Preparing Your Child for a Move

Four years ago we packed up our lives in Indiana and moved 600 miles away to South Carolina. It was a big change for us, seeing as how I had lived the first 30 years of my life in basically the same area. Our children at the time were 18 months and three so it wasn't such a big deal to them. My son barely remembers our old house and my daughter doesn't at all. I had zero concerns when we moved really. I mean I did look at the schools, etc since I knew that one day they'd be attending school down there. Other than that though I didn't have many concerns.

Now here we are four years later and we are making the move back home. It turns out that being 600 miles away from family doesn't work out so well. My husband was lucky enough to find a job close enough to home that we decided he should take it. The big problem with this new job is that we obviously have to relocate and my six year old is not buying it. On the other hand, my five year old is super excited and asks me daily if we can move to Chicago today. It's rather cute!

I have been trying to come up with ways to help my six year old with this transition. He keeps telling me that he'd like to stay in SC and just go visit daddy from time to time. He thinks he knows everyone in our town and just doesn't want to go anywhere else because he won't know anyone. Part of me hates that we are doing this to him, but the other part of me tells me he'll be okay. People keep telling me that kids adjust and I know they do. I just worry about him because he's so sensitive.

One of the things we did to try to help him out was to come to Chicago for a day when my husband had to interview. Chicago is a really neat city. There is so much to do there and it's just really pretty. I thought maybe if he saw all the things that Chicago had to offer he'd decide he liked it as much as the rest of us do. That didn't work out so much. Since my in-laws only live a couple of hours from there they accompanied us on our trip up there. I tried to get him to realize that if we lived back here we'd be able to spend more time with all the grandparents. They miss having them so close and I thought for sure this would be a big selling point. Once again, it didn't work.

So, here I've been trying to come up with ways to sell him on the whole idea of moving. I've told him that we'll be able to buy a new house. I think that is exciting so I thought he might. No, he wasn't. I told him he'd get to play in the snow in the winter (he loves snow) there since he can't in South Carolina. Nope, didn't like that one either. He's rather stubborn if you can't tell. We will be staying in a hotel for a few days next week near the area we might be moving to. Maybe seeing the area and all the fun things it has to offer will start to change his mind.

I'm sure as we transition into this new adventure in our lives I'll have a lot more to add to this topic. As for now I'm just trying things to see what works and what doesn't. Stay tuned and wish us luck!