Moving house and raising a family are two highly demanding tasks. Throw both together in the mix and things become even more hectic. For young families especially, it can be difficult to balance the stresses of moving house with meeting the needs of your kids.
The way you approach the situation depends on the age and individual needs of your children. To make things easier, we will break things down into two sections.
Babies:
When you are moving house, it’s easy for things to go missing. It would seem that as soon as you put a box down somewhere, it disappears the next time you go looking for it. For this reason, we recommend separating all baby items from everything else and making sure they are always on hand.
You could even buy brightly coloured storage boxes to keep baby items in. This way, they will be easier to locate amongst the sea of cardboard boxes around you.
It is also good practice to dedicate an area (both in the new property and the old property) to feed your baby and change nappies.
Arranging childcare measures before the move can alleviate a lot of the pressure. However, we acknowledge that this is not always possible.
Kids:
If you have young kids, the best way to introduce them to the idea of moving is to discuss it with them. This will depend on the age and needs of your children, but luckily there are a variety of tools at your disposal, for example, picture books or videos.
During the move, you should also make sure that your children have toys, food, drinks, and other essentials nearby.
Perhaps most importantly, prioritising your children on the big day and showing them that you are there for them can make a big difference. Maybe something to look forward to at the end of the day, such as a trip to the toy shop, or a treat tea might be enough to tide them over.
Childproofing your new home:
The moving process is full of twists and turns. Being such a big day (or few days), it’s easy to lose focus. With empty boxes and random objects strewn around, accidents can happen - even if you are usually the most attentive parent in the world.
For this reason, it is a good idea to take measures in advance to protect your child’s safety. This could be a number of things, such as making sure there are no unstable piles of boxes lying around, installing stair gates, putting covers onto electrical outlets, or covering sharp corners with cushions.
We hope that you found this article useful, and we wish you and your family a successful move.
Sources: https://www.parentmap.com/article/useful-tips-survive-move-young-kids
