Helping Kids Adjust Through Every Stage Of A House Move

Allegiance Van Lines • September 26, 2024 • Moving Tips

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Before Your House Move
During The House Move
Getting Settled: After The House Move
Allegiance Van Lines: Your Reliable Long-Distance Movers

It’s said that a house move is one of the top three most stressful things that we can go through. The other being seeing a spider in your shower – yikes!

If it’s tough for adults, along with years of learning how to cope and adjust to change, imagine how it might feel for kids? It can’t be the easiest process for them, as a parent, the best thing you can do is show your support at each stage of the move. You can prepare them before, support them and acknowledge them during and then help them to create new memories and fun afterwards.

Before Your House Move

The biggest challenge for parents when moving home is helping their children process their emotions about the move. Here are some tips to help you prepare your kids for the change that lies ahead.

Have The Important Conversations

The last thing you want to do when preparing kids for a move is to avoid the topic. Children need to know what’s happening and what’s about to take place in their lives to give them the chance to process it. Make sure you share vital information with them such as the decision, where they are moving to and what they can expect from the situation. Will they be moving away from friends or family members? Will they have some of the resources that they have in their current spot? Share details and bring them along the journey with you.

Say Your Piece To Help Them Prepare

There’s no such thing as a ‘one size fits all’ approach to helping kids prepare for a house move. The best thing you can do as a parent is to allow them the space they need to ask questions and explore the new space for themselves. If you can, take them along to house viewings or go on an adventure with them in the new area so that they can get familiar with their surroundings. Highlight key aspects of the new space that would excite them and create a little bit of positive anticipation.

Reassure And Validate Them

Children need to feel that their emotional experiences are valid. When preparing kids for a move, allow them to feel whatever it is that they need to feel. Acknowledge their emotions, and explore them together by asking for more details about their experience. This will create a time of bonding between you and them – allowing for trust to deepen and an opportunity for kids to feel acknowledged. Validate them, encourage them and reassure them that this will be a positive step for your family.

During The House Move

Moving house can be stressful for everyone in the family – including your pets! Help your children during this stressful time by following these steps:

Empower Kids With Choices

Since they don’t have any control over the decision to move, and kids are like any adult, they love to have a sense of control. You can easily empower them by giving them choices with some of the smaller aspects of the move. This also makes them feel important, not overlooked, and a part of the process.

Let them help you decide where to put decor and their things into their new room. Let them pack some of their own things or decide what gets given away. Maybe you could encourage them to give some of their older toys to those who have less than them – this will also give kids the sense of being helpful and compassionate, which are positive and constructive emotions.

Acknowledge How They Might Be Feeling

Have the same conversation again with your kids where together you explore the details of their emotions, thoughts and experience of their reality. Don’t judge how they feel, give them room to feel whatever they need to feel to process the move. Give them what they need – some kids love to be alone to process and others are verbal processors. Give them space to express their emotions so that they can move past them.

Plan Something Fun For Moving Day

On moving day or moving week things can be all over the place, and in a bit of chaos. Planning something fun for the whole family will build excitement and create a sense of good morale. Take everyone for breakfast or have an ice cream break between unpacking and unloading boxes. Anything that will take the edge off and build a sense of connection.

Getting Settled: After The House Move

Adjusting can take time for everyone. Each individual in your household will also have their way of dealing with the new space. There are ways you can make everybody feel like they’re home after the move.

Make A Fuss Over The Kids Rooms

Get your kids excited about their new bedrooms. Think colors, decorations, fun things to do in their rooms. One of the key things to do whenever you move into a new place is to get the beds set and made so that there’s a sense of home and rest upon arrival. Putting your kid’s favorite things out first will also help to establish that sense of belonging. Make sure their bedrooms feel safe and peaceful so that they can start to enjoy the new place.

Explore And Create A Sense Of Adventure!

Kids love adventure and they are curious. One of the best ways to make a new neighborhood feel like home is to explore it as a family. Go for walks, a cycle, or a run around the block. Meet new neighbors and people around. Visit the local store, and find out where to get your haircut – whatever makes sense for you as a family and the kind of move you’ve had. When children explore and there’s adventure, it’ll help to create more excitement about where they are in their new home.

Make Sure You Stay Connected

One key aspect of a move, and one that’s often forgotten, is the importance of connection in the relationships between everyone in the family. It can be so easy to focus on boxes, furniture, packing, and unpacking, that we neglect those precious moments of connection and relationship. The ironic part of this is, when kids feel connected to their parents and family members they handle change a whole lot better. Be intentional to stay connected at every stage of the move, especially when you are settling in.

Nothing makes a place feel more like home than staying connected and having fun with loved ones.

Allegiance Van Lines: Your Reliable Long-Distance Movers

We offer the full range of moving services needed for an easy transition and move. From local moving, storage services, moving supplies, full-service moving, junk removal to packing services, we cover everything you need from one end to the other, making your move simple and easy. Nobody needs extra stress when they’re moving around, let us lighten your load!