How can I help my children prepare for a move and ease the transition?

While moving can be stressful for adults, the corresponding anxiety it can cause children, is often even more pervasive and lingering. In many cases, the stress children experience from leaving behind friends and favorite places far eclipses the anxiety over leaving their physical home for another.

By properly preparing for your move, you can reduce the stress for your children (and thus yourself) by developing a plan of:

• When to tell your children

• How to tell them

• How to select the right town, city or neighborhood based upon your needs and interests

• When to pack

• When to declutter

• When to move out

• When to move in

Make use of tech with your children

Use technology to begin to excite and familiarize your children through aerial and video footage of all the new area has to offer.

Encourage your children to send links to their friends that show where their next town is located, what it offers, and invite them to visit.

Determine what type of neighborhood is best for your child

Consider whether you want your child to live in a more densely populated area with sidewalks, where houses are within walking distance and where the community looks out for one another.

Or do you want a more remote neighborhood, where you need to drive your child everywhere, but where he or she is closer to nature?

The best time to move

The prevailing consensus is that the best time to relocate school-aged children is during the summer so they can start school with the rest of their class.

Some say it also can be a benefit to move during the school year when teachers can devote greater attention to the transitional needs of the child.

When a choice is possible, another consideration is to move when the destination is enjoying its greatest seasonal appeal or moving from when the seasonal appeal is lowest.