In Which I talk About Moving... Again.

We have just over 8 days to go till the big move day.  I look at the chaos of boxes around my house and worry that we will never be done and am anxious at the same time for it all to be over.  Still I would be less than honest if I didn't say that I had just a few trepidations for the whole thing.

It seems as the boxes pile up around the house the more emotional the children become.  While J&O love to play and climb up on all the boxes and I am having to constantly get them down, they have started to have tons of mini meltdowns.  This includes E.  Everything is a big deal and requires lots of yelling, stomping and crying over EVERYTHING.

One day J started to cry and I couldn't figure it out.  Finally I put her on my lap and asked her if she was crying because we were packing.  She nodded yes.  I asked her if she was sad I was packing her toys.  She said yes.  I assured her, again, that her toys would be going to the new house and she'd see them again.  Finally, finally, after more tears she told me she was worried that I was going to pack her Dora pillow doll and her blankie.  Thankfully, I was able to assure her that that wasn't going to happen and that Dora and everyone's blankies were going in the van with us not in the moving truck.

Still as a parent who is trying to pack up a house, dejunk, declutter, clean, keep up with the kazillion loads of laundry, homework helper, tracker, sorter, and maker of all meals, healthy and unhealthy... it's hard to stand back and realize that they are behaving the way they are because they are stressed.  Sometimes I just react, badly, only to later realize that a lot of this is stemming from the changes that are going on around them.

My only personal experience as a child with moving was when I was 11 years old, we moved from the old town to the two we currently live in.  I don't remember much about the move itself, I only remember that I was glad to move.  I didn't like my school and the transition from elementary to middle school did not go well so I was only to eager to try a new school and make new friends.

So I am not really sure what to do to make it easier for them.  All I do know is that we need to suck up the patience big time and try to relax, not be so uptight about everything and just really try to listen to their fears and talk about all the positive things we going to get out of this move.

I consider this move as being a new adventure and am trying to instill that idea into them.  Talking to them about how excited I am, how exciting it will be to go to a new school, how exciting it will be to finally be able to have a pet, how wonderful it will be for them to each have their own rooms, we will have a garden they can play in and plant their own flowers in, no gates to lock them out etc. I haven't even got to the part about how the new city has that great water park and free kiddy pool that they love.

The hardest part in all of this for the kids I foresee will be the not living with their grandparents.  They are used to being able to pop up and see them at a moments notice.  Every day, Nana comes down and sees them for a few minutes a day while I take one or the other of them to school.  In the summer, they spend countless hours following Papa around the back yard while he gardens.  There is nothing like the sight of Papa in the backyard to get those kids up off the couch and outside in a flash.  They are going to be surprised, I think, at how much less time we will be spending with the grandparents when move.

Won't you all be glad when I'm back to posting about less mundane topics than moving?  I know I will.