I’m an American mom living in the UK. When my kids visited the US, they were shocked at how “big” the food was and how every drink was mostly ice.

• I am a 35 year old American mum living in the UK.

• I took my three children to the United States for the first time in eight years, and some things surprised them.

• They thought cars and meals were big and there was always too much ice in drinks.

It had been almost eight years since my three Welsh children last visited my family in the United States. I would have liked to make the eight-hour plane trip with them more often, but logistics, the pandemic and cost prevented us from doing so.

We spent months planning a month-long trip, with the kids getting more and more excited about the food and entertainment they would share with their grandparents in a foreign country. While you might think the UK and the US are similar, there are a multitude of differences.

From my adult perspective, I know that healthcare, education, salaries, and culture vary wildly, but I was eager to see what differences, as children, they would notice.

Bigger cars and bigger roads

After landing in Washington DC and collecting our luggage, we pulled into the parking lot. The two older boys quickly noticed that the cars were not like the ones they were used to seeing. There were Chevrolets, GMCs, Lincolns, and a plethora of pickup trucks.

Vehicles tended to be much larger than in the UK, where it is twice as expensive to fill up with petrol, roads are much narrower and winding, and there is less parking.

My children immediately noticed that in addition to cars, the roads in the US were much bigger than in the UK.

In Washington, they tried to understand how viaducts work, with roads overlapping in a complicated shape. British motorways, equivalent to American highways, converge on roundabouts.

Even though they expected it, they found it amusing that Americans drove on the opposite side of the road.

They were surprised by AC

It is rarely very hot in the UK. At most, there are four to six weeks a year when the temperature exceeds 27°C. When this happens, we open all the windows, dress only in our few summer clothes and keep the curtains closed because few houses have air conditioning. These days are scorching, but we grit our teeth and endure the heat because it does not last long.

When we arrived at the hotel the night we landed, the kids asked me what the metal box was that was making noise in the corner of our room. It was the air conditioner.

Since we’ve been here, they’ve enjoyed being able to cool off inside after playing in the heat.

They think the portions are too big and there is always too much ice in the drinks

We went to a restaurant and when my parents brought drinks to the kids at home, there was plenty of ice in every glass of water, juice or soda.

Kids both love it and hate it. They like to suck on ice cream for a treat, but they complain that the icy temperature of the drink hurts their teeth.

You might get a few ice cubes in a restaurant in the UK, but I’ve never been served a drink with ice cubes in it at anyone’s house.

They also consider the portions to be way too big. Our first meal in the US was at Bob Evans. The kids each ordered a kids meal with pancakes to share. The food was served to us in several portions.

“Look how many pancakes there are,” said one of the children as the plate of four huge pancakes with syrup and jam was placed in front of us.

At the gas station, they were amazed by the size of the bags of chips, candy bars and cups. “All the food is big,” one of them whispered to me as I looked at the shelves of food.

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