An American Mom Living In Barcelona Shares Her Culture Shock About School There

An American mom living in Barcelona shares her adventures (good and bad) on social media, sharing insight into what it’s like to be a mom and raise kids in a foreign country. While there are certainly some major differences, some of the biggest shocks have come from the schooling culture in Barcelona.

“Some school culture shocks that I'm still yet to get over so many years later, being an American mom in Barcelona,” Alexis Charbeneau begins in her video.

“Okay, number one, the long days. The days are so long. My daughter gets on her bus at 8:00 AM, so in the morning and gets back at 5:15 PM. Yesterday, she had an extra “escuela” — extracurricular activity. She didn't get home until 7:45 PM. The class didn't get out until 7 PM. 8 AM to 7.30 PM is wild for six years old!”

Charbeneau then moves onto another shock — grandmothers are very involved in their kids schooling, including pick-up and drop-off.

“The grandmothers are so involved. To an American, it's like genuinely mind-blowing. The line at pick up is more than half abuelitas,” she said.

As for extracurriculars, those sometimes happen during school hours, according to Charbeneau.

“They do them, sometimes, during the lunch break. There's a music class after lunch, during the recess. So like, you don't have to come pick your kid up. They can still go home on the bus or have it. They go home because they're doing it during the school day.”

Lastly, she notes that kids, as young as elementary age, go home for lunch.

“I'm officially out of time, but going home for lunch, going home for lunch is a concept we don't know in the U.S. And it doesn't happen as much in the city. It happens much more in ... not cities ... It doesn't happen so much, but it is an option, and many people do do it. Pick their kids up for two hours and then return back to school.”

In a follow-up video, Charbeneau listed off some more school culture shocks, including how affectionate teachers are with their students.

“Teachers are so affectionate here with kids — hugging, kissing. We don't have this in the U.S. because of so many reasons. Listen, of course, I understand why they have those rules in place, but it's very nice to be a mother and watch your kid experience love outside of the home,” she said.

Next, she jokes that, during the summer, she cannot wait for her kids to go back to eating school lunch because, in Barcelona, it’s extremely nutritious.

She continued, “I don't know if this is the mentality of any other moms, but this is an honest thought that I genuinely have that speaks to how well they eat at school. Also, these kids get so much time to eat their lunch. In the U.S., we get like 20 minutes to scarf down our food, which is how we learn to scarf down our food so fast...”

Charbeneau also notes that “real school” aka full-time school starts at three years old.

“Real school starts at three, three years old, a full ass day!” she exclaims. “Everyone is doing it.”

“There's like a law you can keep them till 6 [years old] basically, and then you have to put them in real school, but nobody does that. Three years old for a full 9 AM to 4:30 PM day with teenagers in the same building is a really hard thing to adapt to. It is.”

In Barcelona, Charbeneau says that kids adapt well to school days because they’ve been in some sort of preschool or childcare since they were one year old, and parents put them in school so early because, SHOCKER, it’s affordable!

She notes that elementary-aged kids are literally swimming in school.

“These kids are swimming in school. This is crazy to an American. We don't swim no matter how great the school is, we're not swimming in school. And here ... maybe your school doesn't have a pool, God forbid they'll take you by bus to a pool to learn how to swim,” she says.

Lastly, Charbeneau notes that homeschooling is not really a “thing” parents do in Barcelona.

“Homeschooling is not a thing here. If it is a thing here, it's regulated. It's regulated. So if you have that attitude, I'm not like, ‘I would ever do this’, but if you're a homeschooler, and wanna teach your kids the things you want, that's kind of out the window because it's very regulated here.”