Bringing up children in Turkey?

[Wandering girl18]

Hello all

I'm a brit that has been living In Istanbul for the last 3 years with my Turkish husband and we also have a two year old. Me and my husband are trying to decide wheres best to bring our son and future children up. I definitely wouldn't want to stay in Istanbul due to its traffic , and no outside spaces. But I'm thinking possibly Antalya/Fethiye. Anyone have any insight into bringing children up in Turkey? Did it work for your kids? Did you regret it. Or even anyone with thoughts on this , please share. Turkey is a great country but of course it has its faults like anywhere else, the school system is very different from the UK. Do I go back to the UK with my husband or stay?

 

[Rua]

Hi Wandering girl18. You will need to weigh up the pros and cons and see what's best for your family. Only you can make that decision.
I live in Izmir and it's great.We go to the beach most days and it's less frantic than Istanbul.I have a six year old at a private school and so far at this stage we are happy enough with the education system but I don't know anything about the high school system . However, there is an election next year and we are keeping our options open. A lot of foreigners are returning to their home countries now and a lot of Turks are also emigrating. Most young people do not see a future for themselves here.
Every country has it's good and bad sides.Europe is changing too.Good luck with your decision.

 

[Hilsjw]

We have an apartment in Akbuk and, from what I can see from our local school, having been to one of their sort of "open days" I can say that many of the children were very badly behaved, which surprised me, as there were many teacher present. There are Turkish children who live on our complex and, without exception the boys are allowed to do what they like, misbehave etc and are never reprimanded by their parents. As has been mentioned here, private schools my be a lot better. Good luck !

 

[Jaycey]

There are private schools and there are private schools.

In Japan our two boys went to the American school in Kobe where any discipline was absent.

We then moved them to a Marist Brothers school (we are not Catholic) and can commend them most highly.

 

[Kanga]

The children in Datca seem to have very long school holidays and are frequently off school for a day to celebrate some anniversary or other, such as Atatürk's birthday, National Day, etc etc.

 

[Rua]

Turkish children can be very spoiled .I'm the disciplinarian in our house whereas Baba is the soft.
I taught at Turkish private schools(thankfully no longer) and kids can be badly behaved.As private schools are big business kids are generally not chastised.Many people nowadays send kids to private schools for the language aspect and also to avoid the mandatory religious teaching imposed at state schools.
In relation to holidays kids have three months in summer and two weeks semester break in January.A week in November and a week in April has just been introduced in the past few years.European holidays seem to be more spread out over the year.
In relation to bringing up children here the weather is a huge bonus.Also the fact of speaking two languages although that can happen anyway.Children are more 'public property' in Turkey as people will come up and start conversations with kids (not in a creepy way).

 

[enoch]

Males get away with murder as we say spoiled little brats. We have had 3 familys with kids always well behaved, turkish and kurdish. Now we have a new family just moved in 2 boys and a new baby girl. She brought them all down to our apartment one night. The lad's thought they had the right to touch take do what ever they wanted. Not in my home I told them and all they did was look at the mum. They started fighting trying to bite each other that was it I just dragged them out and left them on the stairs mum said nothing but so went shortly after I just said to the kids not in my home as I closed the door. They can take it or leave it.

 

[Wandering girl18]

Hi Wandering girl18. You will need to weigh up the pros and cons and see what's best for your family. Only you can make that decision.
I live in Izmir and it's great.We go to the beach most days and it's less frantic than Istanbul.I have a six year old at a private school and so far at this stage we are happy enough with the education system but I don't know anything about the high school system . However, there is an election next year and we are keeping our options open. A lot of foreigners are returning to their home countries now and a lot of Turks are also emigrating. Most young people do not see a future for themselves here.
Every country has it's good and bad sides.Europe is changing too.Good luck with your decision.

Thanks for your insight, Do you worry at all the opportunities they would get in universities or work if they lived somwhere like the UK , would be lessened by being in the Turkish education system? That's my biggest concern.