Kids are the most vulnerable people affected by an international move. Hence if you are moving with kids to an international location you need to explain clearly to the children well in advance why the move is necessary. In a way you need to prepare kids psychologically before the move.
Describe advantages of the new location that the child might appreciate.
Familiarize the children as much as possible with the new area with maps, photographs or the daily newspaper. Your moving company should be able to provide you detailed information about the new location.
Inform your kids well in advancewhat is happening, and include them in the process as much as possible. If the kids are happy and they feel included in the decision making process, they will take ownership of their new home and the transition will be much easier for everyone. Frequent moves, or even a single move can be especially hard on a youngster, and this stress occurs even when there are siblings. Moves interrupt friendships of kids. To a new child at school, it may at first seem that everyone else has a best friend or is securely involved in every activity. The kid must get used to a different curriculum, and finds him or herself ahead on certain subjects and behind on others, causing boredom and anxiety.
Distribute the responsibilities of the move with every member of the family. Giving each family member an age-appropriate responsibility can help make them feel more involved, specially kids that are teenagers to take their mind off the fact that they are leaving friends and familiar things behind. It gets them looking forward to the new home, and also spreads the load out a little for you. But, remember, have one adult coordinator responsible for the overall move.
Kids in kindergarten or first grade may be particularly vulnerable to a family move because developmentally they are just in the process of separating from their parents and adjusting to new authority figures and peer groups. The international move can interfere with that normal process of separation by causing them to return to a more dependent relationship with their parents. Encourage the children to say good-bye to friends, and to exchange addresses and phone numbers. A letter or phone call to or from a good friend can go a long way to boosting the spirits of anyone, especially kids moved to a strange, new environment.
Moving companies could help the family that move with kids as well. Few moving companies out there provide special attractive boxes for the kids to pack their room which relieve them their stress to an extend. Different moving company has different approach to a family that move with kids.
In general, the older the child the more difficulty he or she will have with the move because of the increasing importance of the peer group. Pre-teens and teenagers may repeatedly protest the move or ask to stay in their hometown with a friend's family. Some youngsters may not talk about their distress, so parents should be aware of the warning signs of depression, including changes in appetite, withdrawal, a drop in grades, irritability, sleep disturbances or other dramatic changes in behavior. Children who seem depressed by a move may be reacting less to the relocation than to the stress of their parents settling in to a new area. Sometimes one parent may be against the move, and children will sense and react to this parental discord.
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