Tips for moving to a new country with young children
Moving to a new country can be exhausting, not only for adults, but even more so for children. The home-buying process is lengthy enough, but a distant move has many loose ends to tie up, not least of these is the emotional burden moving can have on the whole family. Once you arrive at your new location, it’s crucial to help your children adjust while facing a mountain of boxes to unpack. Guiding Little Hands has some tips to help you juggle unpacking and helping your children.
Keep Your Children Involved
Moving a great distance — especially to another country — can be a rattling experience for kids of all ages. They have to say goodbye to their home, friends, and teachers. They are facing a host of unknowns. The Child Development Institute suggests talking with your child about the upcoming move early and often, keeping the discussions short. Answer questions as they arise as honestly as you can, and give them time to process the upcoming changes.
Include kids throughout the moving process so they have some sense of control over what is happening. Find tasks they can help with, even if sometimes it’s easier to do it yourself. While you want to be flexible with your children throughout the process, maintaining regular mealtime and bedtime routines as much as possible can help your kids transition smoothly.
Plan Ahead
One of the many changes your kids will face is a new school or daycare. It can be difficult to choose a new place from a distance. It can help to ask your real estate agent, friends, family, or co-workers in your new city for recommendations. A lot of research can be done online, and creating a list of what you need in a new school or care center can help you narrow down the options. Whittle down your list of potential choices ahead of the move so that you can visit in-person upon your arrival and make a final decision.
It helps to show your kids photos or even videos of your destination. This includes the new house, of course, but can also be their new school and nearby attractions. If the school or daycare has already been chosen, you’ll have addresses, so utilize satellite imagery such as Google Earth to visualize at street level.
Planning ahead also includes thinking about your family back home. Explain to your child that just because you’re moving to another country doesn’t mean you won’t care for relatives back home. For instance, you can help your child put together care packages that you can send to friends and loved ones. Meanwhile, you can use services like Remitly to ensure the money you’re sending back home to the Philippines, for example, arrives quickly and securely, and at rates that’s doable for both the sender and the recipient.
Give Children Some Control
One of the best ways to help a child adjust to a new home after a big move is to give them plenty of control over how their new room looks. You may want to arrange the new room in the same layout as their old room, if possible, so it feels familiar. Child Mind Institute suggests giving your child some input on what color to paint the walls, or what theme to use in decorating, so that they are quickly invested in the new space.
Once all of your boxes are unloaded into your new place, you face the exhausting task of unpacking. Be A Fun Mum notes that you need to prioritize your unpacking, perhaps focusing on organizing your child's room first. Then, focus on family necessities like kitchen items, bedding and clothing.
Utilize a Storage Facility
Separate low-priority boxes to unpack and hire help to put those in storage for a while. A never-ending mountain of boxes can be overwhelming for children, and you can be left feeling frenzied as you step over and around them. Instead of tackling everything at once, cut out unnecessary clutter during your family's adjustment period by moving things you don't need right away off-site.
Parents can help kids adjust to a long-distance move to a new country by talking about the move ahead of time and finding ways to give them some control over what is happening. Set their room up in a familiar way and consider moving some boxes to storage to unpack later. Settling in may still take a while, but a few easy steps can have a big impact on how easily your kids transition to their new home.
Author: Sophie Letts