Family - Raising Multicultural Children
As parents we bring our individual cultural and ethnic lived experiences into our families. We are always reflecting and looking out for ways we can merge and share our heritage with our children, along with support them in the development of their own cultural identity.
Children start becoming aware of their cultural dynamic and identity from the age of 3 -4 years. Cultural identity is defined as the identity or feeling of belonging to a group based on nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality. It is important in a childs development due to its influence in how the child thinks, learns and develops within in their enviroment.
The hope for any parent is to raise children with a healthy cultural identity that draws from the diversity of their varied backgrounds, while making space for the development of their own hybrid identities. Below are examples of ways of sharing your heritage with your children while supporting them in the development of their cultural identity:
National/ Cultural/ Religious Holidays - celebrating a holiday is alway fun, from food to dressing up, songs and other rituals. Making a point of celebrating notable holidays of your children’s heritage countries or religions goes a long way exposing them to traditions that form part of their background. It makes for a busy calendar, though it does create the space to share snippets of what you grew up within your family.
Art and Literature - keeping in mind representation matters, with art and literature, choosing to fill your home with images and books that speak toy our family’s diverse background. This ranges from artworks and prints through to flags of your countries of origin, diverse children books and adult books by authors you grew up with or relevant to your dynamic as a mixed family.
Language - language can get tricky since there will be baseline language within your household, and depending on where in Switzerland you are the little ones the little ones will pick up German, Italian, French or Romasch. Trying to incorporate the additional languages that form part of their heritage in song, a phrase here and there, stories or movie and tv shows and if possible well as calls with relatives fluent in languages can be helpful.
Food - a fun and delicious way of diving into your family’s multicultural heritage, , from adapting dishes and recipes you grew up with to learning your children other heritage cuisine. Their is joy in familiar flavours, even more so in sharing them with your little ones and sure some hey will enjoy and others pass on.
Community - building and seeking out community is an ongoing project. As parents , where possible you can actively seek out spaces and events that are diverse not only culturally but ethnically/racially. It is a fact that we are in a majority White European space, and though families like ours are scattered about the Swiss Federation, we are not an anomaly.
Of course we are only at the beginning and it is an ongoing process and not without fault, there are always new things to learn. How are you are celebrating multiculturalism within your family? What advice do you have? Share with us: hello@afroswissfamilies.com.
