This series took place in Spring 2026 and is now complete.
Curious about upcoming ParentLab courses? See what’s coming next.
About the series
Parenting Across Cultures brings together four baby-friendly conversations for parents living between countries, languages, and cultural expectations.
The sessions focus on shared experience, conversation, and practical perspective, with space to hear how others are navigating similar questions.
Babies are welcome, or you can come solo, no matter how old your kids are. Noise, movement, feeding, and stepping out are all expected and embraced.
Each session can be joined on its own, or as part of the full series.
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Tues, 24 March, 10-11:30AM
Led by Carly SpringMany parents hear the term Third Culture Kid and wonder whether it applies to their child, and what it might actually mean in everyday life.
This session introduces the idea of Third Culture Kids in a clear, non-academic way, focusing on what it can look like to grow up between cultures, languages, and reference points. We’ll explore common experiences around belonging, identity, and cultural in-betweenness, without treating difference as something to fix or predict.
Alongside this, the session makes space for parents’ own reactions. The mix of pride, worry, grief, relief, or uncertainty that can come with raising a child whose experience of culture won’t mirror your own. Through shared conversation and reflection, parents are invited to recognize familiar questions in others and name what they’re carrying.
The goal is to offer language, perspective, and connection, helping parents feel more oriented and less alone as they navigate this part of their family’s story.
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Tues, 31 March, 10-11:30AM
Led by Carly TheodosiLanguage choices are rarely just practical. They’re tied to identity, belonging, family history, and how connection happens at home.
In this session, we look at how children learn multiple languages in early childhood, covering the basics without turning it into a technical lecture. Alongside this, we surface common worries and myths many parents carry, from fears about confusion or delay to questions about consistency and effort.
The session also makes space for the psychological side of multilingual parenting. Passing on a mother tongue, juggling multiple languages in one household, and navigating situations where a child shares a language with one parent but not the other. Through shared conversation, parents can recognize familiar dynamics and hear how other families are handling similar tensions.
The aim is to help parents feel more confident and less conflicted about the language paths their families are on, and to leave with a clearer sense that there is no single right way to raise multilingual children.
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Weds, 15 April, 10-11:30AM
Led by Isa BenrosParenting across cultures often brings long-held ideas about “good parenting” into focus. Expectations shaped by where you grew up, your family norms, and the cultural context you learned them in.
In this session, we explore what happens when those expectations meet the realities of raising a child in a new country. Parenting without extended family nearby, navigating different cultural ideals at once, and noticing the tension that can show up between responsibility, doubt, and choice.
Through short inputs, guided prompts, and open conversation, the session creates space to recognize familiar experiences in others and share how parenting across cultures is actually showing up in everyday life.
This session sets the tone for the series by naming common experiences, normalizing ambivalence, and opening up conversation around how parents define their own version of parenting across cultures.
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Tues, 21 April, 10-11:30AM
Led by Byurakn IshkhanyanParenting across cultures often leaves parents holding many experiences at once, moments that don’t neatly resolve but still shape how we see ourselves and our families.
In this closing session, we use guided writing as a way to pause and make sense of what has surfaced across the series. The focus isn’t on writing skill or polished stories, but on putting words to experiences, questions, and shifts that may still feel unfinished or hard to articulate.
Through individual writing time and optional sharing, parents can explore how meaning forms in complexity, how perspective changes over time, and how multiple truths can coexist within one family story. Listening to others’ reflections often helps clarify your own, even when experiences differ.
This session brings the series to a close by offering space for integration, continuity, and authorship, supporting parents in shaping the narratives they carry forward.
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What parents are saying
Intentionally small group to allow real conversation. Come for one session that speaks to you, or join the full series.
Practical Details
Price:
200DKK per session or
695DKK for full 4-part series (save 105dkk)
When:
Session 1 – Parenting Third Culture Kids
Tuesday, 24 March 2026
10:00-11:30AM
Session 2 – Raising Multilingual Children
Tuesday, 31 March 2026
10:00-11:30AM
Session 3 – Between Cultures, Between Expectations
Wednesday, 15 April 2026
10:00-11:30AM
Session 4 – Stories We Carry
Tuesday, 21 April 2026
10:00-11:30AM
Join one session or the full series.
Where: Cafe Sweet Surrender
Language: English (always)
Format: In-person, babies welcome. Small, discussion-based group.
Intentionally small group to allow real conversation. Come for one session that speaks to you, or join the full series.
This might be for you if you…
are raising children across cultures, whether you’re international or Danish
want to meet others navigating language, identity, and belonging
enjoy thoughtful conversation and new perspectives
are tired, juggling a lot, or still figuring things out.
If a few of these resonate, you’ll likely feel at home in the room.
Join us
Meet the Facilitators
Parenting Third Culture Kids
Carly Spring is the founder of ParentLab and holds a Master’s in Intercultural Communication. She has spent her academic and professional life working across cultures and bringing international people together, with a focus on community building and group facilitation.
She is also the mother of two young boys. Parenting far from home shaped both the creation of ParentLab and her approach to creating spaces where parents can think out loud, meet others, and stay connected to themselves alongside their children.
Raising Multilingual Children
Carly Theodosi is a highly experienced Speech and Language Therapist from London, with a strong professional focus on communication, identity, and development. Her work is guided by current evidence and grounded in a belief that communication is central to connection, belonging, and participation.
Carly brings both clinical expertise and lived experience to conversations about how children grow up navigating language and culture. She is a native English speaker raising children in Denmark and is learning Danish alongside her daughters.
She is open about the fact that she did not grow up multilingual, although language complexity has always been part of her family story. This perspective allows her to speak honestly to the questions, uncertainty, and emotion that often accompany language choices in families, alongside clear, evidence-based guidance.
Stories We Carry
Byurakn Ishkhanyan’s background spans medicine, neuroscience, and creative writing, with a core strength in helping people make sense of complexity. Her work focuses on synthesis, judgment, and clarity in situations where there are no simple answers, including the thicket of parenthood. She is an author of two books. Her writing delves into themes of identity and belonging.
Byurakn facilitates creative writing sessions both in Copenhagen and in Aarhus, mostly for international women. She is one of the founding members of the writing collective Aarhus Women Write, where international women with diverse backgrounds meet and share their stories and passion for writing.
She holds a PhD in Psycho- and neurolinguistics, giving her deep expertise in how language, meaning, and identity interact across cognitive and cultural contexts.
Byurakn has recently become a mother, and is personally engaged in the questions this series explores. For her, this session offers a creative counterbalance to her scientific work, and a way to support parents in making sense of their lives as they shift and expand. As an Armenian parent raising a child in Denmark, she brings lived experience of navigating language, culture, and belonging alongside professional insight.
Between Cultures, Between Expectations
IIsa Benros works with parents, creating time and space for reflection, connection, and conversation during a period of major change.
Her background and training focus primarily on supporting mothers, and she brings this lens into work that is open to all parents. Isa has been brought up between cultures herself and is also raising bicultural children, giving her a firsthand understanding of how parenting expectations and cultural norms can collide or evolve when families span more than one culture.
Isa is an anthropologist by training and a certified postpartum practitioner. She facilitates group programs for parents, including initiatives for Danish and international families in Copenhagen, alongside her one-to-one therapeutic work at Zia Behandlerhus.
About the venue
Café Sweet Surrender
Café Sweet Surrender is a family-friendly non-profit café in Vesterbro with all the amenities you and your baby might need.
You can find safe stroller parking outside, baby-changing facilities, toys and soft flooring for the little ones, and perhaps most importantly – delicious coffee & food! ParentLab courses will be held in a private room at the back of the café.
ParentLab customers can enjoy a sandwich/drink combo deal for just 90DKK.
4-minute walk from the Enghave Plads Metro
8-minute walk to the Dybbølsbro train station
Many nearby buses.
You might be wondering….
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We know that life with a baby is unpredictable. Illness, sleepless nights, and last-minute curveballs are all part of the deal. ParentLab is designed with that reality in mind, and we aim to be as understanding as possible while keeping our small-scale events sustainable.
You may cancel your booking for a full refund up to 48 hours before the first session of the series.
After that point, we’re unfortunately not able to offer refunds for cancellations or missed sessions.
If you’re unable to attend a session, you’re very welcome to pass your spot on to another parent.
It may be possible to request a credit for a future event, depending on the specifics. Just reach out and we’ll figure something out!
You are always welcome to come late or leave early. These sessions are long enough to settle in, so please don’t stress about a last-minute diaper change that delays your arrival.
Thank you for understanding. This policy allows us to fairly compensate facilitators and venues while continuing to offer thoughtful, baby-friendly programming.
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No. Each session is designed to stand on its own, so you’re welcome to join just one.
That said, the sessions form an intentional arc, moving from orientation, to exploration, to integration. It is highly recommended to choose the full series for a deeper experience, but there’s no requirement to commit to all.
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Each session blends a short, accessible introduction to key ideas with time for reflection and optional sharing. You can expect a mix of listening, thoughtful prompts, and simple creative or reflective exercises.
Everything is designed with parents in mind: you’re free to step in and out, tend to your baby, or simply listen if that’s all you have capacity for that day.
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Group sizes are intentionally small.
This helps create a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere while still allowing space for different levels of participation. Sharing is always optional. -
Totally flexible, and entirely up to you.
Your baby can be barely sentient or fully on the move, as long as you feel comfortable. Our spaces are baby-friendly, and facilitators are happy to lend a hand if you ever need a minute (baby holding is a perk of the job!).You’re also very welcome to come without your baby. These sessions are focused on parents, first and foremost.
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We hope you leave with:
New language for experiences you’ve been having but hadn’t named
Greater awareness of patterns, roles, or emotional reactions
A sense of permission to hold complexity without judgment
Connection with other parents navigating similar questions
There’s no pressure to change anything about yourself, just an invitation to notice and understand a little more.
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No. These sessions are educational and reflective, not therapeutic.
They don’t involve diagnosis, treatment, or personal problem-solving, and they’re not a substitute for therapy.The focus is on learning, awareness, and shared human experience, not fixing or performing.
What parents have said
“I loved it! It has been really nice to talk to other parents about the thoughts I had on identity, but now equipped with the right vocabulary, it felt like we understood each other well!”
“I had such a great time. It was honestly a really lovely and insightful workshop!”
“I feel rejuvenated. It was so refreshing to meet and talk with likeminded people.”