Moving with Kids!

Columbus Indiana Real EstateMoving can be an incredible adventure or an incredible disaster if you are a kid!
(Or let's face it, for us adults as well!) Planning for a move is half of the battle. Since I was a teenager, I have moved literally dozens of times. Joel and I are getting ready to move for the ninth time in our eleven year marriage! It seems any more that moving has become habitual for me. When others are ready for spring cleaning, I am packing up for another move. Okay, I admit we are a little crazy, but we do own a real estate company and a construction company. I think we keep moving because God wants to make sure we have moved enough to be sympathetic we our clients. With that said, I have a fair amount of experience moving with children. We have three children and each one has lived in almost as many homes as the years they have been alive. There are a few simple things you can do to make a move simple with children:
First, talk to your children honestly about the move. Once you know for sure a move is imminent, they need to know. Second, involve them in the packing. My experience is that children believe that a home is not just the home, but the stuff in the home. Provide them with one special box they can color or decorate to make their own. Allow them to choose their favorite things to put in the box. Assure them that all of their other things will also be coming, but that this box was the one with their most important things. You should try, it at all possible, to not put this box on a moving van, but take it with you in your car or otherwise so the child can deliver it directly to their new room.
Third, when looking for the new home avoid bringing your children with you. Find someone to watch them. Finding a home is a stressful process for adults, but an even more confusing process for children. Once you have found your new home take your children for a visit. If that isn't possible, take pictures of the new home and neighborhood, school, etc. to show them where they are going. Fourth, if you aren't stressed, they won't be stressed.

There are bunches of great reads on the subject of moving. A few we keep at the Spoon Real Estate office are the following: The Berenstein Bears' Moving Day by Stan and Jan Berenstein, But Mom, I don't want to move!by Susan Miller available through Focus on the Family, and The Moving Book: A Kids' Survival Guideby Gabriel Davis. Susan Miller has also written a book called, "After the Boxes are Unpacked", which is geared towards helping women transition in long distance moves which sounds great as well.

Feel free to e-mail me or call our real estate office if you have any questions about how you might find these books.
Happy Moving!
Robyn