You know your offspring's childhood is different to yours when...

...the thought of a bus ride to the capital city is more exciting to them than the thought of a plane ride.

...when they ask what a seat belt is you reply “like on the plane”.

...they ask why Jesus washed the disciples feet and you don’t need to explain they wore open shoes on dusty roads. Your answer is “Because they didn’t have a tap outside their front door like us.”

...when your toddler reaches the end of the alphabet song she stops at “Y” looks to you unsure of how to sing the final letter.

...what you call biscuits, they call cookies. Then when you make biscuits with American friends they are confused as to why scones come out of the oven instead of cookies.   

...chopsticks are the first thing they grab when they see spaghetti heading to the table.

This is all from my point of view of course. If Soeun made a list it would be quite different, their childhood is so different compared to his even though our cross cultural kids are growing up in his country.

And why does this matter?  Tanya Crossman explains here:

"An important thing to grasp is that Third Culture Kids ( TCKs who become ATCKs) begin their expat journey as children, while Third Culture Adults do not live abroad until adulthood.

It might sound subtle, but the difference is actually very significant. The children of expat families are TCKs – but the parents are usually TCAs. They are living in the same country, but while parents experience and process the challenge of cross-cultural living as adults, TCKs grow up and form identity in the middle of it."

And linking up with Velvet Ashes for "Children"