Moving house can be an extremely stressful experience for both parents and children – though for entirely different reasons. The parents are preoccupied with booking someone from Shiply to help with the move, and making sure everything is packed and ready to go by the moving date. The children are more focused on the idea they are moving away from everything they know and hold dear, sometimes without fully understanding why. Especially if the child has no recollection of moving before, it can be difficult to say goodbye to the home they know, love, and grew up in. If you are moving far, it can also be hard for them to be taken out of their school and to be moved away from their friends. They can become resentful of both you and the new house – and before you know it there are tears galore, and you are wondering why it was a good idea to move in the first place. There are ways, however, that you can avoid this and help your child to settle into their new home, and potentially love it even more than the last house. Here are few simple tips on making a big house move easier for your children.
Competition Packing
If you have multiple children or are up for the challenge yourself – you could set up a packing competition with a price for the best-packed box. The packing competition could include categories like neatness, appropriately packing fragile items, and how high the pile of “to charity” items is. This will help the process of packing up their room seem a lot more fun rather than daunting and upsetting. It will also keep them distracted from the reason why they are packing if they have not yet come to terms with it.
Dream Room Planning
Having a floor plan of the room they are moving into and letting your child decide where furniture will go, and what colour they will have the walls, could help to up their excitement levels and diminish the common anger and upset associated with moving. You could even spend some quality time with them and take them on a little shopping trip in order to get them a few new things for their room. You don’t have to spend a lot, just something simple as a door sign, rug, or new lamp could put a smile back on your child’s face.
Friends House Warming
One of the most difficult things for your child will be moving away form their friends. Rather than just telling them they’ll make new friends – which hardly ever works in calming them down – you could arrange a meet up not long after you move in. Even though it may seem like added stress on your part, it gives your child something to look forward to and helps them to realise this isn’t goodbye forever to their friends. Hosting a little housewarming party or sleepover for your child and their friends will help to settle back into their old ways, without the worry of losing “their best friends in the world”.
There you have it, a few tried and tested tips on how to help your child become accustomed to the idea of moving, and helping them to settle into a new house without the paddy or tantrum to accompany the already stressful day.
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