Moving with children can be stressful and highly emotional. Kids are sensitive and now more than ever, need to feel secure and loved. They will pick up on your vibes, so make sure to try and relax, and spend loads of time as a family. We’ve got a few more tips on how to ease the transition for your children when packing up and preparing for a move.
Read books
If Brother and Sister Bear move from a cozy cave high up in the mountains to a big tree house in the heart of bear country then your kid can too. Books can be a great resource when preparing your young children for a big change in their lives. The written word and illustration have the ability to explain that unfamiliar things have rewards and benefits. Reading takes the pressure of a parent to come up with the ‘right’ words. Your biggest difficulty may be consoling the kid when they find out your new house isn’t in a tree.
Talk about it
Moving to a different home is not like getting a vaccination. This move will inject more change then an itchy red sore. Your conversations with them should reflect their developmental age. A school age child might be comforted in knowing that friendships can continue despite the distance. Get them scrapbooking about their big move and encourage them to email or even snail mail their buddies. My 3 year old thought that when we sold our house it included the contents. I could see her relief when she understood that CareBear would be in the moving truck with us.
Pack with Purpose
Start to pack early and methodically. Why start in the kid’s bedroom when you can start in the hallway closet? Children are comforted by their familiar surroundings. Sort toys ahead but wait until the last possible moment to put them in a box. Give your child a box to decorate and allow them to fill it with their most precious items. This box will travel in your car and be the first box unpacked in your new home.
Continue with Life
Preparing for a move can be time consuming. Just remember to make fun a priority. Take a break from wrapping glassware to dance in your uncluttered living room or get outside and play tag in the sunshine. Your kids will feel more secure if your routine remains consistent. Try to avoid excessive amounts of take out and instead focus on easy one pot or quick prep meals to fill your tummies. There will be plenty of time to sample take out from every restaurant within 5 km of your new postal code.
Whether you are upsizing or downsizing keep these simple tips in mind. So you can spend less time adjusting and more time enjoying your new home.
Stephanie Raposo
thanks for the article! we in the middle of a 5-month-long process of moving – first from the apartment in Hong Kong my 16mo son grew up in to an aunt’s place in another part of town (to save on rent), then from Hong Kong to Vancouver (to spend summer with my parents), and now we are preparing for a move to Portland (for my husband to go back to school).
needless to say it’s a LOT of changes for a little guy, and he’s taken it all fairly well. this last move will be a bit more complicated though because there is a 7 hour drive involved, and we will first have to stay with a friend for about a week while we get our new apartment sorted out, then into the new place.
this will also be hard on all of us as Portland is a new city for our whole family and we ALL have to get used to the new surroundings and finding out where everything is!
what i’ve found is kids are pretty resilient, and as long as they have their anchors (ie. mom & dad) consistently available, they can adapt to a lot of things.
MORE TIPS: Labels, stickers and photos: Kids can help pack their stuff. They can help label the boxes. Ask them to take pictures of their items. Print the photos on stickers or on paper so they can stick each label to the corresponding box. Following the same idea – ask them to decorate the boxes and the labels with colourful crayons. Get more tips for your move at vancouverinthebox.com
Labels, stickers and photos: Kids can help pack their stuff. They can help label the boxes. Ask them to take pictures of their items. Print the photos on stickers or on paper so they can stick each label to the corresponding box. Following the same idea – ask them to decorate the boxes and the labels with colourful crayons. Get more tips at vancouverinthebox.com
[…] Moving to a new home with children requires an almost unfathomable amount of effort. Time, work, the anxious uncertainty that comes with drastic transition. Children, being as intuitive as they are, pick up on these stresses, and tend to emulate them. […]