Our Girl with Curls

We don’t know where our daughter got her curls from as both Lisa and I have straight hair (though it must be from Lisa’s side of the family as Asians don’t have curly hair right? I think Lisa’s brother had curly hair as a child). But it is definitely a point of interest and conversation with Thai people we meet. Is it natural they ask? (Yes, it is. I don’t think she’d be patient enough anyway to sit while having curls put in).

Having children can definitely make things harder living cross culturally. You take longer to learn the language as you have less time. They get sick. They can be very tiring.

However, (apart from being a great blessing) people usually are more open to talking to you if you have a child with you. Thai people generally love children. We had a young workman at our house when it was being fixed up and he loved just playing with our daughter. I can’t imagine that she’d have the same reaction back in Australia.

Also, our children have opened up new relationships with parents at school and at Taekwondo. They are great at breaking down barriers.

So there’s some of the bad and good of having children on the field.