It's the second time in seven years the family has lived in Hong Kong. 'As a mother, it's much easier to raise kids here. For one, I don't have to be a chauffeur, driving them everywhere, so they become independent much more quickly.'

Billy, who adjusted to life in the city quickly, doesn't disagree. 'I have a lot more freedom here because it's a lot safer and making friends is easier because there are new people who come every year.'

The Bucks are one of a growing number of families willing to swap the manicured lawns of suburbia in the west for life in a new foreign abode.

Although moving overseas is inevitably hard for children reluctant to leave behind best friends and familiar faces, it's the children who are generally much better at settling down than their parents.

'Kids are much more open to new things and they make their own way, while adults tend to look for commonality,' says Buck, a lawyer who works part-time from home for a US insurance company, her employer of 20 years.

'The hardest thing about moving is not anything tangible, such as setting up a new home or navigating around a new place. It is in accepting the fact that your kids are so resilient that they will bounce back much more quickly than you and they will also pick up on what you are doing and saying. Even if they are having a good time, they won't if they see you worried.'

Robin Pascoe, who has written extensively about the expatriate experience, agrees. The work of her husband, a former Canadian diplomat, took their family to countries across Asia in the 1990s.

'When parents begin transferring their fears and anxieties onto their children, the fallout can be considerable,' says Pascoe, who was recently in town to promote her latest book, Raising Global Nomads. 'Children follow the parental lead on everything. If mum appears afraid, that emotion will be transferred to them in a heartbeat.'

But beyond the usual kerfuffle of finding schools and somewhere to live, Pascoe and many expatriate parents say that once settled, the issues they deal with are generally no different from those of an ordinary family, although problems can be heightened.

'A mother who has given up her career for the move, for example, will often try to control what she can. That can range from being over-concerned to not letting go of the kids. As a result, the children can become more dependent because they haven't been allowed to grow up, and so don't get the best out of their experience. That can happen anywhere, but is enhanced when you are overseas,' warns Pascoe.

One of the biggest hurdles for children to overcome is the transient nature of the expatriate community. But this can also be one of the greatest blessings, because it forces them to be more open to different people and new things, coaching a remarkable life skill early on.

'Kids learn not to have just one good friend, because they know that person could leave at any time,' says Buck. 'They learn to widen their scope of friends and aren't as cliquey, because they can't be. It's a hard thing for a kid to live through, but it teaches them a valuable lesson. They are more open and accepting of people than they would otherwise be.'

They also embrace and celebrate diversity in a manner rarely seen in more homogenous communities and this sets them apart as global citizens of the future. 'Third culture kids have a three-dimensional view of the world,' says Pascoe. 'They are usually more open to diversity, more tolerant and open to change.'

In recent years, technology has made living overseas easier, thanks in part to websites such as MySpace and Facebook, which can help kids acclimatise and allow them to maintain their circles of friends.

'Rather than make kids feel like they are losing friends, technology enables them to keep and even add to the friends they already have. After all, to kids, the most important thing is their friends,' says Buck.

But Pascoe says technology can also be an expatriate family's worst enemy if its use goes unchecked. 'The single biggest challenge for families living abroad is managing their technology wisely. It can have an impact on so many facets of family relationships, from the father who spends all his time sending messages on his Blackberry to children who are so preoccupied with communicating with their old friends that they fail to make new ones.'

Although children are robbed of the experience of living down the road from their extended family clan, American Eva Deffenbaugh, who has a one-year-old and a three-year-old, says being abroad can, ironically, make for easier bonding. 'When we take the kids back to the US, they see their grandparents 24/7, which is definitely less stressful than just going around for a lunch or dinner. It's amazing how bonded they are.'

Uprooting the family is best done before the teenage years. When Kevin Rice was offered an opportunity in Hong Kong a year ago, the move was a no-brainer.

'Given the ages of our children [between six and 11], this was the last chance for us to move, as once they get into high school it becomes more difficult. There was an opportunity for all of us here, and the chance for the children to live a different life and in a different culture,' says Rice, adding that it still took some getting used to.

'Nothing is the same as home. That's part of the attraction. But you have to be ready to make compromises. If you want to experience Asia, you have to embrace and accept the difference.'

Though the stresses and strains of relocation may vary from place to place, having one frontline parent around is critical, says Pascoe, particularly in a place such as Hong Kong where household help is commonplace.

'Parents need to be strict, and teach respect, discipline and life skills. Your children need you to say no as much as yes.'

Maladjustment, she says, can manifest itself when the children become adults, most notably in pent-up anger, the inability to sustain healthy relationships and confusion over who they are.

For the majority of expatriate families, however, moving overseas is the easy part. Perhaps surprisingly, repatriation can be far tougher. 'Re-entering your own country can be a much bigger shock than moving abroad,' says Pascoe. 'For many, it is like looking at life through the wrong eyes. It depends on where you are going home to, of course, but the general problem is that nobody wants to hear about your experience abroad, and that can be very frustrating.'

Buck knows how disappointing such attitudes to living overseas can be. When her family relocated back to the US after the end of her husband's first three-year posting in Hong Kong in 2003, she says it was a nightmare. 'We made the mistake of going back to the same house in Garden City, the same New York suburb in which we had lived before and putting the kids back into the exact same school because we thought it would be easier for them.'

It wasn't. 'Not only did we not have anything in common with people around, they also remembered the children as the little boys they were three years earlier and just weren't interested in any of their overseas experiences.'

One of the most frequent questions Billy was asked when he told peers he had lived in Hong Kong was, 'Do you speak Japanese?'. 'People my age just weren't interested in hearing about what I did abroad,' he says. 'They would rather talk about where to go drinking.'

These are some of the issues Deffenbaugh knows she will have to face when her husband's contract ends next year. The former teacher, who taught English in Tokyo before getting married, understands how isolating experience abroad can be once you return home.

'I did find it really hard to relate to people back home when I was single and living in Japan because our frame of reference was so different. But I think becoming a mother and having kids will make it easier. It should be a bonding factor with others,' she says.

Regardless of the challenges ahead, Deffenbaugh, who moved to Hong Kong with her husband, Wade, a week after tying the knot, says she wouldn't switch the expat life for anything.

'The experience was really good for our marriage because we were here by ourselves, had no family obligations and just had each other to talk things through with whenever we had issues.'