No one enjoys moving to a new home. Once you’ve settled in, you can start to make your new life, but until then it’s a lot of stress. Moving as a mom with kids either young or old is even more stressful because you need to involve them in everything you do. From giving older kids a say in the new house to trying to entertain little ones while you pack, children make the moving process longer and more complicated. But it’s their home as much as it is yours, and they should be allowed to get involved with everything. What’s more, you should encourage them to help out, instead of leaving the adults to do all the work.
If you’re making arrangements to move to a new home, you might be worrying about how your kids will settle in. But before you get to that part, you need to make the physical move. How do you make it through the process without going crazy from stress? With small children who need almost constant attention and teenagers sulking about leaving their friends behind, when will you find the time to pack? Make your move drama-free with this guide to getting the kids involved.
Assign Age-appropriate Tasks
If you expect everyone to pull their weight in your house, don’t let them get away with sitting around while you organize the move. Everyone can help out, whether they’re 3, 13 or 30 years old. You probably already give your kids chores to do that are appropriate to their age, from picking up their toys to mowing the lawn. There’s no reason that they can’t help with packing, cleaning or other tasks. However, you might want to supervise any packing to ensure that you won’t have to unpack and do it again!
Younger children can help to tidy up and organize things into piles before they’re packed while your teenagers can do a whole range of different items on your to-do list. You can have everyone be responsible for their room. If you make sure everyone has something to do, it keeps the kids out from under your feet. But if little ones can’t help with anything, set them up with something to do so you can concentrate on the task at hand.
Take the Chance to Declutter
Kids are notorious for collecting junk and accumulating items they no longer want or need. Moving home is the perfect time to declutter and get rid of anything that you don’t need to take to the new house. Ask the kids to decide what they want to keep and what they don’t, and then help them separate everything into what to recycle, sell or throw away. They can help you hold a yard sale to sell any excess items from the house. Doing this is an excellent way to teach your kids about the value of their possessions. They have to learn that they can’t keep everything, and they might even learn some business skills. You can also give some things to charity, so they’ll learn a lesson in generosity and compassion too.
Use a Moving Service
If you would prefer to have a bit more time on your hands, using a moving service will help. You won’t have to load anything onto the truck or do any of the driving, leaving you free to watch the kids. It can be particularly useful to find a local moving service in Chicago or whichever city you need when you have babies or toddlers. They require a lot of your attention, so it’s best if you don’t try to do everything else yourself.
When you use movers, you need to be careful that your children aren’t getting in their way. Perhaps you could send older children out to get some food or visit friends, or you could take the kids to the park. That way, no one is getting under the movers’ feet and disrupting their work. If you parent with a partner, one of you can stay behind and oversee everything, while the other takes the children out. If it’s just you, or you feel like you need two people on hand, you could get friends or relatives to watch them.
Give Them a Job on the Day
If it’s not possible to get the kids out of the house, you need to keep them occupied. Teenagers are old enough to pitch in and help out, but you might need to entertain younger children. Give them a role to play, such as making sure that all the toys have been picked up and packed away. For very young children, you could use a playpen to keep them out of the way with some toys. When you arrive at the other end, make sure you have a plan for unpacking. Put the kids’ boxes on the truck last, so that they come off first. That way, they can get their room set up as quickly as possible and begin to feel more at home.
During the Drive
Sometimes moving home requires a long drive. Some families have no problems with road trips, but others dread them. If you’ve managed to get everything packed and in the moving truck, the last thing you want is for the drive to be what makes everything fall apart. Although you will probably leave after your removal service, you should aim to overtake them. You can keep kids entertained by turning looking for the truck into a game. You probably already have lots of car games if you have younger children, but you can make them more moving-oriented if you want. For example, turn the memory game “I went on vacation” into “I’m moving house, and I packed…”. You can use the time in the car to talk about your new home and get the kids excited about settling in. However, be wary of grumpy teenagers who might be feeling upset about the move. Don’t push them too hard to be in a good mood.