Helping my 5 yo with moving to a new city

[proudmamanow]

So.. I have been offered my dream job, in a city we love, close to all our grandparents, aunts & uncles, and many dear friends

Dp & I are thrilled...sad about saying goodbye to friends here in the town where we've lived for 9 years, but mostly feeling very, very excited.

DD1 age 5, is, of course, not as excited, or at least has more mixed feelings. Which is totally understandable. DD2 2.5 doesn't really understand quite yet, and is generally a pretty adaptable kid, so I'm not as concerned about her.

DD1 is a sensitive, anxious kid, and I am concerned with how to make this transition as easy as possible for her, knowing that it will be hard for her to say goodbye to all her friends, her activities (we homeschool), and the only hometown she's ever known.

Things we are already planning:
-making special goodbye presents for her friends (picture frames with a picture of her & them)
-having a big party to say goodbye.
-making a list of all the special things in our hometown that we will miss and planning a goodbye visit to all of them.

part of the problem right now is that we are moving in 7 weeks (yikes!) so this next little while is going to be very busy. And we don't yet know where we will be living long term in our new city, we may be looking at living somewhere short-term while we wait for our house here to sell & then while we look to purchase a new house.

Does anyone have any tips, good books, movies, etc. that we could share with dd? Any things you did when you moved that helped your kids with the transition?


Thanks so much

[OTMomma]

I think your plans are great for saying good-bye to your old city and friends. My tip is to pack in your car at least one nice new toy for your new home, even if its a temporary apartment. When we made a long move when my oldest was 2, we got her a big set of wooden blocks as a moving gift, that we gave her very shortly after we got to our new, very empty apartment. It ended up being a really good decision, as our moving company ended up taking 3 days more than expected to arrive with our stuff. So we were camping in our new apartment for days without anything but what we had in our own car. The blocks were a good choice as they were very open ended for her play, and all my kids still play with them.

I would also talk to your dd's about wonderful things they will get to do in their new town and make some plans of things to do the first week there, its a crazy time as the adult, you want to unpack and stuff, but you gotta remember to take time for fun.

Congrats on the new job!