A Dad’s Life: Moving With Kids

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This post was first published on Urban Parent.

Who likes to move? Anyone?

Moving is certainly not an ideal way to spend a weekend. We have all roped our friends into it at some point with the promise of pizza and beer. It is a lot of work and something I have accepted as something you pay others to do if possible.

But there is more to moving than the boxes. There is the mental side of it that I have never really thought about until now.

That’s because we are moving for the first time with kids.

Yes, we are packing up the place, grabbing our two boys and hitting the road for Ontario. Toronto in fact.

But how do you break it to your kids that you are picking up the only life they have ever known and taking it elsewhere?

Well for our 20-month old, he really has no opinion. As long as we bring him, he is happy.

Our soon to be 5-year old however, that is a whole different psychological experiment.

Kids at that age can change their moods more often than the Nova Scotia weather that we are leaving behind.

We decided the slow and steady approach was best. The whole idea of keeping it from him and just doing it seemed cruel (and hard to pull off).

Once my wife and I knew the move was happening, we started presenting it as a concept. Asking if our son liked the idea of moving.
This grew into seeing real estate agents, contractors and other people visiting the house.

Finally stuff started to get packed.So far, our son is on board with the idea. He is excited at the idea of a new house, going to big school and being close to his grandparents.

We don’t believe he has connected the dots yet as to the fact that we won’t be coming back though.

He has really close friends, who he is going to miss. It will be one of his first tastes of leaving people he cares about behind.

So, yes, moving is hard. But to do it with young kids is much harder. Forget the actual logistics (cause it is crazy), the part I worry the most about is the effect it has on our son. At the same time, it is a life lesson that was going to happen eventually.

Once we find our new place and we have all of our family around again, it won’t take much to make it a new home and to make new friends.
Have you moved with young kids? Any battle stories you want to share?

I also want to mention, this is my last post for Urban Parent. What a great time to share my stories with Halifax. Thanks to the Urban Parent team. I will keep reading from Toronto and I hope you all keep tabs on me and my dad experiences on Like A Dad.

About Urban Parent

Urban Parent (formally HRM Parent) is a an online community for families living, exploring and playing in the Halifax area. We connect local parents with events, information, services, products – and each other.

Our online community of local parents is growing every day and we’re so grateful for all who are a part of it. Our Facebook and Twitter “inbox” questions have been known to cause some wild conversations, unite families with similar needs and most importantly let many parents know they are never alone!

1 Comment

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