# Moving house



## Arrows (Nov 9, 2008)

Any ideas of how how to lessen the impact of moving house on our LO who will turn 2 days before we move house? We're within the same town but unfortunately he'll be getting a new childminder (too far to keep with old one) and thrown in is staying at a friends for a few days whilst we make the house vaguely fit to live in, followed by lots of visits from grandparents to help with the lack of childcare before Christmas and then going away to the other grandparents for 2wks over christmas/new year so the builders can get on with the major refurbishment that needs to happen to make the kitchen/bathroom fit to use.


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## AoC (Oct 28, 2008)

Eh, that's a bunch of stuff, isn't it?  (((((hugs)))))  Congrats on the new home!  The main thing to say is that our Bug dealt a lot bettter with the big hitting stuff, but gets derailed by the smaller stuff, so he might just surprise you and have a ball!

When we took Bug down to his GPs (six hour drive!) to stay for a few days, I started about ten days before hand working with him on a little scrap book, with a page for each day.  He used stickers and crayons to decorate it, and I'd printed off clipart from the 'net with cars and busses and beds and houses on and photos of us and family.  Each day included making sure we said when he'd be with mummy and daddy, where we'd be going and who we'd be meeting, and most importantly where he'd be sleeping.  The first page was a 'number of sleeps' countdown, and after doing each new page we'd count down, and then end the session going, "and when we finish our visit we'll come home to your house and you'll stay here with mummy and daddy forever and ever.'

This all led to the magic moment at Celebration Day, when Gma was exclaiming about how brilliantly he'd settled at their house, and our SW interrupting to point out that that was because we'd done a LOT of work with him.    Wanted to jump up and do the happy dance!  

Our childminder recently moved house, which has unsettled him, but I know she did books and things about different types of houses and who lives where, rather than only specifically about moving house.

I'd make sure he has his own bag that he can pack 'all by himself' and keeps with him when he's moving about.  Id' make sure we visited the new house before we moved, so he could see his room and maybe put up a familiar picture or poster (I know it'll have to come down for decorating, but as long as you put it up again in the same place, it'll help) and I'd try and make sure his is the last room packed and the first room unloaded and sorted out.  And however busy you are, I'd want to enlist reinforcements, so that you can go up with LO to his room and unpack and sort things out together, so he can see all his clothes going away, his bed being made - preferably with exactly the same bedlinen as you took off his bed in the old house - and you can do that calmly and slowly together for an hour or so.

Those are just what I'd do, but ultimately you just need to get through it, make sure he always knows where he's sleeping that night and where you and Daddy will be, and then have lots of nurturing family time when you're settled.  

  I'm sure he'll have a blast.


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