Two silly things I have been musing about.

[Ozziegirly]

DH and I are British and currently live in Aus. Tentatively TTC...

So, firstly, presumably if we have a child, when he goes to school, he will have an Australian accent? Does it seem bizarre to have a child speaking differently to the parents, or do they end up with a hybrid of Oz and Brit speak?

Secondly, if you have had a baby abroad, and want it christened, did you just go ahead and do it without all your friends and family around? We have gathered some friends here, but nothing like the big family and group of friends we have in the UK.

Presumably you can't get your child christened in a totally different country just so your friends are there, but it just seems slightly sad to have a little christening with all these new people we have only met in the last couple of years.

I know in the grand scheme of things these are unimportant but I mentioned them to Dh and he said that as I wansn't even pregnant yet there was plenty of time to consider this in the future. But I want to know now.

[Ozziegirly]

Oh and what do you do about godparents? Do you have to find people in the new countrym or did you go for people "back home"?

[BonsoirAnna]

My cousin and her DH, both British with public school/Oxbridge accents, live in Sydney and have two children, one at university and one in the final year of school, who have done nearly all their schooling in Sydney. Yes, the children have Australian accents (though not the parents).

Don't know about the christening thing, though. Why don't you do it on holiday back home?

[Ozziegirly]

I wondered if it was like weddings, where you're only allowed to do it in your parish church?

[Bucharest]

Dd is christened here in Italy, with only his family present. Not a big deal for me so...just got on with it.We had friends from here as godparents.
As for the accents, people in the UK have different accents from their parents, never mind the difference between UK English and Oz English.

[Ozziegirly]

Yes I suppose they do don't they - the Oz one is just noticeably different though! Maybe it won't seem weird when it's our own child.

As I said - silly musings really.

[Cies]

If you'd prefer to do the Christening back in UK then do it.

I know a couple here in Spain who went back to Wales to have the baby Christened. I think that might have had more to do with the Spanish father not being that bothered about it, and not being a practising Catholic, whereas the British mother was.

Fwiw, we've tentatively said that this bump will be baptised in the Catholic church in Spain as that is where we live and the predominant culture. But we would have some sort of blessing if possible back in England as a chance for the UK branch of the family to celebrate it.

[Ozziegirly]

Well it's good to know that you have the choice, thank you.

I like the idea of a christening here and then a blessing once we go back to show the baby off....

[mumoverseas]

ref the accents, DC will probably have a slightly different accent to you and DH.
I am currently living in a western compound in the Middle East and there are kids from all over the world here. Quite a few have parents of two different nationalities so we are getting interesting accents. One of my friends is american and her DH is a scouser so we are waiting to see what their DS sounds like.
I have (I like to think) a 'normal' down south/surrey accent whereas DH is a londoner. DD (2 1/2) has picked up a bit of a northern accent at times, probably because the majority of the nursery staff are from oop norff.

Ref christenings, we had DD 'dunked' at my mothers parish church in the UK. Although DH and I do have a UK base we do not attend church there and tended to pop into my mums local one when we were visiting her. Her priest was happy to do DD's baptism two years ago and we had arranged to do DS's (aged 3 months) in July at her local church as she really wanted it done there where she has all her cicle of friends.
Sadly, my mother died a few days ago so now no real family connection to that church (dad died a few years ago) once her funeral takes place in a week or two (still trying to plan) but thankfully the priest has said he will still be happy to baptise DS in July as originally planned which will be a lovely memorial to my mum.

I would suggest when the time comes if you do have a family connection in the UK you could try this approach. In the meantime, it doesn't hurt to pop in now and again if you are in the area so they get to know you.

Good luck with your TTC

[Ozziegirly]

So sorry to hear about your mum, I hope you're doing ok.

Thanks for your message and I agree on both (I also have a 'normal' sussex/southern accent!)

Funny the things you think of that you never consider when you're just moving.

Hope all goes ok with funeral planning.

[mumoverseas]

Thanks ozziegirly.
Just had a during the mass they even did a baptism!

[Weta]

I'm sure they'll get Aussie accents (sorry!) - even my two cousins who moved from the UK to NZ picked up the accent, and they were 2 and 4. Their accents aren't that strong though.

For the christening, my parents went back to the UK when I was a baby and had me christened there. I'd do it wherever it's most meaningful for you.

[Sibble]

sorry, definately will get the accent. ds1 who was born in England has, after nearly 7 years a kiwi accent albeit slightly more dilute than ds2 who was born here. I can't help with their early years homework as the vowel sounds are different and it confuses them. Playing eye spy is also tricky when young and doing it by sound not letter (what starts with e as in egg - airplane ) very kiwi! It's not just the accent though (which does make me smile) we now have chippies (crisps), lollies (sweets), togs (swimming costumes), jandals (flip flops) etc I do draw the line at yoooooghurts though (think American) rather than yoghurst and we still have scones with a southern accent (scooooones) rather than scones (ons).

[Sibble]

blimey I'm tired this morning - that was e as in ear . it's been a long week!

[Jux]

My cousin married a Kiwi and moved over there (still there over 20yrs on). Her kids all speak Kiwi, she almost speaks Kiwi. Your accents are more likely to be a hybrid of Aus and Brit while your kids will be Aus.

As for christening, what happened with my cousin was

No. 1: christened in NZ, close family made special trip
No. 2: christened in NZ, I was there (godparent) but no other of her side of family
No. 3: christened in NZ with local friends and family there.

[Ozziegirly]

Thanks everyone, that's all really helpful and interesting.

I certainly don't mind them having an Ozzie accent, it just seems strange that our children will sound different - and yes, say daft words like "robe" and "lollies" and "thongs". I will indoctrinate as much as possible into flip flops and sweets and dressing gown, but I guess you can't mould a child as much as you would like....

[ninedragons]

I'll be interested to see what happens with the dialect issue in our house. I am Australian, DH is British, but I lived in the UK for so long that in our household it's an aubergine, a courgette, a pepper, a pair of flip flops, pants are the things that go underneath your trousers, etc etc etc. Poor DD will arrive at school and think WTF is an eggplant?

Where are you? It has always been dressing gown in Sydney, as far as I'm aware.

[Astrophe]

Your kids accents will just seem normal as it will be the only way you've even heard them speak. My DC had strong (to me!) midlands accents after 2.5 years there, and now back in Sydney their accents have become quite Aussie withing 5 months. We did notice the transition, but they still sound like themselves, so it's not weird.

We had a thanksgiving serice for DS whilst stil in the UK - we did wait until my parents were over for a visit, and we chose two Australian and two UK Godparents.

Where do you expect to live for DCs childhood? If Aus, then choose Australian Godparents, or a set of each.

We a re back in Aus permanently now, but love that DS has an ongoing connection with his UK Godparents (who are WONDERFUL at staying in touch and at praying for him). We are sure he will visit them, and we can pack him off to England when he misbehaves as a teenager, or for his GAP year

[Astrophe]

oh, we have held onto some British words (not accents) - yog-urt (rather than yo-gurt), flip flops, trousers, sweets, crisps...all the words that we found so irritating when we moved to the UK, but now cling onto as a reminder of our time there

(oh, and they still say 'bum' and sometimes 'mum' with a midlands/northern accent...so DS calls "Moooom, can you come and wipe my boooom")

[ninedragons]

One thing I will be vigilant for is this fake American accent the teenagers around our area seem to affect. Eavesdropping on the bus at 3.30 it's all "you know, like, wow".

DH and I have decided we will electric cattle prod DD if we ever catch her talking like Miley effing Cyrus.

[brightongirldownunder]

Well, DD said "oh my gawd" today. I totally blame that on you Aussie riff raff.

ND - get in touch, me need g & t catchup with you.

[brightongirldownunder]

And I refuse to call a bum bag a fanny pack

[savoycabbage]

My dd who is five developed a fake australian accent after FOUR days at school. Obviously she was trying to fit in and I thought it was quite cute at first but now I find it a bit weird and sometimes irritating. I can't understand a word she says sometimes! On and on about textas when she means felt tip pens.

[Ozziegirly]

In Adelaide it's Robe rather than dressing gown - how strange!

It's good to get all this input.

I still resolutely call an aubergine and aubergine and courgette a courgette but weirdly I have started on capsicum. But it seems that there is just capsicum - no difference between red and greed. Odd.

And you have reassured me about the Christening side of things. I think I'll make DH go back to the UK and also have a blessing here. Two parties are better than one.

[nooka]

My dd adopted an American accent within a couple of days of us arriving there, and now we are in Canada we have been told that she doesn't have much of an accent anymore (ie that she sounds Canadian). We have been here fr six months! ds on the other hand if anything sounds more South London than before we left. Given that I speak RP that's a little annoying! We have all started to pick up Canadian words, with the occasional "eh" thrown in. I found myself thinking that the chili I had yesterday was so nice because of the Cilantro (and the weird thing is that I can't actually pronounce that right - it becomes cintrillo in my mind), which is obviously always coriander!

dd's accent is a bit annoying, because it's changed all her inflections in a slightly odd way, but I can't remember how she sounded before anymore!

[Louise2004]

As an expat, most of our friends' children have pretty strong American accents from going to international schools or slightly odd mixed accents picked up from their local friends. For some reason our ds has always spoken with a very clear English accent, which is unusual. It does helps to correct their English as well if you're worried about different words and meanings (as they get older it's easier to explain the differences to them).

In terms of christenings, most of our friends do that at home during their annual leave. That way they have all their family present as well as old friends, who are usually chosen as the godparents. Some also have a party in their current country with their new friends (and the children who will be their children's friends growing up). The best of both worlds!