To feel sad that my Dd will not really know what it’s like to be British

Tbf conkers are maybe more a rural thing? My mother has memories of it but living in a fairly urban London area it wasn't something on my radar.

Hmm...so his father chose to raise his children here but didn't want them to feel British first and foremost? Not sure if I agree with that. I think if you move somewhere permanently you should commit that country first.

If you had lived somewhere else, you’d feel it! It’s not that the UK has a hugely distinctive culture when you are here, more that when you are living somewhere other than here there are a million little things that are very slightly “wrong” - even if you are living somewhere great that you love.

It doesn’t matter about the country any more than the county, town or village. We’re all from Earth, a tiny little isolated rock surrounded by nothing for trillions of miles. Why draw little lines everywhere ?

Most people don’t live in villages. And I don’t know that OP plans to live in one either.

No issue with it, not for me but lots of people love that kind of life.

Cold & wet? I guess...hardly Scandinavia or Eastern Europe levels of cold.

Populist parties are rising everywhere, is the UK especially bad compared to the rest of Europe and US?

Tbf lots of UK kids like Paw Patrol etc too!

Unless they want to go to Dubai 🙄 like some people on a recent thread!

Exactly. It's not a curse being British. Just another batshit comment. Obviously from someone born and raised in the UK...🙄No-one berates the British more than (some) British people. It's quite sickening really. They don't know how bloody fortunate and privileged they are. I think they should hang their head in shame to be honest. Disrespecting their own country like this.

Will they ever leave the UK though? LOL, will they heck as like!

Yeah, the children in my village still play with conkers, and marbles, and they play in the park, ride around on their bikes, and play in the woods that surround the village. Clearly some posters live in places where this doesn't happen anymore. But it does where I live.

Oh my god do you! Its a distant memory in my circles of friends. I think id be given some weird looks if I suggested it, used to be a massive part if my childhood.

You can immerse you child in vast amounts of British culture though books and films and cartoons, as well as through food of course.
Surely you and your husband are already familiarising the child with GB through general chat, common references, and above all, the language spoken at home.

I’d not worry. It might even be said that you are giving them the best and ditching the worst, in terms of a ‘British’ upbringing (though presumably this is English, Welsh, Brit-Asian or whatever as opposed to ‘British’, given the multifarious ways being British is experienced back home).

But maybe an annual visit home is indicated now, if you really are concerned about closer links, and no doubt there are cousins and older family for the child get to know better back in Blighty.

Unless you’re leaving right this second, won’t she be 7 at least? I mean you can’t just drop everything and come back immediately, surely! Give me a child until he is 7 and I will give you the man (probably not but attributed to Aristotle).

Autobiographical memory starts before 6. And certainly my memories of school plays and nativities definitely exist at that age. Yes, most memory won’t be retained but that’s the same at 21! I think your memories of conkers, nativities, and general Britishness is faulty too! Jumpers for goalposts and all that. I think a British childhood was always place-specific and time-specific. South London was more spitting, knives at school and getting robbed for lunch money! Maybe the Cotswolds or somewhere still has a Famous Five/Swallows and Amazons childhood. Where are you planning to move back to?

And adapting is interesting. An adaptable child will make an excellently happy third culture child. A less adaptable child (and that is genetic, hard-wired) won’t be happy dragged all over but might do well living in the same place.

I’m not saying don’t move back. But don’t move back when your child might not be any happier doing it.

Her experiences so far in life. You learn a lot, and a lot is already set in motion by the time you're 6. Language, thought patterns, behavioural tendencies, responses to the world around you. Her life so far is already not what it might have been if she'd grown up in Britain.

We still have conker contests. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Why a curse?

But all of is gone. Even if you were here that childhood is gone.

Not one of my cousins children are scouring nature searching for conkers, collecting conkers, treating them, having competitions with friends on who has the champ. That activity is confined to just memories now.

The world is a changed place, the childhood is hugely different to what you would have had just as our childhood was hugely different to that of our parents...

What you need to do is immerse your children in the traditions of the country you reside, make it magical by giving the memories of your own combined with the available ✨️

Agree with this

Like PP I had a mixture of UK and Europe.

Living in Southern Europe <rolls eyes> as a child I experienced another language, which means I now speak 3, and can learn the basics of any language I want easily. I experienced travel and difference and compromise. I experienced being ‘foreign’ which makes you far more understanding and empathetic about others being so. I know what genuinely heritage, fresh, local food should taste like. I learned how different and similar cultures and people are. I’m at home almost anywhere. I have friends from lots of countries and cultures. I experienced art, culture and architecture different to my own. And the best in the world. I am genuinely adventurous. There are a million reasons living somewhere else is good.

The only real downside is always feeling ‘foreign’ everywhere you go. You never quite fit anywhere. It’s a known ‘international student’ phenomenon. It suits me because I don’t care. But for introverted, slow-approach people, without wanderlust and quick adaptation, it’s an issue. Your 6 yo will already be in that boat, even if you all came back to the UK now.

You can come and visit me on holidays! ;-)

I’m from another country. My children were born here and grew up.

you can bring them home on various holidays you’d like them to experience those portions of British custom you’d like them to know.

in your home country, you can cook British food, celebrate British holidays and their customs. Introduce them to British tv shows that are age appropriate for them. Listen to British music or just generally the music you grew up listening to. Share your growing up stories about how things were done in your location as a child.

you can feel sad they’re not going to have the full experience you had but I will tell you, the country itself is not the same you grew up in

I’m asked all the time if I miss my country of birth, I say I miss the country it was then but it is no longer that country. I now consider myself British, not from where I was born and grew up. That’s a consequence of the decision you make when you move abroad.