Preparing Children for a House Move

I’m often asked for my top tips to help children with upcoming, or recent, house moves. Moving house is a major – stressful – life event for adults and is huge for children too. As with any big transition, you can expect a little unavoidable turmoil while your child gets used to the move, however there are plenty of things you can to do help prepare them and make the move go as smoothly as possible. Here are my ten top tips:

1. Get them involved right from the start
As soon as you start thinking about moving, discuss the idea with your child. Visit estate and letting agents/realtors with them, involve them with online house browsing and take them along to viewings. This all helps to normalise what will be happening and gives them a sense of ownership, long before the actual move is finalised.

2. Encourage them to sort through belongings long before move day
This is especially important if you’re hoping to de-clutter. Very often parents leave the sorting, selling, donating and trashing until the last few days before the move. However this loss of belongings can add to the trauma for some children. If you are going to get rid of some of their belonging, try to do so well in advance of the move.

3. Resist redecorating and new purchases
A lot of children are promised new bedroom furniture, curtains, bedding and decorations for their new rooms. This complete change is actually counter-productive for a lot of children. Having known, reassuring belongings in the new home can really help children to settle quicker. If you do want to buy new items for your child for the new house, try to buy them well before you move, so that they settle in with them in their current home. These can provide some security when moved to the new room. Even better, if the new room has the same paint colour or wallpaper.

4. Visiting and normalising
Make sure to visit your new home at least once (on the inside) with your child, but visit the outside as often as you can with them. When you do visit, have conversations about where things will go when you do live there and what their everyday life will be like in the new home. If you are moving to a new area, try to get your child used to it as much as possible in advance, visiting lots and getting to know local parks, coffee shops and so on. If it’s not possible to do this in person, then familiarise them as much as possible online, with pictures, virtual tours and google streetview.

5. Read books about moving and TV shows featuring house moves.
For younger children, sharing books about house moves can help them to understand the process more, as can TV shows. Some books suggestions are HERE and HERE and HERE. Videos that can help HERE and HERE.

6. Fully explain the process of moving day
Moving day itself can be a scary experience for children. If possible, have them with you on the move day (it can be incredibly disorientating for them if they don’t get to see you leave the old house and move into the new one), but preferably with another adult on hand so that you can focus on the move knowing they are being cared for. Demystifying the process in advance is really helpful here – for instance, talk about people coming to help you to pack boxes and putting them in a removal van. Showing pictures of the removal van (perhaps on the website of the hire/removal company) is a great idea, as is pointing out any you see on your everyday travels. It can help to make a visual timetable of the day and what is likely to happen when, so that there are no unexpected surprises.

7. Take photos of your current/old home and add them to a special book
Children like to reminisce about their old homes for many years after moving (my eldest still talks about his old bedroom that we left 15 years ago!). Very often though we don’t take photographs of the rooms of the house before we move out. Taking photos of your current home, with all rooms and a garden if you have one, as well as photos of the outside can really help your child to settle. Store them in a special album and look through them together if they miss their old home. They make wonderful memories in the years to come too. Who wouldn’t love a photo of their childhood bedroom?

8. Encourage them to share their feelings and go easy on them
You can expect some tricky behaviour for several months after moving home. It is a huge unsettling event for many children. Try to remember this when your child won’t sleep, misbehaves or is difficult a month or two after the move. It takes them longer to transition than us. Encouraging your child to share their feelings about the move, before, during and after, can really help. Let them know you miss the old house too, but that you are looking forward to creating new happy memories with them in the new home.

9. Keep special toys and comfort items separately in a clearly marked box
The room your child sleeps in should be the first room you unpack in your new home. You need to fill this with as many familiar things as possible. For this reason, pack a couple of boxes with anything your child needs to sleep and feel calm and keep them with you – not in the removal truck – you will need to access this box first. It’s so important it doesn’t get mixed up with anything else. Similarly, if your child needs certain plates, cups and bowls etc.. to eat, make sure you keep these somewhere to hand.

10. It’s all about you
Moving house and the events leading up to it can be incredibly stressful for us as adults. This stress can – and often does – have a big impact on our own patience and tolerance levels. While a lot of this stress is unavoidable, perhaps one of the most powerful things you can do for your child when it comes to a house move is try to keep your own emotions in check. Be mindful of how you’re feeling and work to reduce as much stress as possible, so that you can be calm for your child. After all, it doesn’t matter how great your preparation has been if they are catching stress from you!