How We’re Future-Proofing Our Kids (While Stuck in the UK… for Now)
- Ka Yee Meck
- Jun 27
- 5 min read
Table of Contents
Is there a future for our kids in the UK?
With soaring living costs, a broken housing market, and mounting student debt – it’s a question we’ve been asking more and more.
(I highly recommend this video for an overview of the situation!)
We’re not planning to leave Britain (just yet).
But we are doing something proactive – something that, we believe, will give our children more options, wherever life takes them.
And for us, that starts with language.
In this post, I’m sharing three things:
Why we’re increasingly concerned about the future our children face in the UK
Why we’re not emigrating – at least not yet
And how we’re preparing our kids through languages and mindset
The Growing Worries We Can’t Ignore
I’ve lived in the UK for 22 years. My husband’s been here for 17. And we genuinely love so much about life here: the rolling countryside, the dry humour, the mild weather (yes, really!).
But over the past few years, things have changed – fast.
Living costs have shot up.
We’re spending more on groceries, taxes, and utilities, but public services are visibly struggling.
Our local hospital is overstretched, roads are so full of potholes that we'll soon need a truck for the school run, and the NHS is under unprecedented strain.
We’re not here to bash the UK – we appreciate so much about our life here.
We’re surrounded by nature.
Our kids are settled in a great school.
And there’s a quiet but resilient sense of community that we genuinely treasure – this really came through during Covid and is something I'll always look back on fondly.
But none of that erases the big scary question:
What kind of future will our kids inherit?
Why We’re Not Leaving… Yet
We think about leaving.
We do.
But right now, we’re rooted.
Our kids were born here. They feel British.
We’ve built a home, a network, a rhythm that works for us – for now.
Still, it’s hard to ignore the facts:
University in the UK now often means £50,000+ in debt
Average property prices in London have surpassed £500,000
Renting in London costs £2,200+ a month
And the national debt is pushing 100% of GDP
Contrast that with Europe, where university is often free or heavily subsidised (my cousin went to university in Finland for FREE as a foreign national – while British-born university students have to pay £10K a YEAR for the privilege to go to a British university!!).
Or Asia, where cities like Shanghai are rapidly modernising and offering global opportunities.
So, while we’re staying – for now – we’re not staying still.We’re preparing our kids for something bigger.
The Core of Our Plan: Language + Mindset
We’ve raised our kids trilingual from birth – Mandarin, Russian, and English.
Yes, AI might reduce language barriers (although I firmly believe that language skills are more important than ever in the age of AI – check out my blog post and video to find out more!)
No, we don’t know if they’ll use Chinese or Russian professionally.
But that’s not the point.
This is about more than language.
It’s about giving our children a global mindset – one that says: “You have options. You can belong in more than one place. You can adapt."
Children who grow up multilingual tend to:
They also often develop what's called a bicultural identity – a powerful foundation for navigating today’s globalised (and increasingly uncertain) world.
Our kids may never live in China or Russia.But knowing those languages gives them options – and more importantly, a mindset that’s curious, open, and adaptable.
Modelling Openness, Not Just Multilingualism
Not long ago, we did a “Learn Italian in 3 Weeks” challenge as a family before a trip to Sicily. (Read about our journey here!)
We knew we wouldn’t become fluent. That wasn’t the goal.
The goal was to model mindset: that learning a few words in someone else’s language is a way of showing respect.
That making the effort – even clumsily – matters.
That stepping into someone else’s world can be joyful, not intimidating.
That, to me, is part of future-proofing.
A Quiet Kind of Hope
Despite everything, I’m still an optimist. A realist, yes – but a hopeful one.
My husband and I recently talked about our own upbringings. His parents moved to Australia after the Soviet Union collapsed. My mum moved to the UK so I could have a better life.
What if we’re the generation where that curve starts to bend downward?
What if we have to make the next move – for our children?
Whether or not we ever emigrate, I want to raise children who can make that decision for themselves.
Who won’t be afraid to try.
Who will know the world is wider than their place of birth.
If you’re reading this and you feel the same – if you’re worried but still hopeful – I see you.
Keep going. Keep raising multilingual, multicultural, open-minded kids. Give them the world!
Are you raising your children with a global mindset? Are languages part of your family journey?
Share your story in the comments – I’d love to hear it.
And if you’re curious about how language affects brain development, check out my post on The Bilingual Brain – it’s packed with insights from cognitive science and real-life examples.
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