Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand Aug / Sept 2017: The Kids & Family Issue | Page 13

Our kids are more
than a reflection of the
lives they’re living.
I
f you visited our house, my eldest
daughter Isabel would change your
life forever with her wit, humor and
sparkling insight. OK, maybe that’s a
stretch. She would at least put a smile
on your face, and she would smile
back, revealing her signature single
dimple.
Isabel is a Danish-American,
Holland-born expat child, raised in
India and Thailand. She has visited
more countries, tasted more cuisines,
heard more languages than many
people believe would be possible in
a lifetime. She’s 8.
Part of Isabel’s charm is that she
doesn’t feel like she belongs to any
particular country. Ask her where
she’s from and you’ll get an exasper-
ated answer: “I’m from all over!” Hand
in hand with her global citizenship is
the tendency to exclaim, “I love ev-
erybody in the world!” Isabel is open
to meeting all types of people. She
displays a child-of-Earth doctrine
that you’d expect in an extraverted,
third-culture kid.
That’s why my jaw dropped one
recent morning when Isabel told me
that she wished a certain country
didn’t exist.

I recently came back from 10 days
in Singapore with this internation-
al, free-loving, dimpled girl of mine.
Because Isabel walks and talks just
like a grown-up, I could have been
traveling with someone just a few
years younger than me.
Like sisters, we went on pho-
to walks, shooting the same scenes
from different angles. Isabel exposed
facets of her personality through her
photography. She dazzled me with
her daring when she hopped on the
slippery edge of a fountain to snag
a shot of twinkling lights. And she
warmed my heart when she ended
a first-time meeting of two Indian-
American girls by taking a series of
selfies with her new friends. That’s my
Isabel: adventurous, friendly, and in-
creasingly independent.
During our photo walks, Isabel and
I talked big life topics. Yet philosoph-
ical discussions with Isabel are never
the same as those with grown-ups.
With the razor sagacity that only kids
seem to have, Isabel cuts through
adulthood’s crap to deliver insight
that is perhaps obvious but so right.
Being there with Isabel is like having
my own Chauncey Gardiner.
One cool night on the streets of
Singapore, after Isabel and I finished
belting out Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t
Stop the Feeling,” I was in the mood
to philosophize.
“Isabel,” I asked, “what do you
think is the most important part
about life?”
“The most important part of life is
staying alive. Staying healthy, so you
can live,” she said. Her response re-
minded me of the emergency flight
instructions we’ve heard one thou-
sand times: “Secure your oxygen
mask before helping others.”
Everyone should know this. But
somehow, our to-dos get jumbled,
and we find ourselves with a Chex
Party Mix of priorities  —  no order,
no clear way forward. We might even
completely ignore what matters the
most and allow essentials to settle
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