when east meets west, what do you get?

i'll say - best of both worlds. many would readily agree wth me, unfortunately there are probably even more who wouldnt.

it was never in my agenda that i would marry a westerner. let alone having a mixed baby.

as fate has it, i met one at work, fell in love wth him, married him, and went on to have a cute little junior. this little junior is the so called an eurasian. well actually i prefer to use the label "cocktail baby" as humoroulsy coined by my ex classmate in the norwegian class from russia who happens to love cognac.

funny thing is i'm not the only one on this earth to have a cocktail baby. so why am i met wth all these negative opinions from a certain group of people? they made me feel like i've commited a serious mistake, and that my cocktail baby should be brought up the way they wanted it.

??? does that sound reasonable to you? i scratched my head. how does my husband feels abt this? infuriated.

coming from two different backgrounds would mean that the cocktail baby would learn not just the standard set of family paradigm from single background parents, but also the other set of heritage from the other different background parent. in my case, norwegian, and chinese singaporean.

i'm proud of my child's mixed parentage. he will get to learn norwegian language, its culture, his father's family history, etc, AND also learn english & chinese language, the rich chinese culture, and of coure my family's history, etc. oh i guess the best part is, food! he'll get to taste different spices from asia, well beyond the ordinary salt & pepper widely used by norwegians.

problem is, we are living in norway, and accessing something foreign out of norway proves limited. as a result my child is expected to speak norwegian, go to norwegian school, and learn the norwegian way of life. well all these are acceptable. that should of course come from my husband & his family's teachings.

i as the mother who is the main child minder would automatically educate him under my conditions. that include, speaking english (ok i'm guilty of not communicating in chinese wth him, i know i shd), a little of chinese & broken norwegian here & there, asian food, manners & the standard upbringing stuff. i do introduce him to what i know of norwegian's way of life too. its not complete but i'm trying to expose him to as much as i know. although my primary focus is ought to be my background, i believe it is crucial that i impart some norwegian to him as much as possible.

my husband & i have agreed that he should be going to the local international school because the teaching medium is english. both of us being well rounded travelers (i'm nothing compare to my husband), we see the world as a big place for us to be in. one can not just be living in a well, and we see english as a common denominator to connect us to the world. we have decided that english would be his mother tongue, and norwegian & chinese as his 2nd language. i wont say chinese is more important than norwegian simply because chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world given the largest population. they are both equally important & i would like him to learn both well.

it irks my husband terribly when he was told that his son should be brought up the way they wanted it, not his way, and certainly not my way. they have of course no right to tell us what we should do. these people are short sighted, and fail to see what we see. i can only feel sorry for them. i told my husband that he shouldnt get so upset because they are the ones who will lose out, not our children.

whenever these nonsense are within my earshots, i felt the urge to protest in addition to my husband's aggitated replies, but i stood back & felt quietly pleased with myself. why? because i know my little cocktail baby has us as his parents - parents who are of two different backgrounds - the best of both worlds :)