Family Change Lessons

By the time we actually moved, these expectations had become the newest part of my personality. Force a smile and do not tell anyone how much you actually hate Arizona and everything about it; the dry heat jokes, the snowless winters, the lack of extended family, everything. The worst part of the whole situation was that I was trying to stay involved with my friends back home while they were moving forward with their lives. I was stuck in the past and miserable because of it. I slowly but surely learned that I was happier when I was making friends in Arizona while periodically checking in with my old friends than I was when I was trying to ignore everyone in my new home state. I would consider that the turning point from my childhood to my adulthood. I went from acting immature, childish, oblivious, and obnoxious to being mature, happy, and responsible. Without this move, I am not sure when or how I would have ever made this necessary transition to adulthood. Although my freshman year was hard because of the move, looking back on it now, I am extremely grateful for this experience, which gave me the shove I needed to finally grow

eighth grade, and I was terrified. Having lived in one place for 12 years, it

For distant moves, you can provide as much information as possible about the new home and location. Access the internet with your children to learn about the new community. See if someone can take pictures of the new house and new school to show your children, or look up photos on the internet with them.

I’d lived in Florida my entire life up until I was nine years old, so moving to a new state was a big change for me. In fact, moving to Ohio was the biggest change in my life so far. It was because of my grandparents’ visit that mom realized living in Florida isolated us from the rest of our family. For this reason, my parents came to the conclusion that we should move to Ohio. I didn’t want to go at first, but I didn’t have much of a choice.

Moving is very stressful on anybody, especially for children. When my mother made the decision to move to Piedmont, I was in shock. I have been in the same school district for seven years with the same friends that I loved and was very comfortable around. Moving to a new town freaked me out. I have never heard of Piedmont, and did not realize that it was 30 minutes from where I lived. My uncle-in-law graduated from Piedmont. Both of my cousins also graduated from Piedmont, the Cornman’s. I had a new life ahead of me, and did not know what to expect.

Moving to Atlanta was a massive milestone that helped me with a lot of personal growth. I know that might not be as amazing as winning the lottery, but to me it was. Moving 20 minutes away from your old home doesn’t sound that bad right? Not until you find out that you are now living in a new district where you are welcomed into a new environment. That includes going to a new school, being in a new neighborhood and basically starting all over. My mom wanted to get away from the crowd and live in a home with more privacy. This move made me learn how to adjust to new settings.

Here are a few tips to help you prepare your kids for the big move.

The summer of 2013, my family and I drove 3 hours from Cypress, Texas to Boerne. This was a very big move for us because we had no family close to us. The town was much smaller, and so was the school district. There was actually a “main street” and town square. We had to drive 20 minutes to get to HEB instead of 3. My dad could walk down the sidewalk to his office instead of driving an hour into Houston. So many things were extremely different from what we were used to. Everything had changed for us, but in the end, it was the best move ever. Here, I have found my closest friends, favorite sports, and many more things. This was a very hard decision for me and my family, but it was one of the best we would ever

Help your children deal with the stress: If you approach the move as a new family adventure, it will help everyone to get excited about the transition. Make sure your children know about the kid-friendly features of your new community. Younger children will enjoy a tour of the on-site playground, the swimming pool, while teens may be interested in the exercise room, or using the clubhouse for future parties.

My husband was recently offered a job that was an improvement on his current situation in every way but one; his daily commute would increase from twenty minutes to an hour each way. Why suffer a long commute when the town where his new job is located has equally affordable homes and slightly higher-performing schools than ours? After all, I reasoned, I would soon be attending graduate school in the same hour-away town that my husband’s new job is located in. Dreams of a new house with the amenities that we have been pining for, like walk-in closets and an open floor plan, soon filled our heads. Wouldn’t moving to a nicer house, in a better school district closer to parents’ jobs benefit the entire family? Unfortunately, what might be best parents’ health and happiness is sometimes at odds with what is in a child’s best interests. Mounting evidence suggests that moving is often detrimental to children, especially adolescents. A move that involves a change of schools can strain relationships, encourage violence and risky behaviors, decrease academic performance, increase the risk of anxiety and depression, heighten suicide risk, and cause psychological

We've all done it, probably more than once. Whether it is coast to coast or down the street, Americans move and move a lot. According to the US Census Bureau, the average American changes houses once every five years. Given our nomadic tendencies, you'd think we'd have a system for minimizing headaches and maximizing efficiencies. Yet anyone who has moved is almost certain to have multiple horror stories - we hear about them all the time. And we've certainly experienced our fair share of nightmares - between the two of us, we have moved 26 times! While we can't promise that it will ever be easy, we have learned that with a bit of pre-planning and some creative thinking, most of the biggest pitfalls can be avoided.

Some would say moving is a terrible situation for children, and that it could harm their well-being, but in my experience, it changed me for the better. Relocating is a difficult situation for any child or teenager. Moving forces you to leave behind all of your friends, but also gives you no choice but to make new ones. In school, you abandon your current curriculum and lessons and trade them for new ones. Which, in turn, teaches you how to catch on to new ideas and topics rather quickly. They say hindsight is 20/20, and I couldn’t agree more.

The idea of moving to a different state or country can be terrifying for most people. I know for me it was. I was born and raised in New Jersey and had a decent job. Life was going great for me; at least that is what I thought. I had a lot of friends and family that had been around me my whole life. Moving away from all of this was not an option for me, until I got married and had children. By the time my daughter hit five years old, I was rushed to make a decision that would change my life forever. I had to decide whether I wanted her to go to school in New Jersey or Key West. This meant leaving my friends and family behind, and somehow depriving my children from growing up around their family.

At the beginning of the semester, I learned a definition of the word family. It stated that a family is any parent-child relationship that cared for each other, that was committed to being in that relationship, and considered that group to be significantly attached. I am going to explore two theories and explain how I turned out the way I did, along with why my family functions the way it does. I will also reflect on things I have learned this past semester in this class.

Moving to Fayetteville and selling our house back in Mountain Home was easier than we all thought. At first, the five of us had to live in a small two-bedroom apartment since my dad was on a deadline to move here and open up his bank. We didn’t have the luxury of taking our time to look at houses before moving to Fayetteville. It was a couple months until we found a house that we all loved. By the time we moved into the new house, school was