Telling toddler we're moving

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Can anyone offer any advice or tips on how (and when) to tell your toddler that we are moving?

My son is 2 years 8 months now and will be nearly 3 when we move to HK in September. He was born in Bangkok, has lived most of his life in Istanbul with an Aussie Mum and Scottish Dad.

He is pretty sharp and picks up everything that is going on, so I think I should tell him directly, but how and when... Any advice?
 
i'd just tell him straight, use the computer to show him pictures and you can plan things that you'll do once you get here.

ask him to help you pack some of the things. make sure that when the big day arrives, that he packs his own backpack filled with his essential toys. that way you won't have to scramble to find them once you get here.

we are moving in august across to the opposite side of HK and we've already started talking to our 2y4m old boy. of course, he doesn't "get it" yet, but i figure that we should start early.
it won't be as big as your move, but all of my son's friends are in DB and he has a fairly active social life here. but i have kno idea what it's going to be like when we relocate to sai kung and friends aren't as easily accessible.

good luck!
 
agree with carang.

if you go to book stores with him, can find some books with hong kong fotos & show him too. at this age they're not attached to his friends yet, so i think it won't be too difficult.
 
WE moved recently and we told our son aged 2.5 that we were along time before we moved, because my husband and I talked about it a lot and I knew he would over hear, so better to be up front. His main worry was very practical, if our "things" would move with him. He would ask, is the couch coming? the cat, the toy, whatever was in his line of vision. right before we moved he said he didn't want to move and I got it out of him he would miss his old house. They day we moved went fine and once there, he never looked back, so went very smoothly. But we were only moving to a new house in the same city, so all his usual routines were the same.
 
All the advice other posters gave was excellent.

The last time we moved was ~ 8 years ago - eldest was almost 3 and youngest was ~ 18 months. It was a move w/in HK.

The movers were not very good - took *all day* for very little stuff. I still remember my eldest telling me at about 7pm (when all the stuff was finally there, but it was still complete CHAOS) "Mama, I want to go home." Almost in tears I said "Honey, we *are* home".

Things were much better in the morning. :)
 
Thanks for the tips and ideas. We get 100kg of airfreight on top of the shipping, so we should be able to bring the favourite toys and stuff with us.

What I am worried about is when he asks about people coming with us, he is quite attached to our DH here, and friends from playgroup etc. who obviously won't be coming too...

Any ideas?
 
My daughter was a little older when we moved here (almost 3.5), so she was in Montessori 5 mornings a week. We enrolled her before we moved, landed in HK just before the w/e and started her in school immediately after (i.e. Monday). It worked a treat! She had instant routine, instant friends etc. It took weeks before she asked about her friends back home. It also helped me a lot. I immediately met other parents and was also forced into a routine (no jetlag excuses allowed).

If your son is too young for nursery, then I'd at least research some playgroups or clubs. The sooner he has new friends and activities, the easier the transition will be.
 
the internet is great! i took my 2 year old to canada recently and used the digital camera. now, whenever he likes, he asks to see photos of his cousins or grandma.

get your little one to take photos of all of his friends or favourite spots so that you can reminisce about them together. also get email addresses and street addresses so your LO can dictate letters to them or even send postcards of his new home.
 
I agree about the pictures and having a special backpack. I just had a little photo album made up on Shutterfly.com for our daughter (who will be two when we move next month) with pictures of our house here, her daycare provider here, family members, their houses, the park, etc.

Acknowledge that you miss people, it's okay to be sad, and let him act on it - "I miss so-and-so too. Let's draw a picture for them."

We talk about how we are taking a big trip and going to a new house. How the new house is in Hong Kong (fortunately we have a few pictures of our apt complex) and I have pictures all the neat things we will see here - boats in the harbor, pandas, pictures of the HK buses - she loves buses.

Good luck!
 
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