Cool Forum! Intro's?

[Joyster]

I just wanted to be the first to post. lol But this is a topic very near and dear to my heart, I thought a round of intros might get us started.

I'm Joy, I'm interracial (part black, white and native). I married a white man, we have two sons. A two year old and a 7 week old. Both boys are pretty light skinned, light hair and in my DS2's case, blue eyes, but that may change. As it stands now I'm pretty much raising two kids who don't share my skin colour and have been assumed as the nanny before *Grrrrrrrrrr*. However, I'm okay with their skin colour, and have to let them form their own identities. My father was bent on me being black and American (I was born and raised in Canada and love being a Hoser) so I know not to force the issue with my children and that chances are, they will celebrate their whole identity if not identify completely with it. I don't know if that makes sense, but I have a 7 week old so I'm sure you'll give me some latitude. *G*

We also live in Toronto, which makes being interracial and a multicultural family pretty easy, despite a few morons assuming me as the nanny, but on the other hand, if that's the worst I receive, I'm pretty lucky in the larger picture.

[aprilushka]

Hi Joyster!

A lot of people have been asking for this forum, so we're excited to see it.

I'm a white American with no Europea ethnic identity married to a Russian. I speak Russian and Russian is the language of our home. I expect our kids will identify wholly American but I want them to know and appreciate their Russian roots as well as speak the language passably. We spend a fair amount of time with DH's relatives (considering that they live over there), so hopefully we will be able to do this, for the most part. I have encountered some negativity toward our Russian as the home language policy, although generally people see why we are doing what we are doing.

[EVC]

I'm so excited for this forum!!!!!


I am American, dh and our dog are both Ukrainian (dh just got his 10 year green card--woo hoo!), dd was born in Armenia (but is a US citizen). Russian is our home language. We are really struggling with dh's adjustment to life in the US (we have been here 2 years now), so I hope there will some threads about that I'm also interested in the issue of bilingualism in children.

[purplegirl]

i am so glad this forum is here. i'll be back to post my story later!

[CharlieBrown]

checking in. I am American and DH is from Turkey. He has been here for 20 years.

[MetasMom]

Also checking in. I'm a bilingual US-German dual citizen and passed this on to my daughter. My husband is German and we live in the U.S. We're raising Meta bilingual using the OPOL method. Looking forward to hearing from you others!

[mom2tatum]

whoops i posted a new thread out of excitement, without realizing I missed this first thread for intro's...duh. anyway, I will try to add my intro here as well after my thread pops up...

[expecting-joy]

:

We are doing a less-conventional non-immersion language thing. We have books and music in our four home languages, playdates in each, and dd has started taking classes in two (besides the dominant). We don't have a set time yet for when to speak each language, except when other native speakers of that language are visiting.

[puddingpop]

I'm so excited to see this forum! I'm Ukrainian/French Canadian, and DH identifies as just plain Canadian (I think his family has been here more than 150 years). Our son is Korean, adopted from South Korea in 2006. He's 2-1/2 years old now and we hope to adopt again from South Korea next year or the year after.

[deethai]

Great, a few new things too google, never heard about "OPOL method" or "non-immersion".

I think it's a great chance for a child to be able to learn several languages automatically at home, saves a lot of the effort later. I speak German and English and my boyfriend only Thai. I don't speak Thai very well so we don't really have a common language. We live in Thailand.

English is reasonably easy to learn for a child, but German is very hard to ever learn properly by studying it, so my thought would be that I should speak German to the child and my boyfriend Thai.

Just then we never understand what the other one is talking about to the kid ...

And how to avoid that it would pick up my bad Thai, after all I have to talk to my boyfriend somehow ...

I will try to come up with a thread about parents who don't speak a common language, so we don't have to mess around in the introduction thread. These concerns are just part of my introduction post

[Paddington]

Wow.

I'm Ange and I am Black American. Married for just shy of 8 years to my dh who is half korean/half white. We have 2 boys. : The first born looks mixed with white features and the second born looks white with black features. Interracial genes rock.

[Paddington]

Oh Purplegirl! I have locks too!

[Bunnybee]

Hello all! I'm white American (1/2 French Canadian and half English traceable to Mayflower, lol). DH is black Jamaican, recently became American citizen! We've been together 8.5 years and have a daughter who is 22 months and a son who is almost 7 months. I am SO excited this forum is here! One topic I'd like to discuss here is food!

[EdnaMarie]

Hi all. I am trying to stay relatively anonymous and am just popping in to say "hi".

[mamefati28]

I got a little to excited and posted a new thread with an intro...haha
So, DH is West African (Senegal!!!) and I am American.
DH speaks wolof, french, and a little english..I speak English and a little wolof
He is darker than dark and I am whiter than white!
We have a BEAUTIFUL 18 month old son who I hope to solidly root in 100% pure love....
I am so happy to connect with all of you!
I feel as though this forum should have been here originally, with all the blessings and hardships multicultural families face...
Cant wait to share and learn with all of you!

[Bad Mama Jama]

Hello all. I am a single mama to a wonderful little girl and I am happy to be your resident moderator. Welcome to all the families here!

[nevaehsmommy]

HI.I am a single mommy. My daughter is 20 months. I am am American with a mix of other backgrounds, I call myself the mutt. My daughter is dark skinned. The only problems I have had so far are other dark skinned older women making remarks about me nursing her. She is however the only dark skinned child in our SMALL town. The rest of everyone else is amish, since I dont speak german I am not sure what they say.

I love her to pieces and thank G-d every day that she is mine and I have the privalage to raise her.

I would like to rack your guys brains on what to do with her hair, and how to incorporate her heritage with out being over bearing.

[nznavo]

We're not a multi-racial family but have multi-cultural experiences. We've been expats in a number of places for about 10 years and have lived/had extended stays in 3 countries since our son (3) was born. I guess he's the multi-cultural one - I'll be curious to see how he identifies as he gets older.

[wallabisfarm]

Yay to the new forum! I am Sara, a white Californian, married to Japanese dh for five years. We live in Japan now, and are expecting to meet our adopted-child-to-be soon. He or she will probably be two to three when we meet, and has almost certainly got at least one Japanese first parent, perhaps two. We are on the edge of exciting things! Our present cultural issue - beds and how to fit the family in to them.
Nice to meet you all!

[ewe+lamb]

Don't you just love MDC - so I'm all Scottish, dh is all Algerian, we have two kids who look more like me than dh which I totally didn't expect!!! We speak English and French and I'm trying to get dh to speak Arabic and Berber with them but it's not easy giventhe political climate at the moment. We've been together for 16 years - 13 years married next month, we met in Italy (Venice), lived in Edinburgh, Scotland and now in Paris. I'm highly involved with LLL and love all NFL stuff. great to meet you all - I'm so excited about this forum