Raising Bi-Racial children

Is it more or less difficult to raise a Mixed kid to have a strong sense of self and a high self-esteem?

My children are multiracial; Cajun, French, Caucasian, Spanish, Mexican and Indian. They look exactly a like, mistaken sometimes for twins, except for their difference in color. Yes, both are from the same father however, my oldest has very fair skin (like snow white), hazel eyes like her daddy, with dark brown locks like mommy, who can get as dark as ebony during the summer but is as white as milk if she stays in doors. My son is darker toned than mommy, with a darker eye color, as he also has dark black hair all around. The subject of "race" never crossed my mind when it came to my own interracial family. We have members in each of our families with interracial relationships and children.

One of the most important considerations in raising a bi-racial child/ren, is identity. Confidence, their history and background should encourage our children's unique identity.

For my children, learning the French and Spanish language dialect would be great in that they will be "bi-lingual". The Spanish language is growing rapidly in the US and a person with the ability of speaking two or more languages, especially Spanish, "make more than 25%" in bring home pay.

Social concerns: You have to get past the stigma that Spanish has been here in the U.S. Spanish is a highly sophisticated language just like English, Sign Language, or any language in the world. It is mostly socioeconomic background that dictates a person's social status. Right now, there are doctors, accountants, lawyers, celebrities, etc. who are paying a lot of money to put their children in private bilingual programs. Bilingualism and multilingualism are the wave of the future. Here you are with access to this great gift that you can give your children, by all means take advantage of it.

There are certainly real challenges involved with accomplishing that task for a kid with mixed heritage, it is not necessarily or inherently more difficult than raising any kid, particularly any minority kid, with the goal of being a proud and good person.

It’s not just that there are more multiracial and biracial people. The government is now counting the group differently. For the first time in modern history, the 2000 Census allowed us to check off more than one box for race. The last Census showed 9 million people, about 3 percent of the population, reporting more than one race. That’s an increase of one-third from the decade before. “The youngest age group, kids under 5 [years old], 7 percent are identified as having more than one race group,” says Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center. “If we look at the elderly, over 65, it’s only 1 percent.” That means more people are choosing spouses outside their own race. The change, Passel says, comes from evolving attitudes. Over the past few decades, he says more people have simply come to view intermarriage as no big deal.

Remember, the most important thing about raising a bilingual or multilingual child is having a positive attitude toward the whole idea. Children are very smart, and they are only into things that you are really into, and they can always tell the difference.

Watch this youtube video: I believe it is great to have kids that are the walking embodiment of the ultimate social goal of cultural diversity and people seeing each other for more than their skin color. These kids are like mine, innocent in their own race and how they view others.