The term mother culture refers to all the material and symbolic elements of our native country/region. It is especially meaningful for people who have moved to another country and whose current culture is not the one in which they grew up. I often use this expression in relation to the bilingual and bicultural education of our children. We, the parents who have chosen our country of adoption, have a different maternal culture than our children born in our second country. Except that, to a certain extent, our mother culture is part of their culture. Through or because of us

Understanding the parent and approaching the family

Our mother culture becomes their minority culture for our children. As opposed to their majority culture: the culture that surrounds them outside the family home, in reference to the majority language. It is the link between them and their history, moreover, it is part of their roots. The parent’s maternal culture allows the children to approach him/her more closely, to understand his/her identity, to grasp the cultural, social and emotional subtleties that inhabit him/her.

This video can explain it :

From there, a transmission can take place: the child is ready to appropriate this culture, since, thanks to his parent, it is part of his heritage. He integrates it into his own identity, which is still being constructed. Apart from his close relative mother or father, the minority culture allows the child to create a strong and lasting bond with his family abroad. Through culture and language, they acquire a sense of belonging to a second community, sharing common codes and values.

The child’s emotional development

Our mother culture, like every culture, is a vector of emotions. Emotions aroused by stories, traditions, songs, music, characters, past events… what a richness for our children! Bathing in two cultures, being exposed to these diverse influences contributes to their emotional development to the highest degree. The children’s inner life becomes particularly rich, their sensitivity deepens and matures. We accompany the development of multicultural people on a daily basis and are aware of the importance of culture in human life.

Contact with several cultures broadens our child’s horizons. If, in addition, it is his own culture thanks to his parent, the benefit is double since the child easily attributes an affective value to it generally positive. His view of the world becomes broader and more open because he has several filters to analyze reality. His cultures provide him with precious reference points according to which there are several points of view at least two, several ways of doing things without hierarchy between them. This is an extraordinary richness that contributes to making our societies more respectful of differences and less Manichean.

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