One of the biggest concerns for kids when it comes to relocating across town or cross country is that they will have to make new friends and will never be able to talk to their current friends again.
One thing to consider to help your kids before you move is to enroll them in Boy Scouts / Girls Scouts before you move, and while visiting the new city or area, take them to the new troop so they can start to make friends before the move. That will help with their anxiety of the move if they have already started to make friends prior to it. (Yes, you can do this even when moving cross country...Just call the new school and set it up when you come to see the new home before the close on your house.)
Another thing to consider is making sure they realize they won't have to lose their friends they have now. If you are just moving across town, I suggest set up a slumber party sometime within a month of moving in and set it up before you actually move, so your kids know that it is coming and can get excited about it!
Another way to help kids be less worried about the move, and possibly get them excited, is set them up with an e-mail address and instant messaging so they can keep in contact with their old friends. If you don't have a computer, I suggest you buy 100 envelopes, 200 pieces of notebook paper and 100 stamps as a gift for the kids, so they can write their old friends.
Change is very hard for kids and if you can make it easy for them, they will be more willing to want to do it, especially if they realize that they will still have their old friends and now will even have new ones!
One last idea is get them a 250 minute long distance phone card so they can call their friends for 20 minutes a week and talk about the new home and their new friends. I hope these help give you some ideas of how to help your kids during a move. If you are looking to move to Oregon, feel free to give me a call and maybe I can give you a few more ideas and help you in your move to a great area like Beaverton, Oregon!
Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739
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