Moving home with children? Check out our tips!

Moving home is always a stressful time, but if children are added to the mix, it can become a real challenge. Fortunately, there are plenty of tips to make moving home with children more practical and fun. And don’t worry too much: children adapt more easily than you think.

The best way to prepare a move is to get the whole family involved, but how much the kids do depends on their ages. Read more on moving home with children in this blog post, or watch the video!

Verhuizen met kinderen Dockx Movers

When moving home with children, create a routine

When you’re moving home with a baby, it’s a good idea to arrange their bedroom in the same way as in your previous home. This gives them a feeling of familiarity with their new room and will ensure that their sleeping routine isn’t disturbed.

Read a children's book together about moving

From the age of two, children are able to understand things you explain to them. Read them a children’s book about a child who is moving, or watch children’s films about moving together. Take them with you when you visit the new home for the first time. It’s important that parents stay sufficiently close to children during the moving process, as the world of young children revolves very much around their parents. They need this proximity to also feel safe and secure in a new environment.

Organise a welcome party for their friends

Older children can be involved in choosing a new home. Let them have their say in how the rooms are divided, and which colours are used in their room. Give them address cards to take to school, so that they can hand them out to others in the class. Or organise a housewarming for their friends, so they experience all the changes positively. Of course, the reverse is also possible: organise a ‘farewell party’ in the old home.

Allow them space to express negative emotions

It’s obviously a good idea to be positive about the move. Highlight the advantages: a bigger home, a nicer home, or a home in a better neighbourhood. Your children will almost certainly take on board your enthusiasm and openness about the new plans. Even if you’re moving due to a divorce or redundancy, you can still give it a positive spin: you can choose your own room to sleep in. However, no matter how curious children are about their new home, they’ll always miss their old home and all its memories. Accept this and give your child plenty of space to express these feelings of missing their home, homesickness, and loss. Don’t react too much, and don’t turn it into a drama. Say that you and the rest of the family also have to get used to things and sometimes miss the old home.

Let your child pack

Don’t isolate your child from the move. Of course, you’ll be under a lot of stress, but make sure that you involve your child in the work as much as possible. Even young children can always put some toys in boxes. Order a couple of children’s moving boxes that they can colour and decorate with drawings. They’ll also recognise their self-decorated boxes immediately upon arrival in the new home, which immediately gives them something familiar. These kinds of small actions make the move less abstract and soften the blow of a move. Your child will also be proud that they helped with such an important event.

Turn the move into an adventure

Moving is always stressful and absorbs even more of your energy if you have children. It helps if you’re not too strict during this intensive period. Let them stay up later, give them an extra treat, or go to the zoo together. This quality time together will take the pressure off. Another idea could also be to go on an adventure together when you first arrive at your new home. Explore all its features with your kids. Make it a game!

Take some time out

After the move, give yourself and your children time to get used to the new environment. Make the new home cosy. Organise a picnic in the garden or curl up on the sofa together and watch a cartoon. Also make sure the children’s rooms are ready first. This ensures your children will have their own place in the new home.

More tips to make moving home with children easier? At www.dockx-movers.be, you’ll find the children’s moving boxes and all the moving material you need. To conclude, the Dockx Movers removal checklist is highly recommended!