How You Can Make Your Big Move Easier On Your Kids

Relocating to a new city or state significantly disrupts children’s routines and sense of home. Major changes require adaptations that kids are often unequipped to handle alone. Parental preparation and support ease big move transitions for the entire family. Here are tips to help kids positively embrace the adventure ahead.

Give Them Time To Process The Change

Children need time to comprehend and accept a total lifestyle shift. It’s been a tough time for kids’ mental health and parents need to be aware of how they can help. Break the news gradually starting months before moving dates. Share enthusiasm about upcoming adventures together in the new place to frame the move positively. But also validate their sadness about leaving old friends. This emotional buffer period is critical.

Get Their Input On Key Decisions

Within reason, involve kids in major decisions like selecting neighborhoods, houses, and schools. Understanding their wants provides useful insights plus makes them feel empowered amid disruption. Compromise on decorating their new bedrooms. Share your own excitement planning fun new traditions together.

Coordinate Their Move With Friends If Possible

Learn moving timeframes for your child’s closest friends. If possible, coordinate with other families to align moving dates. This allows kids to go through changes together and maintain trusted friendships that ease uncertainty. Peer support during a move is invaluable.

Visit The New Town In Advance

Make multiple advance visits to your new hometown together. See their future school and bedroom to make the unknown real. Visit key attractions like zoos and parks to build familiarity and anticipation. Take their favorite snacks and make the trips fun bonding adventures. Advance exposure eases fear.

Get Their Rooms Ready Early

Unpack and arrange your child’s new bedroom first with familiar items like bedding, toys, and clothes ready before move-in day. Place favorite posters on walls to instill familiarity and comfort right away in their private space. Let them pick paint colors or a fun wall decal. Their own stylized sanctuary aids adjustment. A custom neon light is a great option for personalizing their space, to let them know that it’s their zone. You can find neon signs in your colors at Echo Neon. You and your family can create a custom neon sign just for you.

Engage Them In Packing And Preparing

Encourage kids to sort through possessions and decide what to bring along. Let them pack boxes of clothes, books, and toys themselves with colorful tape for labeling. Assigning manageable moving tasks promotes ownership. Supervise carefully to ensure proper packing techniques.

Throw A Moving Party With Friends

Host a special party inviting school friends, teammates, and neighbors allowing kids to say proper goodbyes. Make it celebratory with games, favorite foods, and a group photo or video project to capture memories. This provides closure on the current chapter before writing their next adventure.

Be Upbeat But Acknowledge Sadness

Focus on the promise of new experiences and friends awaiting but acknowledge they will grieve aspects left behind like their room, school, and neighborhood haunts. Don’t minimize their sadness or invalidate big feelings. Provide reassurance that you’ll navigate changes together.

Create A Countdown Calendar

Mark off days until the moving day on a calendar kids can follow. Help them check off milestones like the last play date, a pizza party at a favorite restaurant, or a final baseball game. This equips them with the awareness to mentally prepare as big goodbyes nearby.

Reserve Special Moving Day Roles

Assign them duties like keeping toys safe in the car ride, being in charge of doors, or delivering snacks to movers. Giving important ‘jobs’ empowers kids amid chaos. Take pictures of kids with the moving truck or in their empty rooms to memorialize their role. They’ll cherish the images.

Tour The New Neighborhood Right Away

Don’t wait to introduce them to the area once settled. Take first walks immediately around your new block, investigating nearby parks, trees to climb, or community centers. Peek at schools if possible. Discover their new domain together to start feeling at home.

Introduce Them To Neighborhood Kids

Meet other families with children nearby. Setting up playdates immediately builds bonds in the new community. Especially for younger kids, neighborhood friends quickly become like extended family. Becoming part of a social circle fast accelerates adjustment.

Explore New Outings And Activities

Browse local community center programs, arts classes, and sports leagues together. Enroll them in activities they enjoy so they’ll have structured social outlets in their new setting. Maintaining fun extracurriculars with new peers prevents isolation.

Set Up Family Movie And Game Nights

Family time is absolutely key. In the weeks following a move when you have limited local connections, dedicate evenings to special movie nights with favorite snacks, blankets, and board/video game play. Low-key bonding times further ease uncertainty when everything outside the home is new and foreign.

Major moves mark big transitions in a child’s development. From providing information to keeping cherished routines intact, parents play a crucial role in shepherding kids through relocation challenges to embrace the growth opportunities change brings. With compassion and creativity, families can thrive starting their new adventure together.