Curious on opinions about this.

At what point does heritage become important and something to discuss with your kids? If at all?
(is racial heritage the right term? Or should that be just heritage?...I'm not to sure - anyone?)

I dunno what racial heritage is...But it is important that this baby we are having will know the customs that I celebrate from being italian, as is its important that they know the guyanese side from my DH...

Im not sure if thats what you ment...

My family is extremely large. I have relatives who are blonde, dark, tall, short, Mormon, Jewish, Catholic, Buddhist, and from different countries all over the globe. My parents thought it was incredibly important to teach me about my heritage so that I could learn how my family became so culturally diverse and so that I could understand that they're all one and the same family, no matter how different we all are. I was told about a few generations in detail and was given vague information about older generations so that I could persue more information if I was interested. I will do the same for my children, and they will learn as early as possible (for me, I started learning about my background after asking my mum why everyone in my family looked so different - I was about 5-6yrs old).

Well I absolutely nothing about the samoan heritage, so I won't be sharing it with my daughter.. lol.. Mainly b/c I have nothing to share..

I think it is important for them to know about their heritage, but I wont force it on them. Im Brasilian and I will be teaching my son or daughter about our culture, but the rest will be up to them I guess.

i think its importend! im german and im teaching her german aswell as english. i will tell her everything she wants to know if she is interrested. i dont see anything wrong with it. but to each their own right?

like you, I don't know a lot about my Japanese heritage. I do make sure that they know that it's ok to be proud about where your ancesters come from though. When I was growing up, kids still made fun of kids with slanted eyes (Jap, gook, etc) thanks to the Vietnam war and ignorant parents. It wasn't until I got to high school that I was ok with the way I looked. I don't my kids to have to go through lying that they are native american like I did as a kid in elementary and Jr. High.

I will definitely be teaching DD abt our German and Sicilian heritage and some of the colorful relatives we have!

Being 1st generation born in this country , 100 % Italian my children know about half of who they are. Unfortunately the other half was puerto rican and died 8 years ago, I have little to no contact with his family and I dont know the first thing about that culture. I only know this We are AMERICAN and proud and that is something I can definately teach them!!

If they want to know something I will tell them what I know. Both DH and I are mixed (around 10 different with both of us together) so that is a lot of different ones to cover and I really don't know that much. :dunno

It's important in our family mostly because my son is first generation American. Both my husband and I were not born in the US and migrated to America at a younger age. I do remind my son (he is 6) about the struggles that our families have gone through to get where we are today. I"ve discussed my adoption with him and tried to explain why I have 2 moms, ect. Our Latin Heritage is extremely important in our family, that's really who we are.

Carmen

I think heritage, period, is important.

Racial heritage is important also....I think it brings a sense of pride to know what races you and your family come from, and it can also be important for other reasons, like medical reasons. Certain illnesses and diseases are more common among certain races, and that may be important later on in life, especially when you start talking about people having kids.

Racial heritage is part of makes everyone so diverse and interesting. Like, when I did a family tree project in 10th grade, I found out that I was African-American (of course), and Native American. What I didn't know was that I was Apachee Indian (which isn't common at all on the East Coast...most people who are Native American are Cherokee) and Portuguese. That one really threw me for a loop. lol