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.

This is an interesting topic to post about, bi-cultural kids!

Today more and more kids are born into a bi-cultural environment with their parents being of different ethnicity or culture or kids being raised in other parts of the world.

My cousins are true examples of kids raised with 2 different cultures. Their parents, my uncle and aunt are from North India but moved to United States right after they got married. Both my cousins were born and are being raised in United states. They are now 19- and 17-year old girls.

I can certainly say that my Uncle and Aunt have done a good job in raising them bi-culturally and proving them the best of both worlds.

Providing your kids best of both worlds!

10 reasons why I think so-

1. They go to temple every weekend and practice the religion and values given by their parents.
2. They love sports, Indian girls are not into sports (except cricket if at all)
3. They love ‘Paneer tikka masala’ and ‘mac and cheese’
4. They listen to A.R Rehman, Rahat fateh Ali khan as well as Selena Gomez and J.Lo music
5. They love to visit family back home in India but only for short visits.
6. They wear bikinis and love wearing ‘salwar kameez’ also
7. They speak Hindi and English both fluently.
8. They are huge fan of James bond but love watching cheesy, romantic saga(s) of Sharukh Khan as well
9. They believe in ‘arrange’ marriages
10. They can speak English in ‘Indian accent’
11. They haven’t moved out of their parents house and won’t (they are 19 and 17 year old) until they get married.

By reading all the above you must have understood that they are a complete mix of both cultures. It’s not about which culture is better than the other. It is about teaching your kids the best of both worlds. Teaching them about their roots, so when they visit other families back home, they can mingle with them and don’t feel isolated.

Also giving them right values of the environment or the culture they are being raised in. Teaching  them the right thing will help them understand their background, genes, roots  and will also give them sense of adaptability. Teaching all the values but still giving your kids all the rights to choose the culture they want to adapt is the right thing to do.

Bi-cultural kids tend to get lost in different cultures and get confused to what they want to choose. But they will do what they see their parents doing. If the parents are firm believers in a Culture, kids will most likely follow that. If the parents speak two or three languages, kids will follow that as well. So dear parents, practice what you want your kids to learn. Your kids will follow you.

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