You Know You're the Parent of Third Culture Kids When ...

I've seen a lot of lists of "you know you're a third culture kid when..."  Some apply to my kids and some do not -- at least not yet.  But I've come up with my own little list of how you know that you're the parent of a third culture kid in Hungary, based on my own experiences.  Here's what I came up with:

You know you are a parent of third culture kids (in Hungary) when:

1. You see a sign on the autobahn that reads "Ausfahrt" and nobody laughs.

2. If you do manage to get a giggle from the "Ausfahrt" sign, it's only after a discussion that includes three different languages.

3. Your toddler plays "border crossing" more frequently than playing "house"

4. Your kids use construction paper and old pictures to make play passports.

5. Your five year old thinks it would be really cool if the American Santa Claus and Hungarian Mikulas someday met each other at OUR HOUSE!

6. Your six year old only speaks to children in any country in Hungarian because in her experience that's the language of children. Only adults speak English.

7. Your child sees an American ad selling 100 ft boat and says, "Wow, in America you can buy a boat for only 100 forint!" (about 50 cents)

8. You use your children as translators from about age 5.

9. You need your kids to check your grammar/spelling when you post on facebook.