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Give Your Third Culture Kid a Lifeline: a Sibling
Without my sister I’d have fallen through the cracks of the world
Children who grow up in multiple countries have a different psychology to settled children. When I was growing up, there was no word for us. Nowadays the simplest label is Third Culture Kids, or TCK’s.
This article is an appeal to parents of TCK’s to give their child a sibling. Due to lack of research in the area, it is purely my personal opinion formed from my own experience.
I have a sister 18 months older than me, and I thank my lucky stars for her. Without her, I would be utterly alone in my cultural identity. Being eccentric is a given for TCK’s, but without the mirror of a sibling I’d be beyond eccentric and into mentally ill territory. Without a doubt.
My mother’s mother was the oldest of 7 girls and I can still hear her telling us:
“You girls may hate each other now, but one day you’ll love each other more than anyone else in the whole world.”
My sister and I would scowl at each other with utter loathing and scoffed at her every time she said it, but she was right.
The biggest difference is that between one and none.
