I had this idea this morning while running my Wednesday workout, always a challenging and satisfying run. Let’s do a comparison: 2024 vs. 1992
Location:
Me: Shanghai
Sofia: Jakarta
Family members living with:
Me: grandma, uncle and his family. My parents at the time were working in Japan
Sofia: nuclear family
School:
Me: public school,15 min walking distance
Sofia: private international school, 30 min driving distance
Friendship:
Me: small groups of friends from school but not BFF type. I knew at the time that I was going to leave China in 2 years.
Sofia: small groups of friends from school, also not BFF yet. She knows that it’s unlikely they will be life long friends as they/we will leave Jakarta.
After school activities:
Me: none
Sofia: piano, kumon, swimming, mandarin
Hobbies:
Me: none
Sofia: reading, playing with Cookie (our cat), baking
Financial conditions:
Me: I didn’t need much but could afford whatever I wanted as my parents were working in Japan, earning probably 20 times what average worker earned at the time in China.
Sofia: although she knows we can afford, she doesn’t ask for much, especially material goods. We spend on travel, quality things for our day to day, quality food; but we don’t spend on luxury cars, bags, clothes. Frugal on things that don’t matter to us.
Countries we’ve visited:
Me: Argentina
Sofia: Europe (France, Germany, Spain, Austria), most of Asia countries (except Laos, Myanmar)
Living conditions:
Me: I shared a room with grandma
Sofia: she has her own room
Personality:
Me: independent, confident, reflective
Sofia: responsible, needs strong ties with family and friends, adventurous
Picores
Common denominator:
Daddy!!!
Daddy was already in my life at the time, he was my classmates. 🙂
Our New Journey 
This was SUCH a fun post, Coco. What a great idea and such interesting contrasts between your two experiences at 12.
I’ve never lived close to anyone other than my nuclear family, but I always wished I was closer to aunts, uncles, and my grandmothers growing up.
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I loved this post. What an interesting contrast, and I can’t believe your husband was your cloassmate at 12, WOW! Was it hard not living with your parents?
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I don’t recall “suffering” at the time, but I did miss my parents, especially communication at the time was not as easy as now.
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This was fun- I liked hearing what it was like for you growing up. And how sweet that “Daddy” was already in your life!
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That is a fun comparison! It sounds like Sofia has a good head on her shoulders and has been lucky to see a lot and do a lot in her life so far. I think that will be a great advantage to her in the future, as she will understand other cultures early. I love traveling and learning about other cultures now, but do wonder how I would have been if I had been able to do that earlier in life.
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What a fun post! I can definitely see the resemblance between you and Sofia! It is interesting to see how different our lives were compared to our kids. I had a great childhood but my kids definitely get to do and see more things that I did. I didn’t fly until I was 19 and both kids have already been on several flights!
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Interesting to see what is similar and what is different with you and your daughter. I think it would be hard to be in a different country from your parents, but you were with family, so that’s good. I love that your kids have had the opportunity to travel so much. And you had been to Argentina already at her age! That’s a long trip.
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Awww, so cute! This is a fun idea for a post for sure. It’s so interesting to see how different things are just generationally. I can’t imagine living in another country from my parents, but I know that’s the way it is for a lot of people around the world who have to seek economic opportunity.
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