Smooth Move: The Do’s and Dont’s of Moving with Children
Are you moving with children?
If you are, chances are that you’re a little nervous to tell them. And you have every reason to be. Moving can be a difficult time for children.
But you can ease the pain of moving if you prepare well. Lucky for you, we’ve compiled a list of do’s and don’t’s for moving with children.
If you take our advice, you’ll be ready to help your loved ones be ready to go. Read on for some do’s and don’t’s when taking your kids to a new home.
Do’s:
1. Have a Family Meeting
The first step you’ll want to take is to tell your kids that you are moving. This is often the hardest part of the process.
Your kids will have lots of questions to ask you. This means you should make time to listen to their concerns.
You might want to order or make their favorite meal for dinner. Then this could lessen the blow when they find out.
At the meeting, be patient with their questions. Some of them might even sound silly to you, but you should take them as serious worries.
Your kids need to know you’re on their side. This means you should be ready for any kind of reaction.
2. Make them feel involved
Make your kids feel involved in the process of moving. Often, kids will feel like their parents made a decision without caring about them.
If you have older kids, you could even take them when house hunting. This will let them know you value their opinion.
But be careful when taking them. They might want something you don’t, and they will know if you ignored their opinion.
When you move, let the kids decide on their own rooms, if they can. You should facilitate this conversation because it could lead to arguments too.
3. Have all the answers
When you’re moving, your kids will want to know all the details. You should do your research about all the changes that could happen to your child.
Your kids will want to know about their new school most of all. Although you’ve done your research already, you should find out some of the minor details.
In reality, you cannot have all the answers, but you should prepare to answer most questions.
4. Display a good attitude
Monkey see, monkey do.
If you have a good attitude about moving, your kids might too. Let them know how excited you are to be in a new place.
A good attitude will show them that everything will be okay when you move. If you show them a bad attitude, they won’t believe you.
5. Make them feel at home
After you get everything settled, make your kids feel at home. Play a family favorite game or watch a movie they enjoy.
Then, introduce them to their new city. Take them to get ice cream at a local store, or visit some famous local places. Become a tourist to acquaint you and your children with the town.
Do this process in a slow manner. Your kids may not be as excited to visit new places as you are.
Don’t’s:
1. Ignore Their Concerns
The biggest mistake to make when moving is ignoring your child’s concerns. When they feel stressed out, they might become irrational.
Often, they may ask questions that don’t make sense. And they’ll have worries about not being able to make new friends at school.
You know that they will be able to make friends at their new school. But your kids don’t know it will be easy to do.
Listen to them worry about their concerns. Sometimes they may need someone to talk to about it. You might not need to worry about fixing the problem.
2. Make Them Toss Too Much
When moving, there’s a good chance that you’ll throw a lot away. While some of this won’t matter, you shouldn’t make your kids toss away too much.
Some items you might see as trash. But they might see the same items as a prized possession.
This is very important for younger children as well. Sometimes a toy or drawing they made might be an important keepsake.
To make sure they still throw away items, you could make it a game. If you have more than one child, tell them you want to see who can throw the most away.
3. Lose Your Temper
Moving is already difficult enough for most children. To make sure it doesn’t become harder than it should, keep your temper down.
When moving becomes stressful, try going away from your children for a minute. And make sure that they do not see any arguments between you and your spouse.
If you lose your temper, they may not believe you when you try to make things better. You have to make sure to be calm, even when it gets hard.
4. Make Them Forget Their Friends
When moving, you have to be sensitive to their friendships. Although they will make friends, you should let them miss their old ones.
Let them throw a goodbye party with their friends. And take them back home to see their friends when possible.
As they’re making new friends, don’t tell them to stop talking to their old friends. They may spend hours on the phone, but they might become upset otherwise.
5. Pack Everything for Them
It may be tempting to help your kids by packing everything for them. But this plan will make the move even more difficult.
Your decision to move might make them feel like they’re out of control. And if you pack for them, they will feel this even more.
Don’t take this too far though. You should help your kids pack for moving because it can be a daunting task.
Need Help Moving with Children?
Now that you have some dos and don’ts for moving with children, you should be ready to go. With these tips, the process should be a breeze.
Looking for moving help or storage? Check out our international moving services. And for more moving advice, visit our blog.
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