
- Raising a Child with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder by Laurie Kelleher
- Prepare Before You Hit the Air: Going Abroad with your Special Needs Child by Michelle Grappo
- Staying Safe While Living Abroad by Shelly Goode-Burgoyne
- Saying Cheers In three Languages: Foreign Service Kids Talk About Alcohol by Laura Tasharski
- Tandem Couples and Kids by Amy and Joshua Archibald
- The Single Parent and the Foreign Service by Tamara Shie
- How to Manage Parenting and Working in the Foreign Service by Marcelle Yeager
- Joy for a Dime and a song: A Case for a Washington, D.C., Tour with Children by Laura Merzig Fabrycky
- An Unacompanied Tour by Amanda Fernandez
- Mothering Across the Miles by Anne Aguilera
- Transitions with Kids by Lexy Boudreau
- Traveling with Kids by Ana Gabriela Turner
- Starting New by Miriam Engstrom
- The Ties that RemindL Maintaining a Connection to the Home You Left Behind by Julie Tully
- Tame that Clutter and Make your Move Easier! by Tara Kniew-Fraiture
- The Oxygen Mask – Mindfulness for Foreign Service Parents by Jodi Harris
- Patchwork Parenting, Quilted Kids by Laura Tasharski
- Resources for Parents in the Foreign Service by Nicole Schaefer-McDaniel
What Makes Aussie Kids Tick a thorough and insightful overview of what to expect leaving Australia as a missionary family with kids. this book walks you step-by-step through the process preparing to leave, landing, and re-stabilizing as a family. It identifies the potential difficulties in the areas of emotions, logistics and family dynamics, and provides practical advice on navigating them. Of special interest is the discussion of Australian culture and how Australian MKs tend to interact with their “home” culture.
This book’s focus on the universal principles for navigating cross-cultural transitions as a family have allowed it to age well, despite the rapid changes in missions in the decades since its publishing. It is a good introduction to navigating the missionary life, especially from an Australian background, and would be most useful for families entering more traditional missions located in non-Western countries, and those in administration supporting them.
The contents include:
- It’s Time to Get Ready
- It’s Time to Go
- It’s Time to Work
- It’s Time to be a Family
- It’s Time to Choose (Exploring schooling options)
- It’s time to Part
- It’s Time to go to School
- It’s Time for Holidays
- It’s Time for Visitors
- It’s Time for Identification
- It’s Time to Leave
- It’s Time to Return
- It’s Time to Help (How the sending church can help their missionaries)
- It’s Time to Evaluate
Out of stock in online stores as of July 2022.
Bringing Up Brits is the passion-project of Meghan Fenn, an Asian-American mother raising her children in her husband’s home country of England. Writing to fellow expat parents, she reflects on her own experiences and those of others like her who experienced loneliness, confusion, and step-by-step cultural learning specific to Great Britain.
This resource would best benefit one interested in how life in England can be perceived by foreigner parents, and the ways in which they may struggle to adapt to British culture. Unfortunately, this book feels out of date when discussing issues such as isolation from previous communities and difficulty finding people to connect with locally, given the explosion of social media and smart devices since the time of publishing.
Included is a directory of various online resources from the early 2010’s for the expat parent in Britain.
The chapters include
- Finding Identity
- Isolation
- Nurturing Tradition
- Living amongst the British
- Cross Cultural Kids, Third Culture Parents
- Language Barriers
- Celebrating Britain
- The Future (Retirement and higher education for children)
Parents on the Move is a concise and practical source of advice for parents TCKs. It focuses on strategies for successful family relocation and family health, through a unique lens of the Christian faith. In it you will find real-life experiences combined with a systematic break-down of the unique challenges of moving internationally with young ones.
This book would be best for younger families encountering an international move for the first time. It could also benefit HR staff in organizations that regularly deploy internationally to set up their employees for success at their new assignments. It is not a dense read, and can be easily skimmed for the information most pertinent to one’s own situation.
The appendices provide workbook sheets to help you brainstorm in preparation for your family’s move, along the lines the book has presented. They are perhaps most useful for making sure you articulate your expectations and think through all your options before your move.
Chapters:
- Strategic Priorities
- Seven Levels of Moving
- Checking Out the Giants (Schools, Neighborhood and Home, Social Network)
- The ACE Card (What to look for in when assessing potential schools)
- The Home Schooling Option
- Your Support Team – Do you have one?
- Grandmothers as Communication Central
- Expecting and Delivering a Baby Abroad
- Heading Home – Heading Out Again
Appendices:
- Family Relocation Listening Exercises
- Relocation Level Questionnaire
- Sample School Visit Schedule
- School Visit Strengths and Weaknesses Chart
- ACE Checklist
- Support team Contact Information
