Prepare your children for the move
Posted on 07/08/2014
You have decided to move to a new place and a new area and you are wondering how to prepare your kids for this. Fear not, here come some useful tips.
All you need is some planning and this article will help you set up some steps on how you can prepare your kids so that the relocation will be as easy as possible for everyone.
The transition will be dramatic for you, so just think of what it will do to your child’s little world. Start by being honest to them and let the whole family be involved in choosing house. Give the kids all the information as age-appropriate as you can by sitting them all down at dinner as a suggestion. See this is step number one to kind of get the words out there, but be prepared that your kids will react in different ways. So it is important that you give each child the space they need to react in their own way and express their feelings. Some may not want to leave their friends or school and some might be sad because they love the house. Make sure that you will let them have their say and answer them if they have questions.
When the actual fact that you are moving is out there and all the feelings are dealt with it is time to get the kids up to speed about the new place. Show them photos, maps, and school and area sites to introduce the children to the new place.
Better yet, have the kids to participate in the survey of the new place. Make the children a big part of in decision making when shopping for new things for the new home and what color their wallpapers will be and so on. This will make them feel less uncomfortable and the process won’t seem so strange.
The hardest side of moving, especially for older children, is to move to a new school, so if it is possible, try and schedule the move to a summer break. That way the change won’t be so dramatic. If this is not possible, maybe you should consider letting your kid – preferably a teenager – live at a friend’s house or at a relative’s until the summer break comes.
All though, if you are able to move during the summer, make sure that your kids will get into the new life in the new home at once. Once they have made new friends and gotten to know the area, things will run by more smooth. All though it will be easy for the kids to maintain their old friends; in this new era with Internet and mobile phones they can easily keep contact with their old life as well.
It doesn’t matter how old your kids are, they will probably need a ‘security blanket’, so let them choose a couple of things that they can have in reach all the time. It may sound weird but by having things that smells like home and brings back memories, they may feel that they don’t leave their home, they are just leaving a house. The memories won’t disappear.
Explain why a move is necessary and introduce them to the new area. A move will be hard on all of you but as long as the kids are aware of the reason, maybe they won’t be as upset as you think. Maybe they too will look forward to this.
