Primula

By choice, I have no children.

One thing I have often wondered is what does it feel like to have American children? Children of a different nationality to your own?

If you emigrated with very small children, those children have probably morphed into Americans now. How does that feel?

MadRad

I don't have kids either, but I do have a friend in that situation. I think it does worry her, even though her little un has dual citizenship. I think it would be very odd to hear your child talk with a different accent to you though.

Primula

Exactly!

Dorothy

I'm not in America, but we emigrated from Canada to Australia when my children were fairly young. It feels no different to having Australian children than it did having Canadian children. They're still my children and really we have no frame of reference to say whether it's the same or different.

And no, it's not odd to have them speak with a different accent to ours. It's simply how they talk. I have asked them if they find it odd or embassing to have their parents speak with an accent and they said they never thought about it - it's just how we talk.

kimilseung

"You're in America now daddy, you need to say soccer" Ggrrrrr!!!!

Primula

That does happen in American though; I've heard many stories of people who were embarrassed by their parents' old country accent.

Sally Redux

I actually do find it odd when my kids speak with an American accent (they switch depending on who they're with).

It's something I didn't consider before moving, but having them become part of another culture can be disconcerting.

Mummy in the foothills

My kids were all born here and only one has lived in the UK. They all got told while in Elementary school that they sounded British when they spoke, and when in the UK they obviously sound American. Too me they just sound like my kids, not weird or unusual. We are all dual.
I wonder how long it will take them all the lose the accent when we move. Ds #1 is already there and I have noticed a bit of a Brit accent on the phone. Ds#2 is next, then the rest of us. Dd is only 7 so I think she will have the most British of all three kids by the time she's grown.

Primula

Exactly.

To be really American, I do think one has to go through the American school system. If one's kids go through grade school and high school here, no way are they going to retain much Britishness.

redglade

My kids always were going to talk with a different accent to me. (I have a weird accent part English/part South African/some Scottish and now American vernacular thrown in). You speak to them every day so you don't notice the accent. I do try to eliminate the "twenny" and "priddy" and other Texan lazyspeak (or drawl as they call it here) though. As for the growing up "American" - they're a product of their upbringing. School and friends are an influence but I'm not too worried that they'll end up as gun toting, God bothering, homophobic creationists...(let's hope anyway)!

WEBlue

I think anyone who moves country with children must understand pretty quickly that they'll be affected enough by their surroundings to change their pronunciation, word choice, verbal emphases, etc. They're going to begin to sound different if they want to fit in. Some children are more chameleon-like than others, but they'll not speak like their parents, who were learning how & what to say in the home country.

My grown-up kids are very good (in fact brilliant!) at shifting their speech patterns to match the nationality of whomever they're talking to (English, Japanese, American). They grew up practising it & they're experts now . . . .

Jerseygirl

My daughter was 11 when we moved to the US...she was 18 when she moved to Toronto for uni. When she speaks to us she has a British accent...but switches between US and Canadian...depending who she's speaking to.

Even in high school she never adopted any American phrases such as awesome, like, like, like.

Primula

Interesting. Quite a few of you are saying that your children switch accents at will. I would never have thought that they would do that.

clarissageo

My twins were just 11 when we moved over here. They come over as full fledged Yorkshire Monkeys.... Everyone loved them, they were a real novelty.

Within 3 months it was gone, and they sounded American, with just the odd hint of Brit in there, normally when they got excited.

Fast forward to now, and they're 14 1/2, and about to embark on High School. You would think they had been born here. Half the time I have to ask them to repeat themselves, because the accent they now have is not only American, but Very Kentucky When they started Middle school, No-one believed that they were English. Even this year, at the start of 8th Grade, the social studies teacher was telling the class that in England, the SKEDule (Schedule) is pronounced like 'Skedulay' (wtf!).... One of the boys told him outright that he was wrong, and that he was English and corrected him on his pronunciation.... Said Teacher went on to tell my little angel () that it was wrong to lie....

I gave Little angel permission to take his nice sparkly English passport to school the next day and put it on the teachers desk and tell him with a smile that he didn't tell lies

Teacher has loved him ever since!!

WEBlue

It's a good trick, so many kids who can do it enjoy it. And (maybe unfortunately) for some it helps in social survival . . . to blend in & not to stick out as "different" . . . .