We saw this question over at Baby Shrink and thought it worth pointing out since many families move during the summer. A full-time single dad of a 5-1/2 year old little girl is about to move for the third time in three years in the same neighborhood. He is wondering how this will affect her emotionally...
Is Moving Too Stressful for a Child?
Babyshrink's answer:
"At this age, your daughter is basically still tied to YOU, as her anchor in the world. The house is secondary, at best. What's best for YOU is best for HER. If you are happy, she will be, too."
She also recommends involving his daughter in the process, approaching the move like an adventure, and observing her carefully to make sure she is doing OK. She does advise that he settle down before school and friends become a crucial part of her life. You can find the complete question and answer here.
Here at Ohdeedoh, we're focused on the home with children. But how does that change when home doesn't stay in one place for long? Anyone else have any thoughts on moving with a young child or things you can do to make a new place feel like home right away?
Image via Packers and Movers
Comments (4)
Top Tours
- Norah's Sweet and Sunny Nursery
- Ava's Colorful, Handmade Haven
- Mini Tour: Dylan's Teeny-Tiny Thunderdome
- Nina's Bright Vintage Room
- Little P
Top Posts
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
My mother definitely had a nomadic spirit, and we lived in many different places when I was young. My advice echoes Babyshrink's on this point: once your child starts making true friends (middle or high school), they need to be grounded.
view caitlen315's profile
my family moved around for most of my childhood, and internationally for all of my teenage years. it was a wonderful experience for me and for my little sister. we never had lots of time to form really firm bonds with our friends at school, although we definitely had friends. in the meantime, however, we were able to form extremely close relationships with each other and with our parents. each place we moved to we always knew we had friends because we always knew we had each other.
my parents always involved us in every move, asked us to think about it and decide for ourselves whether it was the right decision for us personally, even though we were only kids. i don't know if they really would not have moved if we opposed the move (we were always up for every move), but they always made us feel like our viewpoint and our feelings were important. it was always a family decision, not big bad mom and dad imposing their will on us helpless kids. i think that can make all the difference in the world.
view saydeelaa's profile
OK, I skimmed her response, but I don't think she mentioned setting up the kids room as soon as possible.
It is very important that there is familiarity in the childs life and the easiest way to do that is by having their things there and set out for them.
view Angus's profile
Hi Angus,
Yes, I totally agree. Great idea! Having familiar things for your child when you move is definitely important. The younger they are, the more important....for instance, setting up the room entirely before your 2-year-old even sees it would probably minimize some of the distress of seeing everything scattered all over the place, not where it "belongs".
view BabyShrink's profile