things to ensure our childrens various cultural needs are met, however thinking about our shades and feeling "different" from the rest of my family is not something that I ever think of and does not worry me. Perhaps when they get older this may be more of an issue? If they experience racism and feel I won't understand? I don't know. HA! When it all comes down to to it -- you are what you look like! As a very light-skinned AA (from creole country Louisiana), I am mistaken for mixed race all the time. But I don't have time to go around dispelling all the mixed-race assumptions about my ethnic identity. I don't like it that my true ethnicity is not self evident - but I live with it because it's really not that important! OP - your kids will be considered non-white to the average stranger and to society at large. KatyMac - this is really the whole story in a nutshell. Your kids will be seen as what they most look like. If their appearances belie their true ethnicity, then the child (or parent) can choose to correct the constant misperceptions or decide to ignore them. savoycabbage - your situation is not unique to mixed race families. I am very light-skinned AA and DD is light brown. She went through a phase of disapointment that I was not brown like her. She even opined that she wanted her friend's brown-skin mother instead of me! (but she was