Moving to Hawaii with a 9 year old, blond haired, blue eyed son (Kailua: fit in, schools)
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What would you do? I have some excellent prospects on the islands, but the fact that I have a light-skinned, blond haired, blue eyed son who would be 9 when we would move is giving me pause. On one hand, he is a sensitive kid. On the other, he is athletic, comes from a terrific athletic pedigree, and could make his mark in that way.
As for the rest of the family, I fit in well with the locals (they planted the "moving to the islands" seed), as does my wife. My daughter (who would be 11) is gorgeous (which helps no matter where you are) and can hold her own in any situation. I do not worry about her.
Someone asked me in another thread, regarding a move, "what's stopping you?" The possibility that my son, from what I have found in searches on this site, would not be accepted is what is stopping me. I would not want to traumatize him.
I know that acceptance, or lack thereof, of haole children from the mainland has been discussed ad nauseum, but I am looking for input on my specific situation, and input on specific islands.
I normally don't bother expressing my opinion in the "Hawaii" column but, since I have lived in the islands (briefly, albeit) as a haole, I would say......Go for it!
It likely would be a huge adjustment, especially if your children are sensitive, but there ARE plenty of haoles in Hawaii, especially so on Oahu with a large number of them most often of military families that are stationed there.
You would want to look at specific schools and find what seems the best choice.......but living in Hawaii would be a GREAT experience for all of you, IMO.
It may not work out in the long run......but who knows for sure?
It would also be a wonderful experience to possibly get your son (or daughter), involved with surfing, boogie boarding, golfing, hiking, snorkeling, scuba? and other outdoor activities that Hawaii has to offer.
It's a great place to find the "Aloha Spirit" in each of us and overall..........I believe it could be a far more positive experience than you may think.
Besides........children can face just as much "trouble" and negative influence right here on the mainland as there or anywhere else.
Just let them know to treat everyone they meet with respect.........and they too, will receive respect.
Discrimination IS a fact of life there and here as well, and kids can be mean either way......so I would think that overall.......Hawaii has the same issues as here.......but a LOT more to offer in experience. Adolescence IS a very DIFFICULT time NO MATTER WHERE you choose to live.......so just KEEP the lines of COMMUNICATION wide open with them and they WILL be OK.
I believe it all depends on where you live on island...Hawaii Kai, Kailua,Kahala are all places he would probably do fine. We lived in Kapolei with our 8 year old sensitive grandson for 2 years. Originally he was fine living there,we got him interested in surfing, soccer etc. but as time went on he was telling us the "Hawaiian" kids were mean to him at school...and he eventually came back to the mainland with not much intrest in Hawaii...
What would you do? I have some excellent prospects on the islands, but the fact that I have a light-skinned, blond haired, blue eyed son who would be 9 when we would move is giving me pause. On one hand, he is a sensitive kid. On the other, he is athletic, comes from a terrific athletic pedigree, and could make his mark in that way.
As for the rest of the family, I fit in well with the locals (they planted the "moving to the islands" seed), as does my wife. My daughter (who would be 11) is gorgeous (which helps no matter where you are) and can hold her own in any situation. I do not worry about her.
Someone asked me in another thread, regarding a move, "what's stopping you?" The possibility that my son, from what I have found in searches on this site, would not be accepted is what is stopping me. I would not want to traumatize him.
I know that acceptance, or lack thereof, of haole children from the mainland has been discussed ad nauseum, but I am looking for input on my specific situation, and input on specific islands.
You can look up the ethnic mix of cities in Hawaii here:
White Non-Hispanic (36.4%)
Two or more races (27.1%)
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (13.2%)
Hispanic (10.2%)
Filipino (8.9%)
Japanese (5.7%)
American Indian (3.0%)
Other race (1.9%)
Other Asian (1.8%)
Chinese (1.1%)
Korean (0.7%)
(Total can be greater than 100% because Hispanics could be counted in other races)
and here's the ethnic mix of Aiea:
Races in Aiea:
Japanese (31.9%)
Two or more races (18.6%)
White Non-Hispanic (15.3%)
Filipino (15.3%)
Hispanic (5.5%)
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (5.1%)
Other Asian (4.7%)
Chinese (4.3%)
Korean (1.8%)
American Indian (1.3%)
Black (0.9%)
Other race (0.8%)
My son has the glowing blonde hair and bright green eyes. However his physical appearance seemed to matter not at all to the local kids on Kuau'i. On an outing to Hanalei bay we met up with a local family that runs a surfing school there. They are a very prominent part of the community there and they were the most gracious and kind folks that I have met in some time. My son spent a very pleasant day with their children learning how to surf and just being kids. Sky...your spot on man! ya get what ya give! Life ain't always a bowl of cherries no matter where you live and growing up sure isn't an easy thing. All we can do is help our kids grow up right...give the love, get the love. We can't stop all bad things from happening but how we deal with them when they arise is certainly key. My personal experiences ,and thusly my opinion, is that fear of "racial" mistreatment in Hawai'i is mostly just that. Fear. Give the Islands and the folks who live there your respect and approach your new life with an open mind. Take it as it comes. Aloha gonna git ya and you'll never shake it. Thats a good thing methinks. All our best to ya'll.
Lol...no I have blue eyes ...his are green ( what shade depends on his mood)
don't know if you got my dm, but you titled this thread as, "moving to hawaii wth a 9 year old, blond haired, blue eyed son." make sure he comes to hawaii in a good mood and hopefully the hawaiian family you spoke of will keep him that way.
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