Tuesday, 25 March 2008

Tips for Helping Your Family and Kids Cope with a Move

By L.Buckley

Older children will want to know more and you should be prepared to tell more. They may want to move however if you explain to them that you are moving to be closer to relatives in NYC or maybe Boston to a better job they will most likely understand the reason for the move.Tailor your explanations to the age of the children and their comprehension.

Teens will be the most upset by the move from NYC or Boston as they will have developed very strong relationships with their friends. The youngest children only need to know that you are moving to a new town because your office will be in the new town. Let the kids visit their new school on the way to Boston.

The advantage of moving during school term is that your children will be in school and can make new friends quickly and they may not have as much opportunity to make new friends if you move during the holidays. The other major advantage of moving during the school year is that your children will have a routine established quickly and this has been known to be helpful to children in adapting to a new location.

If your move is to another city like Boston or NYC get as much information about the new city and a movers quote as you can so you can share with the kids. If the city is not too far away perhaps you can take a family trip to begin to get to know your new home. Visit the local parks and museums or any other local attractions. Take a ride by your new workplace to show the kids so they will begin to feel more comfortable about moving.

Any information you can share with your kids will help them feel involved and also make help them look forward to seeing the new city and all the things they have found out about it during the research. Make time for your teen. No matter how stressful the move is for you make time for them. Empathize with them so they feel you understand the inner turmoil they are going through.

It is critical to a successful partnership and marriage that you and your partner have this discussion. It may be very difficult for two people to hold it together during a time of chaos, but remember you need to be strong for your kids.

Their focus will be on loss of routine and familiar items rather than on loss of friends. Bring them with you to the new home in advance of actually moving in so they can get used to the new house and allow them to pick out their rooms if possible.

Some useful things you can do to help them become accustomed to the idea of the upcoming move. Allow them to pack a box of their own even if you need to repack it later for safety reasons. Ask them to pick the colors for their new room. Play act the move with them so they can get an idea of what is about to happen.

Get to know as much as possible about your new home town as early as possible and this can help to alleviate the fear of moving somewhere you do not know anything about. Reassure them that everything will work out well and keep up with that positive attitude.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I really liked this article seeing as we have just moved and it being so stressfull.

Thanks it's well worth a read!

S. Wiseman Nevada