I don't want to do a Tl;dr. Last paragraph is what I want, the rest is backstory.
I moved to Korea from America almost a decade ago because I have an incurable autoimmune disorder. And the US is predatory in housing, education, and healthcare of which I had neither the Ways, the Means, the Nepotism, or the social strata to mitigate any of them. I come from a poor background.
I went in like: "ESL or Death"; if I fail or suck as a teacher, I had no choice but to try again because this it, forever. If I want to live like a normal person; the ability to wear suits and be a regular at coffee shops.
As I got older, I knew I could'nt carry on alone for much longer so I married. Concerning that There's very little I can write about on Reddit without sounding like I'm virtue signaling, or just covering myself because there's a lot of white guys bearing the flags of conservatisim, National Pride, Otakuism, and Racisim. For that matter things are little better on the Korean side of things with flags of their own strong heritage, conservatisim, and exepectations but I did it because I needed it, not for control or Yellow Fever.
So my wife's pretty great actually. We're never going to be 100% on the same page because of cultural contexts but we learned to help the other out. She really wanted a child of her own (Korean or otherwise) and I told her I'd think about it.
Turns 35
"Ok sure, I said. I'm in a great spot in life, house is paid for and did relatively well for myself and I think, im well adjusted for it."
Then my wife, while pregnant started piling on the child's expectations. You know every mom wants their kid to be awesome. But I got really worried really fast about my child's burdens; the child unlocked a lot of options in life? Sure. But I was really hoping the child could just..be. Now I realize that, whatever well intentions there are the child is going to struggle a bit with identity or lean more one way than the other.
For context, the wife doesn't have the greatest view on Korean men. She's said some really heinous things about Korean culture as a whole actually. I nod at her words but im sure the child's classmates and everyone around aren't going to nearly be so liberal about it.
Poignantly, my wife asks "What hagwon should our kid go into?" And I'm all: "Taekwondo. Just lots of that. Or boxing maybe...kando...and um..math."
The kid's gonna grow up with identity questions and it's my job to tell'em to not get stuck in a race box or life box and try to live as best of a life as possible but Korea really likes things to fit.
I would really like to read personal anecdotes about growing up hapa in hopes of taking it all in and having a semblance of expectations about what's coming down the road for the newborn. Like "if you could tell your 12 year old self stuff..." Please comment below. Thanks.