Hi,
Reading the article printed by the Honolulu Advertiser was like reading my own life story 
I’ve been married to a “haole” for seven years and have two hapa kids.
My husband is local born haole. Since I’m Filipino , read :5 feet, and my husband is 6’3″ (blond, blue eyes), we do look like the typical “GI went to asia and married an asian”.
Although I’ve lived in Hawaii for 14 years, look and sound local, my upbringing is very much conservative Filipino.
The typical culture clash in our household is how to bring up the kids. Every day is a balancing act. I wanted my six year-old daughter and 3 year-old son to grow up a bit reserved and not so sassy and respectful of elders (including parents of course), and not to address people by their first names as I was taught growing up.
Of course my husband has a different take on this issue, saying that since we are living in Hawaii the kids will have to adapt living the western way. Well, we finally compromised, I deal with the day to day discipline and moral issues, he has final say on major decisions.
I recently went back to school for my nursing degree (HPU) and one of the classes I’m currently taking is Cultural Anthropology. In this class we had a lot of discussions on bi-racial households and the issues that arise in bringing up the children.
I would like to openly ask the members of the Haole Hubby Club if they would be willing to share their stories with me and I’ll incorporate them into a paper I am preparing for my final project.
I will send a copy of the final paper to you and you can post it if you like. My goal is to gain an insight of how other families are coping with their own hapa kids, not to mention the in-laws culture clash. That’s another story…
Aloha,
Louella Van Osdol
