Guest Post - Smooth Transitions: Tips For Moving With Children

Whether you’re moving across the country or to the next neighborhood, relocating with kids can be challenging. Children thrive on routine, and moving disrupts everything from their usual schedule to knowing where a favorite toy is kept. Thankfully, as a parent, there’s a lot you can do to see your children through this transition period. To help you understand how to best facilitate a major move with kids, here’s what you need to know.

How Moving Can Affect Children

For kids, moves bring all kinds of changes: a new address, a new bedroom, a new neighborhood and often a new school. While you may have been able to pick your new city and address, your children don’t have much say; the change happens to them without their control. Often in a move, they’ll have to leave friends behind and face the daunting prospect of making new ones. They’ll have their favorite items boxed up and sleep somewhere that feels foreign. For little ones who rely on familiarity to feel safe and at peace, this all adds up to a lot of stress, sorrow and even grief.

How to Talk to Your Kids About Moving

One way to change what’s overwhelming your kids into what’s approachable for them is by talking through it together. Start by being honest about what to expect. Explain to them what’s going to happen and walk through the steps involved in relocation. Stay open to their questions and answer them as best as you can. If it’s possible to visit your new home and neighborhood before you move, go visit. Let your kids see what their new town is like and try to find fun places they’ll enjoy in it. Stop by their new school, and, if possible, let them meet their new teachers. Processing the move with your kids helps them understand what is happening and how to think about it.

A Few More Tips to Help Them Adjust

Beyond open conversations, there are several good strategies you can use to help your children during the transition period of moving from one home to another. Consider the following:

• Include them: Could your elementary-age kids help you pack some of their lesser-used items and/or have some say over which items get packed first? Giving your children even a small sense of control can provide a stabilizing influence while also getting them on your team.

• Find ways to make moving fun: Whether it’s letting them build towers of moving boxes or giving them some bubble wrap to pop while you unpack, providing your kids a little entertainment in the moving process goes a long way. Likewise, find ways to give them your attention, even just for small windows of time.

• Prioritize getting the kids settled: When you get into your new home, make it a top priority to unpack your kids’ spaces and get them relatively settled. Likewise, during the transition period, help them feel more at ease by keeping a favorite toy or other comfort item on hand even as you move between homes.

• Stay upbeat yourself: Kids look to their caregivers for cues on how to handle new situations. The more you can model a positive, excited attitude about the move, the better for your whole family.

The bottom line with relocating is that you as a parent have a lot of power to improve the experience for your kids, including choosing the right moving services. In fact, if you take a thoughtful approach, it can become an opportunity for building their courage and resilience. So as your move date approaches, use the tips above to think about how you’ll see them through this relocation into a new home.

Author bio: Stan Caramalac is the founder and CEO of Move Central. He started the company because he truly believed that moving could be simple as long as it was done efficiently. He strives to help people make their moves smoother and less stressful. Caramalac and his team proudly serve San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles and the Bay Area. 

The Teenage Room Dilemma

It’s challenging to organize your house when you have teenagers. Your priorities and theirs are different. You know you have been a good role model, you put your dishes in the dishwasher and empty it when the dishes are clean, your clothes are not lying on your bedroom floor, your bathroom towels are hung on rods or hooks, and your car keys are always in the same place. Why does your teenager not have the same thought process?

One of the most frustrating areas for parents is your teenagers bedroom. Usually you shut the door and do not look inside. At the holiday time you get a call that your relatives are coming for a visit. Oh no! Maybe you need your teenagers room for the bed, or maybe you just want it to look put together during the visit. Either way here are a few tips which may help you and your teen organize their living space.

Dirty clothes

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Make sure you have a laundry hamper and trash can in the room. The laundry hamper should have a large opening without a top to encourage your teenager to toss their dirty clothes in it. They make hampers in many colors to match the room. Here is an example:

Clothes on the floor

Goodbye wire and plastic hangers. Replace them with Huggable hangers. Huggable hangers have a velvety finish so clothes do not slide off. This will keep their clothes hanging and not on the bottom of the closet floor.

Wet towels

Hooks are your friend. When kids share a bathroom there is never enough room for wet towels. Try putting a hook behind their bedroom door. Encourage your teenager to hang wet towels on the hooks to dry. Hooks are also great to hang handbags, jewelry, caps, belts, etc…

Papers/Keepsakes

Clear plastic under bed storage bins are great for papers and keepsakes. If your student knows they have a place to put their papers they will not leave them in piles all over the floor. At the end of every school year, they can review and discard what is no longer necessary. Papers that are important to keep can be kept in a remote location to free up the bin for the new school year.

Most important, as hard as it can be try to be patient. Explain your expectations without getting upset. You may suggest putting on music and a timer for 20 minutes once a week.

Music makes everything more fun, even if it is not music you like listening too! If your teenager knows that once the timer goes off they are done, it may make the clean-up easier.

Guest Post - Seven Essential Tips for Managing a Long-Distance Move with Kids

Moving can be one of the most stressful activities you can undertake in your lifetime. This is particularly true if it is the first time you are moving, if you have a lot of items, if you are moving a long distance, or if you are moving with a family. Combine any of these things, and that just exacerbates the stress you can feel undertaking this task.

Moving with kids is probably the most stressful of these items, primarily because it requires extra physical and emotional energy to go smoothly. Although several things go into planning a move, here are seven essential tips for managing a long-distance move with children.

Make a Plan Ahead of Your Move

Once you’ve made the decision to move, there are a lot of additional choices you must make. This is especially true if you are moving to another state or country. The most important thing you can do is sit down with your partner and make a plan for your move. How long do you have until you need to be out of your house? Will you be driving or flying or a combination of both to get to your new destination? Will you be hiring movers or handling the packing and moving yourselves? How will you divvy up responsibilities between the two of you?

Being able to refer back to a pre-set plan throughout your moving process will significantly lessen the stress between the two of you. It will also allow you to talk to your kids about all the necessary steps of the move since you will know what is going on yourselves, thereby making them feel less anxious about what could be the first stressful event of their short lives.

A few critical things to remember as you are making your plan. Be sure to change your address at least a few weeks ahead of the move and forward your mail through USPS. This goes for any bills, newspaper or magazine accounts, and personal correspondence. Consider sending an updated address notification to your friends and family members who send written correspondence to you. You could even ask your friends and family to write letters or cards to your kids and send them to the new address so when you all arrive, there is mail waiting for you. This can help your children feel like the new house is their home and not just a strange place.

Additionally, if you decide to pack your things yourself, color coding or numbering boxes by room will make the unpacking process much easier. This applies if you are using movers who may arrive at your destination before you do. The last thing you want to do when you are trying to get oriented and organized in a new place is worry about which boxes go where. This can also help you avoid marking boxes as valuable, which could make them prime targets for thieves.

Communicate with All Members of Your Family

Be sure to tell everyone in your family about the move as soon as you know it is happening and to keep them in the loop about the plan. Obviously, younger children will require less information than older ones, but they may have additional anxiety if they do not understand what is going on. Telling them all the exciting things about moving, including fun activities in your new neighborhood, new friends, and building up the fun and adventure of traveling, will help decrease their apprehension and increase their enthusiasm about their new home.

Understand Different Impacts on Different Ages

It is important to realize that moving long distances will likely have different effects on your children from various ages. Although younger children may have more anxiety, initially, because they do not understand the concept of moving, they have not had the time to build up and maintain serious friendships and memories in the way older children may have. As a teenager, fitting in feels like the most important thing in the world and having to start over again in a new place can seem very daunting.

Be sure to maintain open lines of communication with your teenager throughout the moving process since they may go through the emotional spectrum. Children who move regularly may also have a different reaction than those who are doing it for the first time and are unaccustomed to the idea. Try to be patient and understanding as you all go through this hectic time.

Have a Road Trip Plan

If you and your family are driving to your new home and have a little time before you must get there, make a fun road trip out of it by stopping at some destinations along the way. Depending on your family’s interests, you can see National Parks, go to theme parks, visit family, camp, or even do sporting activities along the way.

While you are in the car, be sure to have things for the kids to do to avoid anxiety and arguments, like car trip games, videos, and music.

Ask for Help

You and your partner may be the type of people who prefer to do things yourselves. However, a long-distance move can be intimidating even under the best circumstances, so you shouldn’t be afraid to reach out to others and ask for help. The type of aid you need can be anything from going through your things to give away, to assistance packing boxes, to even asking someone to help unpack in your new location. If you are utilizing your friends or family, be sure to clarify with them ahead of time what tasks you’ll need them to do.

Additionally, if you do decide moving everything yourself is too much, many people use professional movers for long distance moves. If you and your family choose to go this route, do some research ahead of time before you commit to a company. Search the internet for reviews, ask your friends or family in the area, and don’t be afraid to give the company a call to discuss their rates and logistics.

Get Your Kids’ Rooms in Order First

When you arrive at your new destination, make it a priority to unpack your kid’s items first. Although this may not be the most convenient thing to do, and may end up taking a bit more time, in the long run, it will absolutely help your children feel less anxious in their new home if they have their own things around. It will also help for them to have a place to go and play while you and your partner are busy unpacking the rest of the house.

Providing this sense of routine from the beginning will also lend itself to continuing this routine in the new location.

Explore Your New Neighborhood

After a long-distance move, everything is new. Take advantage of the opportunity to bring your family together and get to know your new neighborhood by exploring some of the sights and participating in activities. If you moved to a new country, this could be even more significant, as you may have an entirely new culture to explore. Show your kids the positives about your new destination and, soon, they’ll be just as excited as you are to be there.

Long distance moves can be tough, especially with kids. They could be anxious about the move and what it will mean for their lives, so ensuring you keep open lines of communication and try to encourage the positive aspects of moving will go a long way toward making things go smoothly throughout the moving process.

Author Bio: Ross Burgess is a freelance writer and graphic designer residing in California with his wife and daughter. Originally from Atlanta, GA, Ross attended design school at SCAD. By day he is climbing the corporate ladder, but by night he sheds his suit to get creative and write, which is his favorite hobby. When he's not working or blogging you can catch him at the beach with his family and chocolate lab Scooter.

Guest Post - How to Unlock Your Child's Organizational Skills

Kids probably aren’t the first demographic you think of when you hear the words “neat” and “tidy” – but that still doesn’t mean that you and your kids must accept chaotic mess as a daily reality! The stress of living in a disorderly family home can have hugely detrimental effects on a child’s development, not to mention your sanity as a parent: and since it’s entirely possible to rear conscientious and tidy little people, why not start now?

Since it can be difficult to know which strategies to implement to best encourage your child to unlock their organizational skills, we’ve gathered the best tips on how to start for you below. Just keep reading!

Treat them like little adults

When it comes to learning new activities, kids love being spoken to like adults. Learning how to organize your own belongings and responsibilities is a critical part of growing up. Lead your kids through importance of organization – first by helping them plan, then assisting them, and finally – letting them organize their things by themselves. By helping your children become enthusiastic about these chores, you are setting them up for good habits in adulthood.

Try your best to explain to your kids the reasoning behind organizational activities like tidying up. For example, you might let them know that organized kids do better at school, and that tidying up immediately after mess is created saves significant time in the long-run.

Teach them the essentials of organization

For children, important things to organize include:

-Getting ready for school the night before, including packing lunch

-Making sure that each item (especially clothing) has a place in a drawer or container

-Keeping track of both what you do each day, and what other people need you to do

-Doing your homework at the same time every day

-Time management and prioritization (what's the most important thing on your list, and how much time must you reserve for it?)

Supply them with the right organizational resources

Kids like – and need – tangible reminders for organizational tasks, such as the spring-clean they're supposed to do next Wednesday or the room clean you expect of them daily). Help them eradicate any excuses by making use of checklists, diaries, calendars, and other fun stationery which will allow them to visualize what's left to do.

You might especially consider helping your kids create their own personalized routines for before and after school, which are usually the peak times where parents and children must both be organized. Work with your kids, checking off your list of family duties as well as their individual to-do lists.

Designate them their own “working” space

People with school-age kids will be familiar with the homework struggle. How can you teach your kids to fully focus on their work, rather than do it in front of the television?

One smart solution is to designate one room in the house as the kids’ study room. If you don’t currently have the space for this, consider an add-on or extension room. This kind of separation between the social, familial area of the house and the “focus” area can do wonders for your kids’ study habits into the future.

Lead by example

You may run a fine line when trying to get your kids keen on organization and cleaning. Children watch your reactions to chores – if you don’t look excited about de-cluttering and organizing your space, your child will very soon realize that, in fact, most people don’t enjoy cleaning up. However, if you keep your enthusiasm up, you still have the opportunity to frame organizational tasks and duties with positive associations - so pump up the music and make it a family tradition to dance through your nightly tidy-up!

Harper learned organizational skills from her parents at a very young age. Her hard work paid off – with her organizational skills coming in very handy in her professional life for scheduling, managing work, and meeting deadlines. And this all began with a pink paper planner her Mum handmade for her while she was in primary school. To know more about Harper and read more of her written works, visit Harper Reid.