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Raising multiracial children can come with unique challenges, from educating your child about race to handling problematic family members, there are a lot of difficult conversations to prepare for. Most multiracial children have individually monoracial parents, which brings a unique set of challenges. Monoracial parents will have different lived experiences than their children, so how does one best prepare and protect their child?
Race in particular is a very personal and complicated subject that can be emotionally provoking. For some, just talking about it can be intensely uncomfortable. Internalized racism, previous experiences, and psychological responses such as white guilt can influence one's ability to willingly talk about race.
These worksheets focus on building your confidence by having you practice becoming more mindful of your emotions and consider how your past experiences may shape your reactions to this subject. Being unable to cope with your emotions during sensitive discussions can cause the other party to disengage or shut down, leading to a counterproductive experience.
Why should I talk to my multiracial child about these topics?
Why should I talk to my multiracial child about these topics?
Avoiding race discussions, which can be a form of 'Colorblindness', and "[ignoring] the existence of racism actually causes harm" (Neville et al., 2016). This ultimately prevents your child from connecting to their heritage and leaves them unprepared to face racial discrimination.
By not educating your child about race, you're interfering with their racial socialization, which is the act of teaching your child about their identity and how they fit into the world. When children receive poor racial socialization, they're less certain about their racial identity and are more prone to mental health challenges (Rosen & Greif, 2021).
Worksheets
Worksheets
When raising multiracial children, monoracial parents need to consider how they will educate their children about race, racism, and colorism. For many, this subject matter is challenging and uncomfortable. To prepare for a difficult conversation with their child, it’s important for the parent(s) to sort out their own emotions ahead of time.
Avoiding discussing race or raising a child "colorblind" is often detrimental to their identity development and their understanding of race. In fact, discussing race "fosters racial awareness, reduces inconsistent messages, minimizes ambiguity, increases familial interaction, and decreases the effects of conflictual [sic] messages" (Rosen & Greif, 2021). By having these discussions with your child, you're creating a safe space for your child to express race-related concerns.
For white parents of multiracial children, discussing race may be extremely uncomfortable. It's important that these parents face their racial silence and discuss race with their children, otherwise the child's identity may be indirectly impacted (Waring, 2025).
Interracial relationships and multiracial children can be controversial in some families. Even when they aren’t, monoracial families may not be used to interacting with people different from themselves. It’s important to try and educate these loved ones ahead of time to prevent your child from being exposed to harmful rhetoric.
Rosen & Greif (2021) suggest that "racist messages and microaggressions on the part of extended family members [causes] long-lasting harm to children when not stopped by their parents." Additionally, Waring (2025) found that multiracial people are more likely to experience racism and colorism from their elders.
When dealing with relatives (or close friends) who have concerning views about race, it’s important to approach conversations mindfully and prepare in advance to prevent the discussion from becoming counterproductive.
The Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) handbook has a multitude of skills that are especially effective for handling interpersonal conflicts and emotional regulation:
The Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) handbook has a multitude of skills that are especially effective for handling interpersonal conflicts and emotional regulation:
The emotions we feel are powerful cues to how our experiences and environment are impacting us.
In DBT, Emotional Regulation skills focus on teaching you how to name and understand the emotions you're experiencing.
After identifying your emotions, DBT ER skills can be used to reduce the impact of negative emotions and increase our resilience to them.
Extremely distressing events can be better handled when you practice acceptance-based skills.
Distress Tolerance focuses on teaching you to come to terms with the pain you experience in life.
While accepting your challenges doesn't absolve your suffering, it helps you get through it.
Interpersonal Effectiveness skills are important tools used to help others understand your needs.
These skills can be great for establishing boundaries, resolving conflicts, and improving relationships; all while maintaining your own self-respect.
References:
Linehan, M. (2018). DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets (2nd ed.). The Guilford Press.
Neville, H. A., Gallardo, M. E., & Sue, D. W. (2016). Introduction: Has the United States really moved beyond race? The Myth of Racial Color Blindness: Manifestations, Dynamics, and Impact., 3-21. https://doi.org/10.1037/14754-001
Rosen, J.E., & Greif, G. (2021). The voices of interracial and interethnic couples raising biracial, multiracial, and bi-ethnic children under 10 years old. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 40(5), 671-683. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-021-00805-5
Waring, C.D. (2025). "My dad is racist as hell:" navigating racism, monoracism, and white privilege by proxy in multiracial families. Genealogy, 9(1), 20. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9010020
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Worksheets created using worksheets.brightsprout.com
Created by Megan DeWhitt (Fall 2025)
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