Moving can be a difficult process, but when it comes to moving with young children it could be even harder. No child wants to move away from their hometown, friends, and family. So how can you handle moving with children–no matter the location?
Encourage a Positive Perspective
No matter where your family moves and no matter how perfect the location may be, the first you, as a parent, need to do: is let your child have a say or an opinion. At the end of the day, not only your life will be affected but theirs too. Let your kids have feelings and help them cope with them and try to understand their viewpoints and arguments. There is always something new and exciting in a new location. For example, if you are moving to Miami tell them how great the weather is and how nice it is to live by the beach. All these factors could contribute to the kid’s outlook being changed.
Get The Kids Actively Involved
After the big talk with them, it is time for packing. Who really loves packing, especially when there are young children involved? The first thing that needs to be done is choosing a great moving company, some of the factors to look at when choosing the company: their ratings, prices, and customer services. Not many companies will be able to move furniture, boxes, etc., half-way through the country or even a couple states. Pay attention to the ratings, these can be an important factor when deciding on the company. Ratings will tell you a lot of information and how the company handles its big moves. Now let us begin with packing, most professional moving companies will help you when it comes to packing big furniture pieces. But personal items, that need to be handled on your own. When having a toddler, some suggestions would be taking things with you that the toddler needs. These items could be their favorite blanket/toy, diapers, pacifiers, and the list goes on. But when it comes to children between the age of five and ten, there could be more bumps on the road than expected. If you are moving by car, the car trip needs to be entertaining enough so your kid/s will not get fussy, some snacks for the road, and some sleeping items. Different children have different needs, so make sure the main needs are handled.
The packing is going smoothly, and everything is getting handled perfectly, as you arrive at your new home you realize that you do not know what is in what box. To make sure, things like this do not happen to you the key suggestion is color-coding. Color coding is helpful and useful when you arrive at your new home. How can you use color-coding? Well, it is simple, try color-coding for most needed to least needed. Boxes that are, for example, color-coded pink could be a sign that this box contains items that are required daily. Items that are least needed, for example, winter clothes could be a different color.
Do’s and Don’ts
Now that we are talking about your personal and your children’s items, you might have an urge to go out and spend money on items like clothing. Do not do this, not only will you have many more items to pack and move, but there is also a possibility that you might not even wear them. For example, when you are moving to Miami, the climate, different styles, etc., could make you ditch your old clothes and have an urge to spend more money on even more clothes like it is a never-ending cycle. So, spare yourself the time and money and wait till you move to your new home. From there, you will have the opportunity to go out and buy some highly needed items.
Finally, you and your children made it to your new home. But still, your kids are not happy with their new home, all they want to do is just go home. New adjustments take time, let your kids show their emotions about their new home. There are different things that you can do to help your children get used to their new environment, one of these things could be making certain adjustments to give your youngsters loads of occasions to meet new buddies. This may be an ideal opportunity to allow your child to pursue the same number of exercises as he wishes. You need your kid to evaluate new encounters with various gatherings until he finds the ones who click. Another could be to make friends on their own but teach them how. We often expect our kids to make friends on their own, but we need to show them how. For example, you could tell them this, “Hi, my name is John. Since my dad got a new job, I had to move from New York to Miami.” It also helps to recognize games or activities that are common in the new city. If all the kids play ball, teach your kids to play. Give them a little pep talk, eventually, let your child know that they will make friends everywhere they go because they are such a friendly kid. Remind them how at kindergarten they made friends so easily; reassure them that in their new world they will do the same.
Wherever your family chooses to move, there will always be problems that will be encountered in the way. It can something with the kids, under packing, over-packing, etc. By helping each other on the way to a new life, moving could be done smoother. Making it something that excites everyone in the family.
