Parenting with an Accent: How Immigrants Honor Their Heritage, Navigate Setbacks, and Chart New Paths for Their Children

In Parenting with an Accent, journalist Masha Rumer paints a realistic picture of what it's like for many immigrant parents who struggle to raise a child in America while honoring their cultural identity. As a Jewish-Russian immigrant, Rumer discovered firsthand the challenges of being an immigrant parent as she struggled with how to share her cultural legacy with her US-born children. Using empirical data and on-the-ground reportage, Rumer incorporates a diverse collection of voices and experiences, giving readers an intimate look at the lives of many different immigrant families including a children's Amharic class at an Ethiopian church in New York, the California home of a French-American family, and a Chinese-born mom's view from the bleachers of a middle school baseball game in a Chicago suburb.

Parenting with an Accent offers practical advice on all aspects of parenting as an immigrant, including bilingualism strategies, childcare, and the challenges of acculturation. Rumer debunk myths about bilingualism and reveals how community bias and discrimination negatively impact language retention. Deeply researched yet personal, Parenting with an Accent centers immigrants and their experiences as parents in a new country--emphasizing how immigrants, and their children, remain an integral part of America's story.