1. London – With all the castles and parks that abound everywhere, kids will be overwhelmed to visit London. The place found in many childhood bedtime stories, London is full of many and varied attractions, museums, parks and festivals which will keep the whole family entertained. Aside from the usual sights such as the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and Tower Bridge, you can take your kids to see the Peter Pan Statue in Kensington Gardens, the Science Museum, the Horniman Museum, the London Zoo, the London Dungeon, Mudlarks at Museum of London Docklands, and the many gardens and parks.

2. Paris – What kid hasn’t heard of the Eiffel Tower or the Notre Dame Cathedral? You can bring them to the top of the Eiffel Tower to peer down at the city. A visit to the Louvre to ponder at Mona Lisa’s smile and the “Outsize” thematic tour will keep them excited. They will be awed at the latest rotating toy exhibit in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs where they can see over 400 vintage Star Wars toys, costumes and video games. Treat them to a ride on the Place de la Concorde Ferris Wheel, to sail mini boats in the Tuileries Garden or to a boat ride down the Seine. Of course, there is Disneyland as well!

3. Rome – While older kids will surely be thrilled to visit the many historical sights and museums, Rome is kid-friendly as well. Visit the Roman Forum and the Colosseum where they can imagine gladiator fights. After which, you can take your kids to Gladiator School! This 2-hour class will demonstrate and inform about gladiator gear and equipment. Then, gladiator-fighting training follows in one-on-one battles using foam swords. Take them to visit the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel to witness one of the greatest works of art. Have a picnic in the many parks such as in the Villa Borghese Gardens which also houses a zoo. They can bike around, enjoy bumper cars, pony rides and row a boat in the pond. A visit to Castel Sant’Angelo will bring you up to the ramparts where your kids will love looking down at the panorama. Then, stroll by the Tiber River or take a boat ride. On a summer day, don’t forget to cool down with the many flavours of gelato!

4. Munich – While beer drinking is perhaps the top attractions for adults in this beautiful city, kids will revel in handcrafted toys. Visit the Toy Museum and one of the oldest and largest science museums in the world, the Deutches Museum. Of course, you can’t miss a visit to the beautiful Neuschwanstein Castle to see the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s castle.

5. Copenhagen – Spectacular castles mere minutes away from the city will definitely be worth visiting especially with kids. Other than that, kids will love to see the place where Hans Christian Andersen came from. As such, a visit to the sad mermaid in the harbor will evoke many questions. Usher your kids to the magical Round Tower to see the equestrian staircase. The Tivoli, an amusement park, will keep your kids excited and active with the handful of adrenaline rides, funfair booths and gardens.

By MJ

Photos by Bringing Up Brits and StockFree images.

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Meghan Peterson Fenn is the author of Bringing Up Brits, co-author of Inspiring Global Entrepreneurs, co-founder and Director of Design and Web at Shake It Up Creative. And, she is an award winning expat blogger and mother of three.

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Here’s our Christmas in pictures.

Happy New Year everyone!

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Meghan Peterson Fenn is the author of Bringing Up Brits, co-author of Inspiring Global Entrepreneurs, co-founder and Director of Design and Web at Shake It Up Creative. And, she is an award winning expat blogger.

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Things that make me ecstatic that I never thought would even factor in, let alone make me happy and add to my enjoyment of life.

• Doing a wash and bringing in dry clothes from the washing line, within 6 to 8 hours only
• Not having to turn the heat on to heat the radiators in order to dry clothes
• Buying peanut butter from Marks & Spencer
• Buying Kraft Macaroni Cheese from Ocado
• Being asked in a shoe or clothing store if I need any help
• Being smiled at by staff pretty much anywhere
• When our food order comes all together and no one has to wait
• When my youngest child’s food order comes first (instead of very last)
• Public transport
• Watching Britain’s Got Talent with my children
• The splendor of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton
• The view of the sea while I watch my children do their swimming lessons
• Discovering new books about cross culture, TCKs, CCKs, language, mixed race and cultural differences
• Meeting other Americans
• Always having an extra sweater or jacket when out and about, even in August
• People asking me where I’m from and not being surprised at my response
• Really good pub chips (french fries, not potato chips)
• Online Tesco delivery
• Meeting people from Romania, Bulgaria, Russia and Holland (and probably many other countries too)
• Talking to other parents about raising children in Britain
• Talking to other parents about raising children in America
• Being called ‘love’ by taxi drivers
• Being called ‘mum’ by my children
• When my husband makes me a ‘nice cup of tea’
• Discovering short breaks to places like Amsterdam and Bruges
• Visiting Spain, another foreign country that is nearly becoming my third ‘home’
• Business lunches in London
• Street food
• Finding a place to park our car in front of our house
• My dishwasher
• Keeping in touch with family and friends who live all over the world via Facebook
• Meeting amazing people who share my sense of global entrepreneurial spirit through Twitter and Expats in Biz
• Pinning on Pinterest
• Afternoon tea at Bill’s (actually, afternoon or cream tea anywhere!)
• Asking “What do you fancy…”
• Saying “I’m knackered”
• When my neighbors smile at me
• When my children smile at me
• When my children’s friends ask for a ‘cookie’ instead of a ‘biscuit’

I could go on! The joy (or should that be the trials and tribulations?) of living in England! Of course there are plenty of things that make me unhappy (such as having to bust a gut to bag up my shopping quickly so as not to anger the checkout person or annoy the next customer by taking too long) but I wanted this post to be full of all the wonderful and somewhat weird discoveries that have become so much a part of my cross-cultural life within a cross-cultural family here in England.

#MyGlobalLife link up

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Meghan Peterson Fenn is the author of Bringing Up Brits and co-author of Inspiring Global Entrepreneurs with Heidi Mulligan Walker. Meghan is also the Director and Chief Designer at her own design company, White Ochre Design Ltd. And, she is an award winning expat blogger.

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WHAT: Guest lecture on raising cross cultural children in Britain to a group of American students studying child development

WHO: Students of the University of Lipscomb, Nashville, TN USA

WHERE: Russell Square, London UK

Dr John Conger of Lipscomb University contacted me in January explaining that he was bringing a group of American students to London on a study abroad trip. He explained that his specialty is in child development and that he’s teaching Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory of Development. He asked me to guest lecture on raising cross cultural children as a non British mother bringing up children in a country and culture I myself didn’t grow up in. Emails were exchanged, the date and topic set, and all I had to do was prepare the lecture and work out the logistics for getting to London for the 8am class.

I was actually thrilled that this professor, who only knew about me from my website, had asked me to guest lecture. It was a fantastic thing for me to do and I enjoy helping and talking to fellow Americans about my experiences. During the class I was struck by how much things have moved on in the world of education (since I was at college). Most of the students had laptops out in front of them, we barely had the use of computers let alone laptops when I was a student! And there was a point during the discussion when someone said “can we Google it?” Oh how times have changed!

I also realized while answering their questions that I am completely at home here in England, more than I sometimes like to admit, and that at the same time, I’m still very American in my thinking and in the way I bring a different set of values to my family.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable morning with a wonderful group of young people. I’m thankful that I was given such an amazing opportunity to share my experience with Americans who are not only discovering England for the first time, but who are studying sociology and the influences parents from different cultures have on their cross cultural children and how that enhances their lives.

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Meghan Peterson Fenn is the author of Bringing Up Brits and co-author of Inspiring Global Entrepreneurs with Heidi Mulligan Walker. Meghan is also the Director and Chief Designer at her own design company, White Ochre Design Ltd. And, she is an award winning expat blogger.

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Now that the children are a bit older, I wanted to represent them better and also give this blog a fresh start for 2014. If you missed the London fireworks show, here it is! Happy viewing, Happy New Year.

Thank you to all my wonderful readers and followers. I hope you all have a fantastic 2014.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Doctor

For Doctor Who fans, this year is all about celebrating 50 years of the infamous TV show about an eccentric ‘Doctor’ who travels through time fighting sometimes scary, sometimes hammy and sometimes the weirdest most vile enemies in all the universe. As an adult, did you poo poo the idea of the new Doctor Who or were you thrilled at the thought of his resurrection? For me, the original series was slightly before my time and although I do remember watching it as a child, it was never an integral part of my childhood. So in 2005 I began watching it along with my children for the first time. My husband watched Doctor Who back in the 70s and follows it now because it was so much a part of his childhood. My son has worn the pjs, collected the cards and various editions of the coveted sonic screwdriver. My younger son is terrified of the Daleks and The Silence and I rarely let him watch the show the whole way through. He senses the excitement of it and the science fiction aspect is highly appealing to young kids (and to adults) and I suppose we, as adults, think it’s harmless because we watched it as children. It can actually be quite terrifying and often has adult themes. But it is great and lots of fun and may be one of the most popular TV shows ever because of its accessibility to both children and adults all over the world. It’s amazing really, there is The Doctor Who Experience, the 3 day Doctor Who conference and all the hype surrounding the Tardis. I saw on Facebook just the other day someone had posted a photo of a Tardis they visited in New York City!

So for all Doctor Who fans, young and old, take a look at the new range of special edition stamps from Royal Mail.  Eleven individual stamps each with a different incarnation of the doctor, a miniature sheet which features four of the most popular villains from the show, and a lot of merchandise and gifts based on Doctor Who. Dr Who Royal Mail special edition stamps were released on 26th March 2013. Have fun and for die hard fans, you still have the Doctor Who Anniversary convention in November in London to look forward to.

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It came to my attention that this would be well received so if this interests you and you’d like to join in, then please let me know so I can start to formulate a plan. It would be wonderful to meet some of you in person and even more wonderful to learn more about you, why you are here in Britain and to share stories and experiences face to face. Let me know by either posting a comment here or emailing me direct meg@www.bringingupbrits.co.uk. And I am open to meet location suggestions. I immediately thought of a place like TATE Modern because it’s easy to find, but if we do it in the summer and we are lucky with the weather, we could meet up in Hyde Park? I don’t live in London so not certain of the best places to meet up so please offer your input. I suppose we’d need to have a back up plan if we meet up outside due to weather. How many times do I hear/see that!? “Weather permitting”. So funny, not sure any other countries use that phrase quite as much as here in Britain!

I look forward to hearing from you!

In the meantime, here is some news from Moving Planet:

“We have recently launched an illustrated children’s book for expat families. It follows the story of Flup the alien who moves with his family from his home on Xtron, to Earth. With bright illustrations and a fun story the book aims to help parents talk to their children about a move abroad. The book is currently available in Spanish and English and can be viewed on the website: www.movingplanet.info/the-story/
Feedback, comments and suggestions can be submitted on the website.”

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London fireworks in 2013

This time of year is when people regroup, reorganize and think about plans and the future and what’s in store for them. They make promises to eat better, be better people, better parents, or just be BETTER in general. It’s like being clensed. The year is over and if it was a bad one, it’s forgotten and if it was a good one, it’s celebrated but either way, it’s time to move on.

We spent a wonderful couple of days including new year’s eve day with my college friend, Heidi Walker and her British husband and their 3 children. They recently moved to North Carolina USA from Beijing where they had lived for 2 years. Heidi had lived as an American expat in the UK for 15 years before that. I found it amazing how adaptable their children were. They loved Beijing and settled into life in the US very smoothly. Her eldest sounds American now! The kids take the school bus, play outside all the time and are enjoying the all American lifestyle. Both of our youngest formed the cutest friendship and for the first time ever, Jonah had a friend all to himself and we hardly saw him during our two day visit.

Hearing about their adventures and moves and new places and new lives made me think about what’s in store for us, for my family. Will I ever repatriate? Will my husband and children ever experience life in America? Will I ever have a washing machine that is NOT in my kitchen? I think here in England for us, it’s as good as it gets. We will never be able to afford a bigger house (a house with a laundry room – something that comes as standard in American houses), never live in a better area. We are giving our children a safe and secure upbringing, a childhood by the beach, great schools and a  good start in life. We are happy in the here and now….. but for how long? Jobs change, circumstances change. And, we have options. Both Nick and myself are very good with change, with challenges and learning new things. We’ve had a combined experience of living in 6 different countries. I feel I am still adapting to my adopted country and still having those unique and eye-opening experiences that come with living life abroad. We are also successful in our jobs, our work. So how come our lifestyle doesn’t reflect our success and why do I feel we will never feel successful here in England? We live in a house with no closets and only 1 bathroom and where we can’t always park our car. We have no place to park our car at our house. How many times do I come home and have to drop the kids off in front of the house and then go and find a place to park two blocks away? How annoying is that??!! We just spent 2 days in an AMAZING house worth 1.6 million pounds and it didn’t have a place to park a car apart from out on the street. 1.6 million pounds does not even guarantee a place to park your car at your own home here in England. That in itself is astonishing. It’s a different lifestyle and a different perspective. It is my life now (not the 1.6 million pound house, mind you!). For how long will this be my life? I bet I’m not the only one asking myself this question in the first few days of 2013. Move over 2012, here we are in 2013. What’s in store for you this year?

If you like this blog, then buy Bringing Up Brits from AMAZON.

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