Thelife- A third-culture kid is a kid who grows up in a different culture from those of their parents.
- My two kids are growing up in the UK, but I'm from the US and their father is from Norway.
During the early World Cup game between the United States and England, my sons and their friends piled into our living room in London. My two sons supported England, while the other family's three boys cheered for the US. By the end of the 0-0 match, everyone had lost interest, but the uniting force of the World Cup had already worked its magic.
I moved to London for law school in 2005 and became a British citizen in 2014 during my first pregnancy to ensure my future children would also be British citizens. In the UK, citizenship is based on your parents' rights to citizenship, not on where you're born, as it is in the US.
My childhood was far from an international one; I rarely left my home state of Maine. My two sons, now 7 and 5, hold three passports: British and American from me, and Norwegian from their father.
The American sociologist Ruth Hill Useem coined the term "third-culture kid" in the 1950s to describe children who grow up in a different culture from their parents' cultures. To better understand raising my two third-culture kids, I started a blog and an Instagram account called Triplepassport in 2016.
Watching the World Cup helped my kids connect with our family in the US
I've spoken with many parents raising children abroad, but none had mentioned how normalizing the World Cup could be for third-culture kids who rarely see examples of themselves in mainstream media. This year we experienced it firsthand as the reduced schedule meant TVs broadcast cheering people from around the world for 29 days straight.
Before or after each England or US match (Norway didn't qualify), my children's American cousins and grandparents called, because they knew we'd be home and watching too. The World Cup helped our family maintain these connections, which can be hard to do while living abroad.
Our kids got to talk to their peers about the World Cup and learn about other cultures
Though our children attend a local English school, the World Cup highlighted the vast number of dual and triple citizens in their London school. It also provided opportunities — through activities like a schoolwide "flag bee," for example — for them to connect with students from the UK and tell them about other aspects of their identities.
In my older son's second-grade class, conversations revolved around which team each child supported that week. A classmate of his started the tournament in a white-and-gold jersey from his father's home country of Germany. Within two weeks, with Germany eliminated, he'd switched to a bright yellow jersey from his mother's home country, Brazil. Finally, he wore a jersey from Argentina to keep supporting South America. Just as they might choose who to support during the World Cup, third-culture kids can spend much of their lives deciding which of their parents' countries they identify with most.
I connected with parents of other 3rd-culture kids
Instead of a reason to stay distant, talking about our countries and different cultures served as a way to unite families over holiday lunches and choir concerts.
At a recent school event, a fellow mother of third-culture kids described how her son was in tears during the France-England quarterfinal, torn between supporting her native France and his home team. Moroccan parents' excitement about advancing to the semifinals brought them into the conversation, and many congratulated me on the US team's performance, as though I had a hand in it.
While many Europeans turned their noses up at the concept of a winter World Cup — it's usually held during the summer — our family welcomed the distraction during the holiday season. We read nighttime stories about Messi and Mbappé rather than tales of Rudolph and Santa. Soccer cards replaced Christmas cards in my children's backpacks. We substituted our advent calendar for a large World Cup bracket on the wall.
The World Cup provided well-deserved seasonal cheer for multinational children like ours after years of travel restrictions that kept them apart from extended family. And now third-culture kids have a new fairytale: the dramatic and unlikely one where Messi's Argentina wins in the greatest World Cup final in history.