Are you ready for your life to change for 10 months? Are you ready to open your heart and home to foreign teenager? Are you ready to mentally and emotionally provide support to another human being? How about financially (as you need to provide 3 meals plus snacks a day and your utility bills will go up)?
Yes! Then you are ready!
Maybe? Let's talk about what you need to discuss with your family/spouse (or significant other) or mull over yourself.
Questions to Ask Yourself and Family:
Can we afford taking in another person to feed and house?
Do we have the physical space required by law?
Do we have the emotional/metal space in ourselves to take care of teenager?
Do we have the time to give to a teenager? To show him/her our America, to pick him/her up from school or sporting events, to have general “family time”?
Can we mentally handle the “disruption” that bringing a teenager into our home will cause? Such as the extra messes they make or the help with school work they might need?
Are we willing to change our schedules and maybe even view points to accommodate another’s?
Are we willing to learn: about them, their culture, and even ourselves?
Are we willing to be flexible?
Are we willing to try to understand where they are coming from? And learn new communication styles? As their culture and upbringing will be different from ours.
Can our family work with this kind of change? How do the kids feel about bringing in a foreign brother or sister?
Yes to all? Great! Let’s get started!
No to all or some? That is okay, not everyone is at the point where they can host a foreign teenager. Some will never get there. There are reasons why there are limitations on age and income for hosting, so that there is not a strain on the host family (financially or mentally). We do interviews with the whole family (those that live in the home) to make sure everyone is on board and is excited.
Some of these questions I posed are not strictly what we (exchange organizations) ask but they are important lessons I have learned either myself or through other families. Hosting an exchange student is a little different that raising your own teenager in the fact that they have a completely different background than your kids do. You had nothing to do with their upbringing and the rules they are used to so that is a challenge, and sometimes a simple conversation will solve a lot of problems that this could bring up. So another question to ask yourself is are you willing to communicate? With your student, your family/spouse (or significant other), and the organization (IEC or other support team members)? It is important to discuss your rules and expectations right away so a small issue doesn’t get out of hand; they are moving into YOUR home so they have to give as much (if not more) as you. They are living in your home so they need to respect your rules but you also need to be understanding of cultural differences and meet them in the middle communication-wise and if this is not something you can imagine yourself doing this might not be the program for you.
As much as we would love for every great family to become more fantastic by hosting an exchange student not every family is ready. And that is okay. But if you are ready and interested please contact me with any questions or if you are just looking for some basic information! :)
