Part-time Swiss Abroad: raising children between countries

More and more Swiss are embracing a hybrid lifestyle, living and working across borders. But when kids and school schedules enter the picture, this international juggling act gets a lot more complicated. “Until he was three, the situation was easy enough to manage,” says Karin*, who divides her time between Switzerland and Scandinavia with her young son Mario*. “But when he started school, the lack of playmates and all the things needing to be done for school just complicated things.” Living and working in two countries at the same time is tricky enough at the best of times; Karin’s account of things shows just how complex it can become when children are involved. A sense of security It is just as essential to provide some kind of emotional security for children for stays of just a few months as it is to emigrate for good. “You have to communicate openly and honestly about what’s going to happen, take the child’s concerns seriously and talk about their feelings,” says Regula ...