Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.

Arguing with Parents

Some parents complain that we children like to argue.

The parent should ask themselves if they like to argue. Like kid like parent, no?

The more words a parents uses the more words I think I get to use.

If a parent talks in very long sentences like, “We have some guests coming over. Will you please pick up all of your toys. I need to make some snacks. And this couple is very important to your daddy so I need to make a good impression.”

All we are likely to hear or remember is “Guests, toys, snacks, daddy.” And nothing else but word, word, word, word.

Read: Best Bilingual Education Toys for Chinese-American Children

That means we get to use words, too. I mean, after all, we want to be like our mommies and daddies.

Problem is, I can’t put that many words together without forgetting where I started.

I might instead say something like, “I was here first.”

Which, of course, leads to more words that I can’t really follow.

What kids need are for mommies and daddies to tell us in the fewest  words possible what it is they want us to do and not leave any options.

Then, we might do it. At least we will know not to talk back so much.

Talk to Bill and others about their experiences raising bi-cultural Japanese-American kids.