Tip:Smoothing the Move for Your Uprooted Children

If you’re relocating to a new area with children, you may experience some (or a lot of) resistance to the move. Take heart. You can make the uprooting and settling in process a little more acceptable by following a few of these suggestions:

• Don’t jump to the conclusion that your children will resist moving. They might surprise you and jump at the chance to make a new life. Therefore when you bring up the subject with your children don't present it to them defensively. 
• If  the news of a move is disturbing to your children, sympathize with them. Carefully listen to their objections and difficulties then search for solutions to each objection together. Use positive advantages of the move to help downplay their discomfort.
• Emotional outbursts are common with many large disagreements. Don’t try to reason with your children during these episodes. They will not be thinking clearly and you make also loose your cool. Let the outburst run it's course then empathize with their feelings, let your kids know that you, too, feel sad and frustrated at times. Talk about how to deal with sadness and fear.
• If possible, consider arranging your move during the school year. This will give your children a chance to make new friends immediately. Moving during the summer has advantages too but could also result in many long, lonely months in strange surroundings. This situation may also increase your child's grief about separation from the old neighbourhood and friends.
• Be as lenient as possible over long-distance calls "back home."
• Get your children to participate in the details of the move. Try to keep them from feeling they have no control over events.
• Get information from your new community on recreational activities, groups, clubs and other organizations that your children may already be involved in, in your current community. Encourage them to investigate new activities and join.
• On house-hunting trips, bring back lots of photos, and brochures – especially about the things they are concerned about. Show them that there are many new avenues to explore as well as those they may currently be involved in. 
• Consider taking the children along on house-hunting trips, if possible. Your children will better relate to areas they've visited and may more easily adjust to surroundings they have some familiarity with after the move.