subject: Moving With Children Make It A Positive Experience [print this page] Taking a family out of its comfort zone to move to a new country can present a multitude of stresses. Parents will undoubtedly have mixed emotions including excitement and trepidation and children are just the same. However it is possible to ease the stress by following some guidelines to prepare your children for a move overseas:
* Include children in relocation discussions from an early stage to avoid any shock announcements and, where possible, take them to visit the new country. Involvement usually equates with less anxiety.
* Encourage children to talk about their feelings and to ask questions. Fear of the unknown can easily be replaced with optimism with some explanation.
* Do some research to show children that their destination has similar and exciting activities to home: research libraries, zoos, museums, shopping centres, playgroups etc. so that they can look forward to new adventures.
* Prior to the move, capture memories of important places, people and items by visiting favourite locations and taking photographs, collecting tickets and flyers or drawing pictures. Depending on the age of the child, it can be a great idea to create a scrapbook to hold all of these special memories.
* Communication with old friends will be vital before they cement new relationships in the new country. Help children to gather telephone numbers, postal and email addresses or set up social networking accounts to ensure they can keep in touch and tell their friends about their new home.
* If you are moving to a radically different environment, then be sure that your children are aware of the differences and understand what to look out for. Talk to them about the language, food and local customs.
* On the moving day itself, allow children to pack a few of their own important items (small toys, comforters, books etc.) to be kept with them at all times. These can then be unpacked immediately on arrival and will help the child to feel more at ease in their new home.
* Settling your child into school or nursery is obviously important but try to spend some time with your child at home first so that they are not overwhelmed with new experiences. If you can, take a break from unpacking to concentrate on having some fun.
Remember you are not the first family to have made this type of move: the sooner you start meeting new people, youll find that they are the best source of information to help you and your loved ones settle in to your new home.
by: Kirsty Collingway
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