If your young children are dreading the moving day, it probably only adds to your stress. Not only do you have to worry about packing, cleaning, and organizing, but you’re faced with children who can’t stop crying about all they’re going to miss. Teenagers are more likely to adjust quickly despite leaving their friends behind, so here are a few tips for making the moving day fun for your young children.
Go Shopping
In preparation for moving day, take your young children shopping for their new rooms. Pick out a brand new comforter or perhaps a border for the walls of their rooms. This shouldn’t be approached as a bribe—I’ll buy you things to keep you quiet!—but a way to build excitement about moving.
You don’t have to spend a small fortune for young children to get excited about moving day. One or two things for their new rooms will be sufficient to create anticipation. And don’t let your children use the new items until the moving day has come.
Hold a Housewarming Party
If your young children are worried about missing their friends, you can throw a housewarming party after moving day is over to celebrate your new digs. Invite your children’s friends (and a few guests of your own, if you’d like) and have a cook-out, or just serve snack dishes while your house sits in disarray.
If you want to make the moving day fun for your young children but don’t want to have people over until your house is finished, schedule the party for a week after you move. This way, your children have something to look forward to as they prepare their rooms and help you unpack.
Create a Fun Address Book
If moving day is especially hard on your young children, an arts-and-crafts project might do the trick. Buy construction paper and glue and colorful markers, plus blank address books (one for each child), and help them decorate their books however they’d like. Then spend time adding all of their friends’ information so they know they can keep in touch.
Emphasize Community Features
If the neighborhood into which you are moving sports neat features like a swimming pool or park, emphasize these benefits for your young children. Before moving day, take them on a tour of the community so they can see what they will be gaining—and so they won’t be focusing on what they’ll be using. Talk about these benefits often.
Keep Them Busy
Young children who have their hand’s full cleaning closets or organizing boxes won’t have much time to fret. Don’t tell your children they can’t help because they’ll get frustrated; instead, assign age-appropriate tasks that can keep their minds off the negative aspects of moving day. Kids love to help, so grant their wish.
Moving day is often hardest on young children, so do whatever you can to make the process less painful. The farther away you are moving, the more tears you’re likely to see, so try to keep them occupied. If that doesn’t work, keep mentioning the great things that await them in your new house, and don’t forget to spend time with them to let them know they are loved.
