The Cross-Cultural Parenting Playbook

A practical research-backed guide for parents raising children across multiple cultures in a world shaped by digital media.
Every day, more families span continents, cultures and languages to raise cross-cultural children. Yet even as media brings us closer than ever, travel restrictions and censorship remind us how fragile these connections can be. Offering real-life stories, strategies and activities, this book explores how diverse families use media, both old and new, to bridge cultures and support their parenting journey. We meet kids who balance frequent moves with staying in touch with a distant homeland. We encounter parents navigating multiple languages under one roof. We hear from relatives determined to keep in touch despite the challenges involved. We learn that media remains a vital tool that helps all these cross-cultural families stay connected - through shared recipes that conjure memories, video calls that span time-zones, popular culture that reflects a family's blended identity, and more. This is a book for anyone preparing for or living the realities of cross-cultural parenting.

Sangita Shresthova is a Czech-Nepalese media researcher with expertise in popular culture, transmedia and civic engagement. She grew up between Prague and Kathmandu and has since called many cities home. She currently lives in Los Angeles and works as an Associate Research Professor of Communication at the University of Southern California. She is the co-author of several books, including Transformative Media Pedagogies and Practicing Futures: The Civic Imagination Action Handbook. As a mother raising a multiracial, multilingual, cross-cultural child, her personal journey fuels her commitment to bridging cultural and social divides.