Prepairing toddler for move

[redneckhippy]

I'm in the military and we will be moving in 2 months. Our last move was when my son was only 6 months old so it wasn't a big deal although it did take him a couple months to adjust back to his normal sleeping through the night. However, now is is 2 and will very much be aware. He has been in his same daycare which he loves since we moved here and he is attached to all his teachers. He also has a babysitter here he loves and this house is the only one he has known since he was too little to remember out old house. I'm really worried it will be traumatic for him to all of a sudden be in a new house, new daycare, new teachers, etc. and no see all the people he knows and loves.

Has anyone been through moves with a toddler and is there anything I can do to prepare him and make it less traumatic. His verbal skills are still fairly basic so he's not going to understand a lot of talking about it, although I think he understands more than he speaks.

 

[Teri7489]

Do you have any pictures of the new house and places around it? We moved when our daughter was 26 months so was really aware of what was happening. We were able to let her see the house a few times before we moved but if that's not an option, just something to make it a little more familiar might help. We also gave her a moving box on the day to keep her occupied. It had snacks, a soft toy and a muslin that smelt like our old house as she did get a little sad. For the first little while she slept in our room as she was unsettled (we had just moved from a tiny 1 bed flat to a big 2 bed house with lots and lots of space) She then went in to the other room with her baby brother and was fine. It's a big change but being positive, talking lots about it, encourging your LO to talk about it will help. xx

 

[staralfur]

My LO was 3 when we moved and it was actually not really much of an issue at all. She didn't go to daycare though so I can see how that might be a little tougher.

She definitely was aware of leaving her friends and the people/things that she saw regularly, and she was sad, but we also tried to make the move exciting for her. One little gesture that went a LONG way was letting her choose what colour she wanted to paint her room. It's all she talked about for weeks before we left and the first thing she wanted to do when we got to the new house was paint her room. If you're not able to paint then maybe offer to let your LO choose something new and fun for his new room that he can look forward to.

I also tried to scope out parks and new stuff to do in our new neighbourhood beforehand so we spent the first couple of weeks doing lots of fun things, visiting lots of parks, etc.

She adjusted really quickly and really well. I think at such a young age they're still pretty flexible and comfortable as long as they have their primary attachments.

 

[zorak]

We moved back from the US to the UK when my eldest had just turned two. At the time my youngest was only 9 weeks old so he had a strange new sibling, complete change in environment, complete change in meeting so many unfamiliar people and my husband had to stay behind for 6 weeks. Honestly other than some clinginess we didn't have an issue. Don't make it an issue and they won't. Just keep familiar comfort items nearby and routines as similar as possible.

 

[DebbieF]

We moved into our new house when dd was 2 and a half. The house we moved from was the only one she ever knew so I was expecting it to be hard. It wasn't at all. I occasionally ask her if she wants to go visit her old house and she always says no. Of course we only moved a few miles away from our old house, so nothing really changed except for the house itself which I'm sure helped.