Moving house with small children

It is often said that moving home can be one of the most stressful life experiences – throw into the mix, the complications and stresses of moving home with small children and this is almost a guarantee.

I moved home in March of this year with my 22 month old daughter.  Now it should be easy – I organise moves for a living and of course I didn’t have to worry about finding a good removal company, since I own one!  Not the case however – every time I booked my move in the diary another client would ring and ask to move on the day I had chosen and of course, I said yes we can fit you in.  So I duly changed my date, contacted estate agents, utilities suppliers, BT, Sky etcetera only to go through the same process the next day when my move date was surrendered to another client wanting to move.

Coupled with starting nursery and horrendous teething, living with a stressed mother trying to pack boxes every evening only made my daughter even more cranky.  I blindly carried on thinking she’s too young to know what’s going on and will take it all in her stride – how wrong could I be?  I totally underestimated how much she understood.  I followed all the guidelines and took her to see the new house three or four times before the move, got her to help pack her toys into boxes and kept her at home to see the removal vans arrive so she understood what was happening.

The actual removal day was really stress free and easy – in fact i could almost say it was fun.  I worked like a trojan to try and make the new house look like home with all the familiar things around and made sure her bedroom was as ready as possible.  On the way back from nursery to the new house, she asked about her families – I realised she meant her Sylvanian Families – I duly explained they were all at the new house.  She then continued to ask about each and every one of her toys.  I was devastated – the poor mite had been worrying all day about her toys.

Apparently small children rely on their sense of smell to a greater extent when perhaps their vocabulary is not at its best so the new house “smells” all wrong.  The like routine and don’t like change so moving house just throws them off kilter.

Anyway, we both survived the experience, despite the fact that the 101 Dalmations DVD is still missing, and the new house is wonderful and has become home now.  I also have a whole new understanding when speaking to clients who are moving house with a family to consider.