My family moved from South Carolina to Spain. My kids stay up late and are free to walk alone in the city.

The author's kids are allowed to go to the supermarket by themselves and use her credit card.

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• We moved with my husband, and our two kids moved from South Carolina to Spain two years ago.
• Kids here stay up until almost midnight in the summer, and now my boys do as well.
• They can walk to the supermarket by their own and I often give them my credit card to buy stuff.

Since our American family moved from South Carolina to Madrid, I've been slowly adapting to all things Spain.

We are currently in our second summer living in Spain and one thing I've noticed for sure is our daily schedule shifting.

My kids stay up late

In Spain, it is very common for children of all ages, from babies to school-aged children, to be out with their parents very late. With the sun setting later and Spanish summers meaning long dinners outside and slow meals with friends, it is very typical for children to stay up after 11:00 p.m. on summer nights.

Our 11- and 9-year-old sons have adapted to a summer sleep schedule in Spain that is typically 11 p.m. — 11:00 a.m. In the US, our children were car-dependent to see their friends, and so get-togethers ended much earlier. Occasionally, we would get together with friends on a summer weekend, and it would turn into a late night, but in Spain, that feeling lasts every night.

My kids go everywhere by themselves

Our boys have loved having the freedom to walk themselves to the store in Madrid compared to in the US. In our neighborhood, they can walk or take their electric scooters to bakeries, supermarkets, soccer fields, pharmacies, restaurants, and more.

It is very common to see school-aged children under 10 out with friends without their parents in these small neighborhoods, helping to foster a sense of independence at a young age.

The author and her two kids moved from South Carolina to Madrid two years ago.

Courtesy of the author

Their school friends in Madrid like Star Wars, so our boys have started to like it, too. The other day, our youngest child asked us if he could walk to the local bazaar store (equivalent to a Dollar Store) to look for lightsabers. We, without hesitation, said yes, gave him our credit card and sent him on his way.

I think back to the years of raising our boys in the United States and remember the feeling of needing to get into the car to take them anywhere and needing to be in person to pay. Whether it's with my card or euros in his pocket, it's awesome watching our children be able to practice this real-life skill of commerce at such a young age.

We let them drink soda

Admittedly, we weren't big soda people when living in the US. We would say the occasional yes to our kids to indulge in a sweet drink at a birthday party or for a special occasion, but in Spain, soda is life when you're a child.

I was at first so shocked to see the soda culture in Spain with caffeinated drinks being served to children, especially late in the evenings during dinner. Dinnertime in Spain is considerably later than in the US. On a normal summer evening, we are beginning to decide what we'd like to eat for dinner around 7:30 p.m. By the time we decide, we walk with our shopping bag down to the local supermarket and purchase the day's fresh ingredients, never fully stocking the fridge. Dinner often begins closer to 9 p.m., even with young kids in the house.

American mom Meg wouldn't believe American-mom-living-in-Spain Meg that she would allow her young children to drink caffeinated soda at dinner that late in the evening.

The biggest life lesson that I have learned as an American mom living in Spain this past year is to embrace different cultures. Oftentimes, American moms (myself included) can be set in their ways: set in their baby's sleep schedule, having dinner ready at 6 p.m. every night and spending our days doing errands by car. While there is beauty in those routines, there is also a big world out there of cultural differences that are equally as great.

It has been so refreshing to me as a mom to embrace a slower-paced lifestyle and to let myself adapt to a new way of doing everyday things in Spain. I see our boys delight in learning and embracing a new culture and I hope that this trait stays with them forever, wherever they may live. We aren't close to ready to give up our late night Spain summers and opportunities for independence for our young kids, so bring out the tapas and pour the wine: there's more summer to be had for us in Spain.

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