Raising biracial children in the DMV

[Anonymous]

I am an Indian woman married to a white American man. While we are TTC, I wonder about the experience of raising mixed children in this area. We live in Vienna, if that matters. I'd love to know about your experiences, good and bad.

[Anonymous]

Our child is still young, but I will say this is very common from what I’ve seen. At our daycare alone in downtown DC, there are several others kids and I don’t feel like our family is an outlier. I assume this may vary by neighborhood and the friend circles you choose for your family. I am the white partner in the relationship so I’m more focused on parenting advice about how to handle racial incidents, etc, which my son may encounter as he gets older because that was not a part of my own personal life experience. However, just in terms of your question, I feel like we have a community of people in a similar boat in terms of our daycare community, mom’s groups, etc.

[Anonymous]

Indian mom of 2 kids with white American dad. Both in elem school. The kids being bi-racial just isn't a thing so far for us. I suspect as they get older, they will have no issue with the non-Indian families, but might feel left out with some of the 100% Indian families. But that's mostly because I'm not very religious and they've never been to a temple and we barely eat Indian food. We do listen to a lot of Bollywood music. Maybe they will resent me when they are older for not exposing them to enough Indian things, who knows.

Vienna probably has more Indian people than my neighborhood does, so maybe your kids will be exposed to more Indians than my kids are exposed to. I think that's a nice thing.

[Anonymous]

My son is white/black. We live in Hyattsville, super diverse and A LOT of mixed race kids. We have to navigate colorism and racism and all the things. i wouldn't want to do that in an area where he was the only kid experiencing these things.

[Anonymous]

I find that the mixed Indian white kids just mostly act white. At least the ones we know, the moms are not cooking Indian food at home and they live very American lives.

The 2 I am thinking of are light skinned and I would probably think they were Hispanic if I didn’t know they were mixed Indian and white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find that the mixed Indian white kids just mostly act white. At least the ones we know, the moms are not cooking Indian food at home and they live very American lives.

The 2 I am thinking of are light skinned and I would probably think they were Hispanic if I didn’t know they were mixed Indian and white.

I also know of 3 kids with Indian and white patents and they look and act like all the other white kids. One of them is so beautiful with blonde hair, green eyes and olive skin. All 3 seem really happy, smart, well adjusted and liked.
We are in a private school in NW DC

[Anonymous]

Asian/White kids here. Haven't had any issues in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Southeast Asian and white kids in PG County. We are in a very diverse area and I think that makes raising biracial kids easier. While my kids have friends from all backgrounds, interestingly, their BFFs are biracial so kids just have a tendency to gravitate to those who are like them even if unintentionally. Home has a heavy dose of my culture (language, food, etc.) and I am very open to explaining to curious kids why we do this or that and what that food is, etc. That is, I don't want my kids to be embarrassed of their other half like how I've read some immigrant and first generation kids have sometimes felt like when they were growing up.

Note that while you may live in a diverse area or your kids go to a school with lots of diversity, note that there are certainly many activities still where your kid may be the "only." That has happened to us with sports. My kids have had no issues so far being the "only" on their teams. They just stand out more or are remembered more by other teams. I like to think it's because they are amazing athletes (hahaha) but it's probably because they were the "only" Asian person on the team.

[Anonymous]

We don't have any problems but most of our friends are also bi or multi-racial.

[Anonymous]

We're an international, mixed-race family and moved to Bethesda specifically because it has many highly-educated internationals. We don't necessarily want to live in a community with others from our 3 countries of origins, which would be difficult anyway. We just want a community that understands there is a wider world out there than the American way of life, and that some aspects of other countries' governance are actually quite good and could stand to be imitated here. In other words, what I'd like to get away from, because I've met too many people like that while living elsewhere in America and abroad, is chauvinistic or jingoistic attitudes. My family can't afford to think like that as multi-nationals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find that the mixed Indian white kids just mostly act white. At least the ones we know, the moms are not cooking Indian food at home and they live very American lives.

The 2 I am thinking of are light skinned and I would probably think they were Hispanic if I didn’t know they were mixed Indian and white.

What do you mean by "act white?" Do you mean act American (as opposed to like an Indian immigrant)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find that the mixed Indian white kids just mostly act white. At least the ones we know, the moms are not cooking Indian food at home and they live very American lives.

The 2 I am thinking of are light skinned and I would probably think they were Hispanic if I didn’t know they were mixed Indian and white.

What do you mean by "act white?" Do you mean act American (as opposed to like an Indian immigrant)?

Like a cracka

[Anonymous]

OP, the DMV is so conservative and non diverse. Interracial families are so rare. You should move to Montana. You may find more acceptance there.

[Anonymous]

You need to educate yourself.

America is the most racist country on the planet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need to educate yourself.

America is the most racist country on the planet.

Troof