If all goes well, we will be moving to a new house in December. We are staying in the same town and the same school district, but I still think that moving may be an emotional experience for my children. We have lived in our current house for eight years, so T is the only one who has moved.
I'm looking for advice or tips. Have you moved to a new house with your children? How did you prepare? Are there any books that you recommend? I appreciate any words of wisdom you may have for me.
13 comments:
Sorry--but we have never moved either, except for Hanna and she was only 3.
I wish I had advice. However, I am sooooooo excited for you and your new home:-).
We moved last summer with an almost 2 yo. We bought the house on Monday, and moved in on Saturday. In between Meghan and I spent a lot of time there. I cleaned and she played.
I think the time spent there helped a lot!! She loved the emptiness since it made it seem so big.
With older kids, I think spending a little time there would be helpful, especially if they could each take a small box of their stuff.
Just a thought.
Please send any good tips you get my way.
We are now considering building out in NY which scares me b/c we have never built a house. ANy tips on that one would be appreciated too.
We have been in our house for 9 yrs so we moved into it when N was 2 and D (3) obviously has never moved. Leaving Gram & Gramps will be hard for them but, leaving Sissy will be even harder. That will be the hard one for me. I still can't believe I will be so far away from her. Sorry I am babbling. Good luck with your move.
Preserve memories.
Take a pic, well lots of pictures of their rooms and them playing in your current house. Take a picture of the front of the house ,them play on the couch, cooking in the kitchen etc. There concept of time isn't the greatest and I found it helped to be able to look back at our house with happiness. It is so sad when everything is packed up and then the unpacking takes ages. It's a long time before they get their room how they want it. It's not long but for them. My boys love looking at where they have lived before and saw how happy they were and so can be again. We're a military family so we've moved a bit for them already. Some places they were too young to remember but we have good pictures of their room.
Good luck.
My daughter was only 4 months when we moved, so I have no advice. I do think the fact that they will be in the same area will help. At least everything won't be new.
I was just thinking if taking the kids to pick out new sheets or something for their new bedrooms might make them feel more involved in the move.
We moved last year when M&M was 2. The only advice I have is to be patient! She eventually got used to it, but it took a little while. I don't know about older kids though. Sorry, I'm not much help. Hope the move goes well!
Here's the tips I remember reading when we were moving (I was pregnant with the boys at the time).
Let them pack their toys, save 1 box to be packs the night before you move, take that with you in the car, and let that be one they unpack right when they get there.
have a box of cleaning supplies you pack right before you move, so you can clean your new house (toilets and such) before you move all your stuff in.
label everything!
use clothing to pack around delicate items, this cuts down on the newspaper and bubble wrap you have to buy (we did this moving all our china and such into storage, and nothing broke).
Congratulations on your upcoming move! We moved last year in December, and we didn't really do a lot of prep work except talking it up and visiting the new house multiple times with our daughter in tow. At first she still referred to the house as "Jack's house", because she remembered one of the kids from previous owners, but she was mostly just wildly excited about the whole change and took to it very readily. It helped that there was no change in friends - I think the hardest thing for older kids is loss of friends and change of schools.
My daughter Emma was one and a half when we moved to our current home, and I remember she was very concerned to see everything put into boxes even though we had moved three other times before then. I guess that was the first time she was old enough to understand what was happening. She was very excited to see the boxes in the new house. If I had realized it would upset her, I would have done more prep explaining what was going to happen.
I moved every 2-4 years as a child, and some things that helped were choosing one or two toys that would not be put into boxes, talking about when the movers were coming and what they would do, and discussing what the new house might look like and things to do near the new house. Also, I remember one of my younger siblings (3 years old at the time, I think) getting concerned during one move because they thought they would be packed into a box... I like the idea of taking pictures of your old house - not something my parents did, but something I would have liked as a kid.
here is a book that I like:
http://www.amazon.com/Berenstain-Bears-Moving-First-Books/dp/0394848381/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254858763&sr=8-1
start prep now talk about it as a christmas/ holiday gift for the whole family and why.
Make crafts like a new bedroom and pieces cut from a catalog if things they like and glued to a paper...and pick out special new bedroom things to put in a moving box now...
If you get the opportunity when you're moving have a sleep over night or 2 before officially moving in to acclimate them to the new place. It can be a fun sleep over so its more exciting to move in. If they freak they can go to the comfort of the old room for few more days....maybe
heres a list from amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_p_n_age_range_1?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Cn%3A!1000%2Ck%3Amoving%2Cn%3A4%2Cp_n_age_range%3A673422011&bbn=4&keywords=moving&ie=UTF8&qid=1254858939&rnid=673420011
and CONGRATS!!!! ;)
Congratulations/good luck on your move! We moved with our son when he was 1 year old and again at 18 months. He was too young to really care at 1 year. At 18 months, he loved moving. Obviously still younger than your kids, but for what it's worth, I let him come with me every time I visited the house (for inspections, etc.), let him run around in what would be his room, the backyard, etc. He couldn't wait to move in. It was like he moved into the playground. And opening every box was like Christmas. The first night there he slept in his own room alone, after having closlept his whole life. Maybe you could let your kids have a say in decorating their new rooms?
Congratulations and best of luck with the move! When I started reading your post, I was hopeful that you might be moving closer to me (for my own selfish purposes, of course)!
Seeing as how you are staying in the same town and school district, hopefully it won't be too stressful on the kids. I like the idea of letting the kids have an active role in decorating their rooms in the new house.
You must be so excited! I can't wait to hear more about your new home!
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