Moving abroad is a major change. When you are moving with your family, it can be even bigger. This is due to the kids struggling to adjust to their new surroundings and the unfamiliarity of life that they don’t believe is their own. However, you might expect things to become easier once your new family home is ready to live in.
But other challenges can occur as your family attempts to settle into their new home. This could include uncontrollable emotional outbursts, loss of routine, and more. It is important to learn how you can help your children cope and alter after the move has been completed.
While this advice for moving abroad might have helped you, the three tips listed in this post
can help your family settle in your new home.
Create a Sense of Belonging
Once you have moved into your new home, it will feel a little empty. This can have a bigger impact on your children than you could imagine, especially if your previous house was filled with memories and familiarity. You must try to replicate this in your new home, but you can involve the rest of your family in this task.
Begin by unpacking your children’s bedrooms first. They should be given a sense of ownership and stability by incorporating items from their old home into their rooms, so you should let them help throughout this task. Their bedrooms should be arranged with their belongings to create a feeling of safety. Items might include favorite books or toys, artwork, or photos of friends and family from back home.
The familiarity of your home can then be boosted by establishing routines that are similar to the ones back home. Whatever you did in your old home, try to form the same routines in your new house. If your family has meals around the dining table, do that. If you read them bedtime stories each night, do it here, too. This will ease the change of moving and help them settle into their new surroundings.
Build a Support Network
No matter your age, putting yourself out there can be tough, so this is something you, your partner, and your kids might struggle with. The shared struggle could be a good thing, though, as it will show your children that this is tough on everyone, and you will all make it through unscathed. Thankfully, there are numerous ways to build a support network in a new environment.
One of the easiest ways, and you might have started this before your move, is joining communities specifically for expats. Many of these organizations have websites, but they will also host in-person support groups that can provide valuable resources as well as opportunities to socialize. If you cannot find specific websites, then a search on social media could offer a treasure trove of connections and information.
While some online support groups could be for parents and children, you are better off getting involved in the local community. There might be after-school programs and local clubs that can help your kids make friends with children of a similar age who have the same interests. These groups can enable you to make friends with parents, too.
Address Emotional Challenges
As a parent, it might be obvious when your child is struggling with all the changes. They might display behavior that isn’t normal for them, such as acting out or withdrawing from the family. This can be difficult to watch, but you must address these issues. However, you must do this in a way that is mindful of your child’s feelings.
Feeling connected is one of the most effective ways to comfort your child and help them navigate their emotions. The stress of moving could disrupt their sleep, cause their appetites to change, and cause their emotions to spiral. This is often why children who have moved overseas will cry when asked the simplest questions, as they feel lost and unsure. You can connect with your children through this by speaking about your emotions, validating theirs, and finding things you can enjoy as a family in this new place.
If one of your children finds it difficult to explain how they are feeling, you might want to teach them emotional regulation. This is very important during the transition period. It can be as simple as printing out an emoji map to allow them to choose how they are feeling; this will teach them the words for each emotion. How they cope with emotions can be useful here.
To conclude, moving overseas will be a difficult change for families, and it doesn’t get much easier when the house is unpacked and life resumes. In fact, it can almost seem tougher when you are trying to wrangle the kids into a new routine. With the help of this post, your family will soon settle into life wherever you have moved to.
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