Who is crazy enough to uproot their five kids and move to another country? Especially in a country where they don’t speak the language? Well, meet our family! We did that four years ago now.  It wasn’t even the first time we uprooted them. We also did it in 2018 to travel the world full-time.

Moving your family abroad is always an adventure, and raising kids in Portugal comes with plenty of surprises. Of course, we knew nothing when we left… no idea how things would work or what would be hard (other than the obvious that they didn’t speak the language). Some surprises were delightful, some were baffling, and some were just plain quirky. 

Over the years, we’ve learned to embrace these differences—and laugh at them too.

Here are some of the quirks we’ve noticed while raising our five kids in Portugal.

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How Old Were Our Rids When We Came To Portugal?

When we landed in Lisbon, our kids were 13, 10, 8, 6, and 4.  Due to the pandemic, our two little ones have not really done school yet (the six year old did two hours of kindergarten, three days a week).  

We worldschooled for three years while we traveled and did one year of public school during the pandemic, so my kids did not have a traditional school background when we arrived.

Quirks We Discovered with Kids in Portugal

1. Two-Hour School Lunches in Portugal

In Portugal, lunch isn’t just a quick sandwich at your desk or blasting through the cafeteria to get to recess. It’s a full meal—and kids get a full two-hour lunch break at school.

In fact, the kids have lunch monitors there just to make sure they actually eat!  They get a first course of vegetable soup every day. I mean every day. This is how Portuguese get their veggies in! Once they have finished their soup, they get a second course of a homemade meal. Again, monitors make sure they eat it before they head out to recess.

Some of the common dishes they get for lunch include:

• Ground beef with scrambled eggs and rice
• Pasta with meat sauce
• Fish with rice and fruit

If students bring their lunch from home, they also have a monitor to make sure they eat it! This is maybe my favorite thing.  

How many times did I pack lunches in the US and have them eat it when they got home?! They didn’t want to use the 30-min lunch break to eat and often inhaled something before playing. I love that, in Portugal, they actually eat their lunch and it’s good quality.

At first, this lunch break felt a little excessive. My kids don’t roll in from the school van we pay to transport them until 5:15 pm. However, I now love it. They do their sports during lunch (swimming, tennis, soccer, volleyball, you name it!) and come home ready to settle in for the evening.  

Our kids can stay at school and eat a hot meal (extra cost, but very reasonable). Many kids go home for lunch if they live close by (we do not). We also make it a tradition to eat lunch with them once a week at some of our favorite brunch spots to get some quality time in with them before we start work. Sometimes, we’ll sneak them out for a family lunch at a café nearby. There’s no rush.

It’s such a different rhythm than in the U.S., where lunch is often gulped down in 20 minutes. Here, lunch is a part of life, not just fuel. 

The downside? If you need to get errands done between noon and 2 pm, good luck—many businesses also take their lunch during that hour. Thankfully, our dentist and speech therapist made exceptions so we can get in during the lunch hour!

2. Late Dinners in Portugal

Portuguese kids eat late—much later than most American families would ever consider.

Let me preface that I always ate later than my American counterparts.  I still think 5 o’clock dinner is absurd… Whether it was because we had too many kids or our own business or whatever, we never ate that early!  

I feel like I found my groove when I came to Portugal and found out dinner is completely acceptable from 8-9 pm. Most restaurants open at 7 pm and, if you go at this hour, you will be the only one there!

Do kids go to bed late and get tired because of this? Yes, for sure. It’s a battle to make sure they are in bed on time. However, I still love it. We are night owls by nature and I love that we can go out to eat at 10 pm on a Friday and see families and toddlers galore!  Festivals in the summer run until 1-4 am and that works for us.  Many people would not like this, I am sure.

It’s perfectly normal for families (with kids) to sit down for dinner at 9 or even 10 pm. Our current goal is 8:45 pm to all be around the dinner table. Restaurants are bustling at that hour, and no one looks twice at children out that late. 

3. Birthday Parties with the Entire Class

When your child gets invited to a birthday party here, you can expect one thing: the entire class will be there. Often the parents are also!

In fact, there are What’sApp groups for classes with all the parents. These are the rumor mills and information centers for parents.

In Portugal, it’s common to invite the whole class to avoid leaving anyone out. That means birthday parties with 20, 25, even 30 kids running around—plus parents hanging out together while the kids play. Parents love to hang out during parties!  

In fact, we just attended a party that was held at a play place that had a bar attached.  The parents loved hanging out for three hours during the party.  We aren’t quite there…  We don’t feel like we fit in, and frankly I don’t really want to!  However, it is kind of beautiful.

We were invited to one party at the family’s Sintra house.  I figured I would walk the dog during the party as I didn’t want to spend 40 min driving back and forth.  However, I soon realized this was a parent party also!  The parents had drinks and lunch while the kids played.  I tied the dog up outside and tried my best, but I could barely speak at the time.  I tend to decline these invites now.  

I should be better and try to make friends, but it’s hard.  These other parents are so close. Kids often go to the same school from six months and continue in the same class through ninth grade!  Parents are tight from their own school days doing the same thing.  These social barriers are tough to overcome.

There are also times where parents don’t want the entire class (or don’t want to afford it!), so they create private groups for invites.  Only my youngest two get invites to these as they are the best ingrained into Portuguese social circles.

At first, this felt overwhelming (especially as a mom of five).  But it’s also been a sweet way to meet other families and see the school community in action.  Parties often have elaborate cakes, plenty of food for adults too and sometimes even entertainers.  It’s a full event.

4. Uniforms and School Supplies in Portugal

School uniforms are common in Portugal in many private schools.  Our kids all started with uniforms and outfitting five kids was a very large investment (several thousand dollars, to be exact).  I really appreciate school uniforms!  But the real quirk is the school supplies.

Picture this: I’ve been in Portugal all of two weeks and got five separate school supply lists to try and buy.  I also get five lists of books required.  

We head to the mall and I try, very poorly, to not only navigate a store I’m not familiar with, use Google Translate to decipher these lists and not lose my children in the store as they are so bored.  It still haunts my nightmares.  I had to ask MANY store employees for help and go back several times to try to assemble it.  

The books were equally hard.  These are not something you want to procrastinate on because then they are on back-order forever!  Procrastination is a Portuguese sport.

Needless to say, the first few months were rough.

We get lists that don’t say “lined notebook,” but “A4, 100 pages, blue cover, spiral-bound.” Teachers are particular, and if you show up with the wrong size or color, your child will stick out.  They also can get a fault (penalty) if they don’t get their supplies in order. 

Thankfully, our school now does a pre-order for both school supplies and books and I’m always on the list.

5. Tight-Knit School Groups in Portugal

In Portugal, kids often stay with the same class and teacher for multiple years.  This means classes become very close-knit, like extended families.

For younger kids, this is wonderful—they build strong friendships and feel secure.  For older kids, especially expats arriving later, it can be harder to break into established groups.  Our younger two slipped right into their Portuguese classes, while our teens struggled more.  Eventually, we switched to international schools.

If you fit in, these are friends for life.  Parents have their kids together when they also were together in the same class and it’s like family.

6. Extracurriculars Made Easy in Portugal

Soccer (futebol) is king here, but extracurriculars aren’t limited to sports.  Kids can join music, dance, swimming, gymnastics, and even chess clubs.

Even better: These activities are offered during the day!  Forget the after school rush.  Because nearly all parents are working, the school organizes these and provides transportation in private schools.  Public schools also offer classes, but for free (however, kids have to use public transport).  This even includes music lessons.

What’s quirky is how affordable many of these activities are compared to the U.S.  A monthly fee for soccer practice or piano lessons is often a fraction of what we used to pay back home.  I can get surf lessons for my teenage son, wetsuit included, for $50 a month!

It makes it easier to let kids explore different interests without breaking the bank.

7. Epic School Field Trips in Portugal

When Portuguese kids go on field trips, they don’t just visit a museum.  They go to castles, palaces, farms, and even the beach.  Imagine learning history in the place it actually happened.  It seems unreal to me!

Our kids have explored medieval castles on school outings, learned about Roman ruins, and walked through national parks. 

They’ve visited palaces with live actors, gone to the theater, visited the firehouse and the bank, and more.  These trips are hands-on and often involve real adventures. 

For expat parents, it’s quirky to sign a permission slip and realize your child is about to have a history lesson inside a 12th-century castle.

8. Religious and Cultural Festivals With Kids

Even if your family isn’t Catholic, your kids will experience Portugal’s strong religious and cultural traditions through school and community life.

Schools often close for religious holidays, and local parades or street celebrations can become family outings.  Our “spring break” is actually Easter holiday and moves around to match the holiday.  You need to follow the Portuguese holiday calendar online (as most people already know these) to find out when kids will be home for the day.  If you are really smart, you plan weekend getaways around the holidays that happen to fall near a weekend that year!

9. More Freedom, Less Helicoptering

One of the quirkiest (and best) parts of raising kids in Portugal?  The independence kids are given.

It’s common for children to walk to school alone, take the bus, or spend time at cafés with friends.  Parents act less like a “helicopter” here.  Kids play outside, climb trees, and roam neighborhoods in a way that feels nostalgic to me—like how many of us grew up.

Do you remember heading out with your bike and being told to be home by dark?  I have fond memories of this.  This is still the case in many places in Portugal.  Parents are at work and kids are on their own to get to and from school and navigate their afternoons.

We’ve embraced this in some ways too.  Our three older kids take public transportation to school each day (in an emergency do we take them or pick them up).  They even determine their own school schedule in their international school. I love that this learning curve happens while they are still at home!

At first, I worried.  Was it safe?  Would they manage?  But watching our kids gain independence has been one of the best gifts of living here.  

Portugal happens to be one of the safest countries in Europe.  I also find a lot of comfort in the fact that most people are walking and taking transport (only about 50% of Portuguese own a car).

10. Learning Portuguese in Portugal

This might be obvious, but it’s quirky how quickly kids pick up Portuguese—and how differently each age handles it.

Kids tend to learn the vocabulary first, whereas I focused on grammar first.  We corrected each other for a while!

Our youngest two were fluent within a year, playing easily with local friends. Our teens struggled more, feeling frustrated in school and social circles.  It’s taught us patience and reminded us how adaptable kids are, but also how tough it can be at different ages.

The upside?  Once they’re in, they’re in.  Kids learn slang, jokes, and cultural cues that even parents may miss.

We now are all fluent, thankfully, and loving that!

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As expat parents, we’ve learned to lean into the quirks, laugh when things don’t make sense, and appreciate the ways our kids are growing up differently than they would have back home.  It’s not always easy—but it’s always interesting.  They are learning important life lessons and we are all growing and stretching as we go.

Additional Readings

Quirky Things About Portuguese Bureaucracy You Probably Don’t Know

Four-Year Update On Living In Portugal as American Expats

Best Family Weekend Getaways in Portugal from Lisbon–Itineraries Included!