Are Your Kids Represented In The Books They Read?

Are Your Kids Represented In The Books They Read?

I want to raise my children in a world full of diversity and a love for anyone different than them.

Growing up, I was always a book lover. I couldn't wait for my teachers to pass out the scholastic book fair catalogs because I would race home and beg my mom for as many books as she could afford. Then I would eagerly wait to bring the books home and hole up in my room and read them all!

My favorite part was seeing myself in the stories. I would open a book like Ramona and see a little girl just like me. It was a comforting feeling.

My husband is just as big of a reader as I am. The first thing we had to buy when we got married were five book cases. Yes, you read that right... Five large bookcases. We even had to get rid of a box or two of books because we had a lot of doubles!

Reading was a passion we definitely wanted our children to share. I started buying books as soon as the pregnancy test turned up positive.

I quickly realized how difficult it was to find books that would represent our multiracial family and our biracial children. I wanted my children to share the same feelings I did when reading their books.After talking about it with my husband, we quickly made the decision to hunt down books with multiracial families and children of color. We wanted to fill their rooms with stories of little boys just like them.

When kids read books, they want to identify with the characters. Most of the books they read are an inspiration to them. It may inspire them to be adventurous, to stand up against the bad guys in the world, or even to be who they are.

By seeing kids that look like them, they start to let go of the limits they've put on themselves. They start to believe that they can do anything they set their minds to. I want my kids to dream as big as their little minds let them.

Are you looking for books with multiracial families? Here are some of our favorites.

Mixed Me by Taye Diggs

Mixed Me is all about Max, a biracial little boy. He is constantly answering questions about being mixed race. He loves that he's a perfect mix of mommy and daddy.

I Am Mixed by Garcelle Beauvais

I Am Mixed is all about twins Jay and Nia discovering how great it is to be a blend of multiple cultures.

Mixed Blessing: A Children's Book About a Multi-Racial Family by Marsha Cosman

Young kids don't realize they're biracial right away. It takes them time to understand that they're different. This book walks with a child as he discovers he's different than mommy and daddy in a fun and creative way.

What I Like About Me by Allia Zobel Nolan

This book celebrates the diversity in our world. Instead of feeling bad about looking different than your friends, this book tells you how special we all are!

I Am Flippish by Leslie V Ryan 

This book is all about Sean and his experience when his friends start to ask him why he doesn't look like his daddy.

Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match by Monica Brown

Marisol is beautiful and doesn't match. She is proud of being biracial and won't let anyone put her in a box.-----

Fill your house with books that will remind your children how special they are to be different. Do you have a favorite book about interracial families?

*I get a small commission when you purchase these books off Amazon. Whether you're looking into the books to support me or find your children some amazing books.. you can't lose!*

Multicultural Round Up #2: Top Posts For Multicultural Families

This week's Multicultural Round Up is full of great posts from moms around the blogosphere. They're all sharing about their multicultural families and I know you'll love them as much as I do!

Top Posts For Multicultural Families

Image Credit: Vanessa from De Su Mama

6 Myths Of Interracial Marriages According To A Latina Wife

Vanessa from De Su Mama does an amazing job at identifying some of the common things people think about interracial marriages. One of the myths that stood out to me the most was #6 All Interracial Relationships Are The Same. Every relationship is different because we as couples are different. It's important to understand how different our relationships are so we don't start comparing them to each other. 

Image Credit: Stacy-Ann from Weather Anchor Mama

What You Should Know About Raising Biracial Children

I love this post by Stacy-Ann from Weather Anchor Mama. She talks about some of the key things multicultural families need to know, want to know, or are asking. She even has a great video at the end on some secret tips from her and her husband!

Image Credit: Mari from We Are That Familia

Parenting Biracial Children: 6 Tips From Moms Who Have Been There

This post is seriously amazing! It's a list of tips from moms with multicultural families. They all share advice and wisdom they've gained from years of raising multicultural children and being in intercultural relationships. 

Image Credit: Ellie From Musing Momma

Dealing with Questions & Curiosity as Parent in a Mixed Race Family

Ellie from Musing Momma has been one of my favorites for a while now. She is a psychologist and a mom with a multicultural family. The advice she gives is amazing and practical. This post is all about questions parents of multicultural children get and how to respond. 

Image Credit: David Martinez, Renee Loiz

16 Easy Ways To Raise A Bilingual Child

Pam does a great job over at Parents in giving us advice on how to raise bilingual children. Many multicultural families struggle to teach their children multiple languages because it can seem overwhelming. This post is full of fun and simple ideas!

Which one was your favorite multicultural post?

5 Steps For An Intercultural Relationship

Whether your brand new to your intercultural relationship of you've been around the block a few times, I have 5 steps for you. These steps will help you to get closer to your loved one, understand who they are, develop a plan to blend cultures, and make sure your improving where you can.Haven't you ever said to yourself, "If only I had a guide for all of this!?"Well, today I'm giving you that guide and I know you'll love it!

5 Steps For YOUR Intercultural Relationship

 

Get To Know Each Other

If you want to figure out how to blend cultures and start your family together, you need to know each other. Take time to get to know who you're together with. I don't just mean their favorite color and what they like to watch on tv.You need to understand their culture. Their culture has shaped who they are and the decisions they'll instinctively make. Ask them questions about how they grew up, what they value from their culture, what they've struggled with in their culture, etc. All of this will help you to understand each other.

Develop A Family Culture

Now, it's time to develop a family culture. When you and your loved one start your relationship, you're starting a family. It doesn't matter if you have kids or not, you're a family. When you start a family, you have to develop your own family culture and identity.The best part is this culture will be from both of you. You need to sit down and talk about what's important from both of your cultures and decide how you can bring them together in one family. The best part is you don't have to worry about making the absolute best plan ever!While making a plan is vital, you can change it up when you need to. The idea behind the plan is to know before hand what's important and you can be more intentional in bringing it into your family.

Communicate

The lines of communication need to be open at all times. As you get to know each other, you'll feel more comfortable talking and discussing how your relationship is doing. Conflict is natural and will come up through your relationship. It will come up when trying to figure out how to blend cultures, when dealing with culture shock, and pretty much any time during your relationship. It's normal.The most important thing is that you learn how to communicate with each other so you can learn how to use your conflict to get closer.You also need to be able to discuss how you feel about blending cultures. Are you comfortable with how the blending is happening? Do you feel like one culture is taking over? These are important things you need to talk about through out your relationship.

Re-evaluate

While the plan you develop may work great right now, you need to be prepared that it will change. You and your loved one have to constantly re-evaluate how your plan is working. If it's not working like you thought or you'd like something to change, tweak it.It's going to change naturally over time because the longer you're together, you'll notice you're both changing. You're growing together and getting closer and your circumstances may change as well.You should be scheduling time to talk about all of these things at least once a month.

Give Each Other Grace

Grace. Your relationship needs to be filled with grace. You are bound to mess up or hurt your loved one's feelings and the other way around. The biggest thing is to remember you need to give each other grace. Blending cultures takes time. Even if you're been together for years, you aren't mind readers and things just happen.All you can do is be sure to talk about it, let them know how you feel, and give each other grace. Let your loved one know they have room to mess up and you'll still love them.--Intercultural relationships are beautiful, but they take a lot of patience and grace for each other. I can promise you one thing, it's always worth it. The more you and your loved one work at your relationship, the better it will be.

Family Fridays #24 Josey

Happy Friday everyone! Josey is joining us this week to tell us all about her family!

 

 

Hi! I'm Josey, a sarcastically dry, fun loving and hard working kind of gal. The kind who is immediately puzzling and brings to mind one unanimous question "where is that girl from?" Now, if you have any color of skin that isn't white (or if you have a non-local accent) then you know what that question means, you know before the person can even finish the phrase. They aren't wondering about where you grew up, really, they just want to stick a label on you so they can put you in a category and continue in the social exchange. 'Where are your from' translates to 'what's your ethnicity" and "what do your parents look like?' So nice. Who cares? Well, everyone does, and well, it does matter (a little), so I will tell you.

 

I grew up in Washington state and grew up in a fairly white culture. My husband grew up in Minnesota and his culture was fairly similar (actually maybe a bit more diverse). However, my husband has white skin and I don't. I have a very confusing color of brown that makes sure no one can ever guess my ethnicity correctly. It immediately makes me seem foreign or well traveled, or both, or either. Regardless of the exterior, I grew up without any connections to my skin color (as far as cultural traditions go like Indian, Native American, African American, Samoan or any other bronzed skin beauties), so I never thought about this idea of 'interracial' or even 'race'. We are all people, aren't we?

 

 

At first, I was severely attracted to my husband's devilish smirk, his striking blue eyes, and his ability to play it cool in every situation. It certainly didn't mattered what color he was, and since I, as aforementioned, have no non-white cultural ties, there wasn't an issue of what kind of 'Christmas do you celebrate', or 'would you be willing to convert?' We met at school in the second coldest place in America; Grand Forks, ND. But our relationship has been anything but cold. He's the best friend I have ever had and I can guarantee that our love will last past infinity. He's a bit more reserved (think James Bond at a bar) and I am more, uhh, opposite (think if Rebel Wilson and Jennifer Lawrence had a baby, and it was dark skinned). Our love seriously rocks. And it has nothing to do with the color of our skin (although we do think one another is beautiful and handsome). 

 

What makes our family unique has really nothing to do with how people perceive our interracial status, but it has everything to do with how our lives are intermingled together. How we take the best bits of one another's character and personality, mimicking each other, compromising our differences and at the same time maintaining the essence of who we are as individuals. 

 

Though we did celebrate holidays differently before, now that we are we it is so important to the both of us that our lives are combined and melded. Which means change! Everybody loves change, right? Certainly any family blending together has got to be open to it, because regardless of your race, your heritage, or your color, families are meant to be celebrated. And so, that's me! In a nutshell, a shell that's easily cracked into. My biggest advice for two people attracted to one another, who happen to be on separate ends of the skin color wheel: love each other for who you are. And hopefully, eventually, our world will adapt and change along with the rest of us and soon color will be a thing of the past and we can finally shed that label of interracial and race, and begin to see people for who they are not what they appear to be.

 

Do you to hear more stories like Josey's? Check out our other Family Friday posts!

How do you make an intercultural relationship work...

I’ve been getting emails from some of you lately on your struggles with the cultural differences in an intercultural relationship. Let’s be honest with each other. When you get into a relationship with anyone, expect cultural differences and all of the struggles that follow. Either way, you and your partner grew up in different families and different ways. Two different cultures if you may.It doesn’t matter what kind of relationship you are in, you will always deal with compromise and communication. If you want a perfectly easy relationship, stick to fiction. If you want a real relationship with anyone, remember there will be struggles, compromise, you will often not know what to do or who is right, you will challenge each other, grow together, and your relationship will reap all the blessings of your hard work.I love my husband more today than I did when we got married. Why you ask? I love him more now because we have worked hard for our relationship and always strive to make our marriage stronger. If you have ever been around us, you know that we fight, bicker, I’m always trying to convince him I’m right about everything, he thinks laughing while we fight is necessary, and we usually have no idea what we’re doing.We often come up to a crossroads in our marriage. Do we do what Indian culture says to do or do we do what Western culture says to do? There is no perfect answer to this question. It changes with every situation. I walked into my marriage with Joel knowing he’s Indian and I’m a whitey. We have to respect each other’s cultures, which means a lot of compromise. There are times when we do what Indian culture says to do and there are times when we do what Western culture says to do. We decide what works best for our little family.Give yourself a break. There is no perfect relationship. Try your best to listen to your partner, compromise, lovingly encourage one another when you don’t know what to do, be willing to hear their side, and remember just because you grew up doing it one way doesn’t mean it’s the only way.Love your partner for who they are, be proud of your marriage and all of it’s little imperfections, and know it’s all worth it.