Growing Up Global: Raising Children to be At Home in the World helps parents to raise children with a global perspective. Not all families can travel overseas to expose their children to world cultures, but they can start engaging with the world right in their own home communities. This hands-on book helps to begin that process.

Why Growing Up Global?

When my youngest daughter was three, she loved Mexican mariachi music and Arabic belly-dancing. She recognized Spanish, French, Persian and Chinese words. On her world map placemat, she showed us Ukraine, where her friend Katya’s baboushka lives. And she attended pre-school in West Africa for three months, where she was the only fair-skinned child in her class. To Sophia, these disparate cultures and places formed a natural part of her early discoveries and vocabulary. But most American children are unaware of the world beyond our borders. Can we assume that the United States will remain the world’s super-power if our future leaders don’t possess a deep-rooted appreciation of the world around them?

As parents, we don’t know where to begin. While globalization drives the economy, our politicians talk about building a wall around our borders, and anxiety colors our experiences of how we leave the country and who comes in. There are numerous books telling businesses how to succeed internationally, but there is no parenting guide for raising children to be happy, comfortable and successful world citizens – until now. As a mother of three and adviser to hundreds of American businesses and international governments and organizations for almost twenty years, I have tried to help my clients and family thrive in – not fear – countries they can hardly pronounce.

I have spoken with Ambassadors and Generals, parents and teachers about this topic. While all recognize that training our children to understand and operate in the world is crucial, they have no model to accomplish this daunting task. With their encouragement, I supplement the results of those interviews and of my own experiences with the best of websites, films, CDs, books, magazines and service activities. The result is Growing Up Global: Raising Children to be At Home in the World, a timely book which breaks the process down into fun, easy-to-understand concepts. Each chapter forms a unique adventure without having to purchase airplane tickets, from celebrating Diwali to eating ugali.

The book will utilize anecdotes of diverse experiences, particularly from regions that make the news but perplex many Americans. It will share some statistics and global trends, and quote from literature on relevant topics utilizing sidebars, insets, graphics, and other tools to make the reading appealing to a general audience.

Growing Up Global helps adults grappling with questions of how their children will fit in a world that on the level of technology and business is increasingly inter-connected, but in politics, religion, and culture seems more polarized. Families using the book will gain a greater understanding of some of the vast changes in a shrinking world. They will grow closer to each other while they engage in activities that demonstrate the experiences and preferences of their peers around the world. Children who are comfortable in the globalized world gain a distinct edge in competitive environments, and ultimately, become better-adjusted and more confident adults.