Helping My 4-Year-Old Settle Into Our New Home

It has been a couple of months since we moved into our new home which means it has been a couple of months of helping my 4-year-old settle into our new home.

And as expected there was an adjustment period.

The only home that my daughter has known is the townhouse that we lived in for the past 3 years.

So I’m sure the news of moving probably brought up a mixture of feelings.

When we were first going out and looking at homes, my daughter expressed excitement.

She thought some of the homes were cool because they had a backyard.

(Something we didn’t have at our townhouse.)

And then she also thought it was cool how big some of the houses we were looking at were.

Our townhouse wasn’t just super tiny, but in comparison to homes with more bedrooms and more space in general, they felt much bigger.

So even though she was expressing excitement during the home-buying process, that tune changed a little bit when we actually started moving and began staying at the new house.

My daughter would say that she was nervous and didn’t want to sleep in her new bedroom and also expressed missing her old bedroom.

Which as I said above was to be expected.

Knowing that there would be an adjustment period for our daughter, we also adjusted to help her feel at ease and more settled into our new home,

And I want to share what we did with her in case anyone has younger children struggling with adjusting to a new house.

Here I will be sharing how I helped my 4-year-old settle into our new home.

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My 4-Year-Old Is Sad About Moving

Before I get into how I have helped my 4-year-old settle into the new house, let’s talk about this.

What do you do when your child is sad about moving?

Because there is a really big chance that they might be.

As I was saying above, most children love the idea of visiting other homes because they know it is not “their” home.

It’s novel and something that feels new to them.

But then when it becomes real that this new home is about to be their home, it can be a little overwhelming.

Especially when they start seeing boxes everywhere and their current home becoming empty.

The reality that they are leaving behind what is familiar to live in something that is unfamiliar can be very unsettling for a younger child.

So as their parents, we have to do our best to navigate some of the feelings that they may be having.

And that starts with allowing them to experience what they feel.

Ali over at The Art Of Happy Moving even talks about how the importance of mourning the old home.

By allowing your child to experience sadness, they can then begin to heal and look forward to what the new home can offer.

As adults, we know that nothing good can come from bottling up our emotions.

So we shouldn’t expect our children to do so.

With that being said, let’s get into how I helped my 4-year-old settle into our new home.

Helping My 4-Year-Old Settle Into Our New Home

Answer Any Questions The Best You Can

Most younger children who are somewhere new or experiencing something new have a lot of questions.

And my daughter is no different.

If you have been keeping up with the blog, then you know that my daughter and I have a lot of conversations where we talk about what is going on around her.

I mentioned in my previous post on moving that my daughter was very well aware of the fact that we were moving and would no longer be living in our old home.

• Read More: Moving Tips With A Family Of 4

But even knowing that we are moving, she still had a ton of questions.

For instance on moving day when we had the movers over, she kept talking about how they were taking away our stuff and asking where were they taking it.

She was just super curious about the movers in general.

So I did my best to answer her questions honestly.

The questions continued even after we moved and I continued to answer her questions as best as I could.

It is normal for younger children to question what is going on because of the fear of not knowing what is happening.

This can be frustrating to parents, but we have to try to remain patient and do our best to answer what we can.

Let Them Pick Out Something New For Their Room

Something that I thought would be fun for my 4-year-old to do was help me pick out something new for her bedroom.

This can be a new decorative piece for her room

Or even a small toy.

My daughter obviously chose a small toy.

Which most smaller children would probably do.

I ultimately picked out a new decor piece for her room with her approval.

And then she helped me put it up once we moved in and set up her bedroom.

By incorporating her into the decorating process of her room, I felt like it would make her much more excited to be in her new room.

Which definitely helped once it came time to move in.

Set Up Their Room First

Once we were moved in, we focused on setting up the girls’ bedrooms first.

Starting with my 4-year-olds.

In our previous home, both of my daughters shared a bedroom.

• Read More: Room Sharing Tips With A Baby And Toddler

And now that we are in the new home, she will have her own bedroom again.

I felt like it was important to set up her bedroom first to bring an aspect of something familiar to this new home.

By having her bedroom together with all of her familiar furniture there, it will begin to feel like her space again.

We put her bed back together, brought her baby dolls and other toys she likes to play with, and placed them in her room.

My daughter also has a sound machine that she uses at night so we absolutely had to have that setup in order for her to start sleeping in there.

This leads me to my next tip.

Stick To Familiar Routines

You guys already know how I feel about routines.

I do my best to have the girls in some kind of routine so they have some structure and an idea of what to look forward to.

And that’s even more important to maintain now that we are in a new home.

Routines once again provide a familiar feeling amongst the unfamiliar.

So not only did we set up the girls’ bedrooms first.

We also made sure to stick to their routines.

Especially their bedtime routine.

I have shared my older daughter’s bedtime routine on here from when she was 2 years old and for the most part, it is still very similar.

I can link that post below for you all to check out.

• Read More: My 2-Year-Old’s Daughter’s Toddler Bedtime Routine

As we expected, my 4-year-old had difficulty sleeping in her bedroom the first few nights we moved in.

Even though her room was completely set up, she was still nervous to sleep in there.

So the first few nights, we allowed her to sleep with us but we kept doing her same bedroom routine every night until she was more comfortable sleeping in her room.

This took about a week before she fully felt comfortable sleeping in her new room.

Check In With Them Occasionally

And the last thing I did to settle my 4-year-old into our new home was check in with her occasionally by asking how she was actually doing.

We don’t know how someone is doing until we ask.

So why not ask how our children are doing?

I would ask my daughter how was she liking the new house.

Does she like her new room?

Most children at this age are really honest about the way they feel so I let her honestly tell me.

Sometimes I don’t even have to ask because she will tell me anyway.

When she does voice a concern about the new house, I try to remain attentive and listen to her.

Once again, this can be hard if your child is constantly voicing their displeasure over and over, but we have to do our best to remain patient with them.

This is a big transition for them and we have to put ourselves in their shoes to fully understand what it is they may be feeling.

And we can figure that out by checking in with them and asking them how they really feel about the new house.

Your Turn

Well, that is what I did to help my 4-year-old settle into our new home. I want to hear from you all now. What did you all do to help your child adjust to a new home? Let me know in the comments and while you are still here, check out my previous post below. Until next time!

• Read More: How To Be A Grateful Stay-At-Home Mom

Love,

Just Jass