Foreign Exchange Student with Toddlers?

M.,

Usually people who host a high school exchange student have a high school student themselves to help them. I wouldn't do it with toddlers in the house. You might end up with a lot of extra work trying to help the exhange student get around and find things to do. The exchange student is here to learn English and our culture, so your reason for having one should not be for your toddlers to be exposed to another culture and language. You'll be disappointed.

Hi M.,

I wouldn't be so concerned about the cultural differences as much I'd be concerned at the AGE difference. Teens in any part of the world are "know it alls" and can be rude and mean to small children.

My sister hosted a boy (I think he was 14 or 15) from Spain. He was such a polite cute little boy, she had no problems.
She had a 4 y/r boy then and a 2 y/o girl.

She noticed her son started acting very "baby" like and being very sensitive and whining.
She then became very wathcful and heard the boy saying things like "You're a baby" "leave me alone baby" and definately introduced him to some questionable music, skate boarding things etc.
Not bad, just a little early for the boy and the name calling, although "not bad" was hurtful to her son and his self esteem hurt over it.

Teens get annoyed by kids easily.

I would wait until your kids are older, right now the won't know the difference in culture anyway, the teen may teach them some new words in another language but it's a gamble bringing a teen in with small kids IMO ;)

I'm assuming you are looking at having a high school exchange student live with you? We had two exchange students in high school, but my siblings and I were also in high school as well. While I don't think it would be 'bad' for you to host, it might be a little awkward for a teenager to be hanging out with toddlers as opposed to having some peers their own age to chill out with and help them at school and such.

I haven't done this myself but i would like to point out that while it is great to want your kids exposed to another culture it is ANOTHER culture, they veiw things like drinking drugs and sex much differently most places than we do here, so while they might be perfectly nice high school children it could still lead to your children picking up on thins you'd rather they didn't.

Hi M.!
My grandmother and grandfather had foreign exchange students from Thailand when my parents were little. It has turned into a life long friendship through all the generations. Our family visits in Thailand, their family visits in America.
I would reccomend it to all. Most to all exchange students have top scores and try their hardest.
Best of Luck, God Bless,
R. Anastasia

It's just a gamble you'd have to take. I've seen good ones and bad ones when I was in school. I personally wouldn't do it, for the sake of small children at home, I would put it off until later, maybe even when they're at an age where they are in the same class and can create a friendship. If it's something you're worried about, don't do it. It's always best to follow your intuition