What´s the best way to bring up a child?

I haven´t got the faintest idea. Nor do I trust the opinions, formulas nor the instincts of the majority of people.

So what do we do? How do we give our children every opportunity possible to grow, develop and become better versions of ourselves? Or just better…people. (It´s not really about perpetuating our own selves into immortality, is it, grumble grumble… All this they told us about furthering our own genes was a big trick! A trap!)

But seriously, it´s difficult. I know a few people, brilliant, wise, kind, people who have horrible devils for children. Wild, untameable children. There is definitely something that is out there to defeat us. Some rogue gene that we never knew we carried, but that bode its time and struck just at the moment we made our lives more complicated then they had ever been before.

And even if they are calm, well behaved little devils, every day we are confronted with difficult decisions. Be lenient, be strict, explain candidly or sugar-coat until they are more emotionally developed. Make them happy or make them responsible, let them make their own mistakes, let them learn from other people, oh god oh god it´s all so confusing.

But one thing that we can do is expose them to lots of different ideas, sights, sounds, smells and people. Taking a family on holiday is usually expensive. And it´s so important that children have the chance to see a different country. They find it so overwhelming and wondrous when they do get to see other parts of the world. Filling them with awe not only helps them develop intelligence, knowledge, a bank of experience, but it also spurs on their imagination. But with home exchange this is all possible, on the cheap!

For me, the most important thing of all is that they learn that people from other cultures are not WEIRDOS. Taking a child on a foreign home exchange can be so fruitful for their development that they can even begin learning a new language. But even if this doesn´t happen, they learn an incredible amount about different cultures and countries. They learn that people from different places aren´t simply a “concept”, but a living reality of people. People who are just as normal as they are.

This is a fundamental aspect of a brilliant mind. Being open. And the best way to help your child maintain and cultivate their unjudging innocence, is to flood them with pictures and pieces of the world around them. Home exchange puts you in touch with the world and helps your children connect.