Helping Children Cope With Moving To A New Home
Children don’t like big change. You can’t blame them as they’re only little and see big change as something that alters their comfort levels and life in general. Being a parent isn’t always about think of the practical needs of your children, but being there when their emotions run high. It's always going to be a major task for the whole family to pick up their things, and travel long distances to their new home. Not only will the children feel emotionally attached to their bedrooms and where they have a play area, but they will be saying goodbye to their friends that live either side to your house. This is why it's important to not make this move a stressful experience and actually quite the opposite, something they can look back on and remember how you made it fun.
Packing can be playtime too
Some of the large items in your home will need professional help so start thinking about local moving services near me. Book them online, and pick the time and date you want them to arrive. When the teams come over to start packing, they will be putting every small and medium-sized thing in boxes. Grab a few of these boxes and build a fort or castle-like structure. Children love to play and make areas where they feel comforted, and by using your imagination, moving boxes become a safe haven. You can also play hide and seek with these boxes if you stack them in such a way where you make little pockets where children can crawl by. The key is to get their mind off of the fact that in the boxes will be their whole life, which is being taken and plopped down somewhere strange and unfamiliar.
Wrapping is messy by fun
When you’re wrapping up items in bubble wrap, or putting them in boxes full of foam, children are going to want to mess around. Surely, you can find a few minutes out of your time to allow them to play around with the wrapping materials. They will also want to help eventually once their mood has calmed down. Give them the sellotape, or wrapping paper, and when you’re satisfied with things you’ve wrapped such as candleholders, plates and cutlery, cup and glasses, allow them to stick and seal them. It's not a complicated task by any stretch of the imagination, but it gets them involved and feel as if they matter in this process.
Sit and comfort them
Even if your kids have seen the new house beforehand, they will have trouble picturing their life in basically, someone else’s room. They will feel as if they are leaving a state of safety and entering into a new environment. Sit them down, and talk them through why you’re moving and how their life is not going to go through major changes. In among the hectic packing, timekeeping and sometimes shouting and bickering, remember that children may not understand why they’re feeling melancholy. Make time for them and listen to their concerns on the big moving day.
Helping children to cope with their anxieties on moving day is something that can be overlooked. They might not have the words to express how nervous they feel, but by making moving fun, you can take away the stress and inject fun back into their day.