Expat Relocation Checklist

How to create a happy experience for your expat children

For many expats living and working overseas, they didn’t know that they would have kids while residing in another country far from home. It can be difficult for many expat parents to provide their children with the same experience as their own childhood back home. You might have played in a forest, on a farm, and played little games you love in your childhood. However, you are now living in another side of the world, with intense working schedules, busy city life, and a possibly different language and culture.

All expat parents want to encourage happy childhood memories for their kids in their new expat country. However, it can be very stressful as an expat child, especially if he or she is trying to adapt to a new city, country and culture without all the comforts and friends from home. In this article, we will provide some basic ideas for expat parents on how to create a happy experience for your expat kids while living and working abroad.

Some Tips for Expatriate Parents on How to Keep Your Kids Happy:

Make a To-Do list To Recreate Your Happy Childhood Memories

Take some time and recall your best childhood memories, and try to be as specific as possible: are they related to a taste of barbecue? A colour of a picture? Or the feel of the sunshine at a sports ground? These kind of happy memories are important, as they will provide you with more options when planning weekend activities with your children.

Your most cherished childhood events or festivals may not exist in your expat destination, but there may be activities and experiences that feel similar. Make a to-do list and recreate your happy childhood memories with your children.

Find a Common Interest You Can Enjoy With Children

If you want to inspire your children’s passion and create a source of great memories together, you can start by finding a common interest you can enjoy together. If you want to share your experiences with children as expat parents, and you don’t have local equivalent, then this is the moment that you need to be creative. Camping and hiking are great ways to get in touch with nature and spend time together. Biking is also a good idea. It will provide lots of chances to laugh and talk.

As you find some new ways to recreate your favourites, you are creating new traditions that your children will share with your grandchildren one day.

Observe What Other Parents Are Doing 

Surrounded by a new culture and language, it is always good to watch other local parents and see what they are doing. Talk to other local parents by learning their cultures, languages, religion, history, nature, the environment. These experiences will provide the opportunity to connect with their culture while living overseas.

Bring International Health Insurance

You already have a lot to worry about: finding schools for your children, adapting to the new environment, purchasing all the necessities, etc. But don’t forget to obtain adequate medical care for your entire family. The peace of mind of knowing that you and your family have access to the best healthcare is very important. Therefore, you need to create a tailored expatriate health insurance that meets your unique requirements as your expat spouse’s employer may or may not provide global healthcare. You should also consider life and disability coverage while living abroad.

Expat Financial offers several different international health insurance plans for expatriates of any nationality across the world. If you have questions about our international medical insurance plans or you want to discuss your needs and produce a customized quote, please contact us or complete the quote form.