About

We both had 10-year-old sons, and we lived maybe 100 meters apart from each other.

It was 2006, in Chengdu, China. We made friends with Huang and Yi, and talked openly about our parenting questions and challenges. They often made different decisions than we would, sometimes even opposite choices. Our life experiences and contexts were vastly different, despite the fact that we could walk between our homes in a flat minute: Chinese parents in their once chaotic and now emerging country, and American expat parents from a post-cold war power. Those perspectives shaped our choices.

But our underlying motivations were the same: we loved our children and wanted to prepare them for life in whatever ways made most sense to us. We deeply respected Huang and Yi’s choices because of this.

I have continually found that people have different perspectives shaped by their lives and locations, and yet underneath we are more alike, we hope and long for similar things. That’s what this site celebrates, the differences because of who and where we are, and the grounding similarities that come from being human.

I’m Greg, a product and frequent resident of Washington State. My wife, Heidi, and I raised two children who are now adulting, with good results. Heidi and I are once again in the expat game, with Thailand as our current home base. She’s an educator, our passport to international opportunities. I’ve worked for others and for myself, and pass off as capable of whatever opportunity arises.

I apologize in advance my limitations in presenting people and their cultures. It’s my desire to represent differences and similarities with fullness and respect. To the extent I’m successful, I’m grateful. When I fail, I hope to learn and do better next time.

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