Effects of Constantly Moving

“Move to a new country and you quickly see that visiting a place as a tourist, and actually moving there for good, are two very different things,” said Tahir Shah. Moving can always be tough event for children to cope with. Change can be difficult part of a person’s life, oftentimes quite harrowing. Some may find change to be a good thing but often times not a consistent transition. I, on the other hand, find it to be more of a regular transition. Moving has many consequences on an individual psychologically, economically, and physically. Moving frequently can have its plethora of disadvantages.

People move for many reasons: such as a new job, to live in a better place, or to start a new life. Just as in anything else in life, there is a good side and bad side to moving. To have a place to call home is essential in the life of a person. People often take pride in the city that they are from. Human’s work off of routine and a sense of normalcy, which is drastically impacted through the constant occurrence of relocating. Moving frequently can affect a person’s lifestyle and way of life, such as changing friendships, affecting careers, and lowering happiness.

There are many children in life who have to move to a new town during their childhood. While there may be those few children that get the privilege of not moving, most others have to move at least once in their child hood. Some children even have to move two, three, and sometimes more. When a child has to move from the town that they have grown up in, it has many effects on his or her life. These effects can greatly change a child and it can make a child feel like he doesn’t fit in. It can also make one have a hard time making new friends, especially at a younger age.

Although, many times parents do not have much of a choice in the matter, they should really think about these effects on a child before they make the decision to move when their children are still, well, children. The first disadvantage to moving frequently is that it is difficult to find friends or maintain friendships. It is natural for human beings to develop bonds and relationships with other people, such as friendships. Experiences such as family camping trips to the mountains form these bonds. When human beings are surrounded with other people they develop a sense of closeness. Through the lessons of life, people grow together.

Children and adults alike find connecting bonds together. When someone moves it’s almost impossible to keep the sense of closeness that was once there. When relocating to a new city or neighborhood, people feel out of place and commonly don’t like their new surroundings. Finding new friends and replacing the bonds shared with a best friend seem almost impossible. A yearly event that many military families have to prepare for, is finding out where their next move will be. In the article, “Military children and PCS,” they claim “Moving is a necessary and inevitable part of military life.

It is also a very large emotional and physical challenge not only for you but for your entire family. ”(Crooks) Growing up having a military father, staying in one state was hardly ever an option. Ever since I could remember, we consistently moved around the continent and to different countries. This effected my inner emotions and feelings. I can only remember a few childhood friends that I had, but my relationships with them would end when I had to move to the next city. Being an only child also adds stress; I was typical by myself a lot, and mildly shy.

First coming to North Carolina was hard for our family; I was a freshman in High School. At that point in many high school students life, they had their cliques, already involved in extracurricular activities, and I was still trying to adjust to the different lifestyle. I often time spent my weekends staying home, and going out with my parents. I didn’t go to the Friday Night Football games because I didn’t want to go by myself and I didn’t want to sit with my parents. Having to transition to different schools was hard. Coming into a new school, in the middle of the year, many of the children already have their own cliques.

Teenagers are not always as friendly as we picture them to be but once I started to get involved in Cheerleading, and clubs I soon became friends with many of the girls from my team and the clubs. Life in high school was becoming more fun, interesting, and my grades were outstanding. When having to relocate, finances take in an enormous part. Moving is an expensive and time-consuming experience. You need to be prepared and organized, in order to make your move as cost-effective and stress-free as possible.

From my many experiences of having to move, my parents always tried to down size our amount of items in our house. We didn’t always know if we would move into a house or have to transition into an apartment. To make sure we had enough money, we would have yard sells. The money we would make would go to our expenses for driving from state to state. When we would get the privilege of knowing where we going to move months in advance, my mom would always see what kind of job she would be qualified for. My father, of course would have a job since we were moving due to his job, but for my mother on the other hand would often times be unemployed.

Our first year of being in North Carolina, my mother was unemployed, which was very hard for her since she came from a manger position at a Texas bank. She would constantly go on websites to look for jobs that were hiring. She had a few interviews but sometimes she wasn’t qualified since she didn’t have a college degree. When she would have a job offer, she always made sure that they had benefits and wouldn’t settle for less than what she was use to. When she finally had a good offer from a daycare center, she made sure that she would eventually be able to become a full time working and have good hours.

She had previous experience with the child care centers from different military bases, so she knew that would help her keep the job, achieve bonuses, and have a good standing with them. Before you transition to new environment, focus on setting a budget, to make your move a successful one. No matter how often families change residence, moving brings with it a variety of emotions and situations. It is often times very easy to get caught up in the moving checklist of boxes, cleaning, packing and moving and overlooks the emotions that are tied to the transition to a new location.

When it comes to your children it is very important that you take the time to allow them to share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences related to the impending move and once you have arrived at your new location. Depression is common when child or families have to move away. “Even when the reasons for a move are good (such as a promotion or better job for a parent) and you're excited about it, it's still a good idea to be prepared for unexpected changes. ” Adolescents who frequently have to move experience anxiety: from having to move to an unfamiliar place.

You regularly feel disoriented, like you do not have anybody to communicate with. When I was in elementary school, I would have to sit in the back because all of the other children already had their assigned seats. Being in the back wasn’t fun at all; the other children would often gawk back at you. When we were allowed to partner with other students, the other children already knew whom they wanted to be with and I would be alone. This played an enormous influence to me being timid, always having to make new friends, starting over, and having to be accepted by other children.

Children may also feel anxious and sometimes even angry about a move. This may have a direct impression on a child’s emotional development. As a result, your child may develop insecure attachments with others and later have issues with trust. To help with the transition, Dr. D’Arcy Lyness recommends that parents encourage their children to talk about their feelings. Join and participate in volunteer missions, local organizations or family church activities. A child’s sense of security, endurance and confidence, all necessary ingredients for building solid self-esteem: is often affected by frequent moves.

During this period, reassure your adolescent to frankly express all-powerful feelings to you, including sadness, excitement, fear and anger. Encourage friendships with children who will treat your son or daughter kindly. Any transition or change in a child’s life can cause estrangement anxiety. Common symptoms of separation anxiety include sleep disruption, changes in eating patterns, increased clinginess, and accelerated apprehensions about being alone and isolated. Education will always be important to parents who have to move their adolescents.

Moving can impact an adolescent's cognitive improvement. Studies done by the Center for Research on Child Wellbeing show that children in households that move frequently have lower grades and higher school dropout rates, on average . Moves undermine constructing academic skills during the formative elementary-level grades, when students absorb basic writing, reading and math skills. Frequent moves may also have an undesirable impression on communication skills for children of all ages forced to familiarize to new classroom environments and education styles.

Educational programs can vary significantly between schools, so moving to a new school every few years can have a profound effect on a military child’s educational progress. For example, a student moving from a school that instills geography in ninth grade to a school that instills it in eighth grade might completely miss the subject if he moves between those years. Emotional and physical struggles might also make it more difficult for him to fit in at school or focus on his education.

However, schools in some areas with large military populations receive funding from the Department of Defense to design programs to help military kids with their challenges. On the other hand, a child may find that he is premature of the curriculum at a new school, resulting in dullness during teachings. An appointment to the new school proceeding to the move may also help tranquil your adolescent's angsts. My parents would constantly look up the finest academic schools in our new town, and try to find housing around that exact zone due to zonings. Before I moved to North Carolina, my parents gave me the choice between three high schools.

In the end I choose Jack Britt High School, because they had abundant academics, athletics, and we had a four-class schedule instead of seven classes. Physically, a military move alters an adolescent's atmospheres, perhaps forcing him to leave pets, friends and family, and disconnecting them from accustomed locations. Children might experience headaches, stomachaches or other indications of the anxiety they are feeling. Some children even acquire depression or alteration disorders because of frequent moves, and these struggles might produce physical symptoms. Teens who move are most likely to exhibit symptoms of depression.

Adolescents who move to a new location may also get into fights with other children or may experience harassment since they are the newest children in school or in a particular neighborhood. Military moves can positively affect children as well. It exposes them to many abodes, individuals and releases numerous experiences. It educates them to simplify because of the frequency of moves. It also lures the military family stronger as you realize to rely on each other. Military children acquire empathy, independence, strength of charisma and so many other constructive qualities as well.

The most important entity to recollect is communication. Make sure you are talking and listening and understanding the feelings, apprehensions and joys and the military moving expedition can be a positive one. Moving is an opportunity for your adolescent to live in and discover a new city, perhaps even a new country, and its people. They may be exposed to new cultural traditions and interesting and different ways of life. It also is a chance to meet new natives and make new friends. Explain how the family will benefit from the move. When we moved to North Carolina it was a bit of a culture shock.

I was now experiencing the more southern lifestyle. Until I moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina I hadn’t really seen a lot of dirt roads, or streets without streetlights. They do have streets here and there that do have streetlights but in California I’m used to streets having plethora of streetlights, usually ten to twenty on one street alone. A huge difference between California and North Carolina is that North Carolina doesn’t have as many big highways; there are more of back roads. Moving may seem very detrimental when you initially envision of having to leave, but countless worthy effects can occur when you leave.

You have the opportunity to start over and reinvent yourself, and optimistically revolutionize for the better. Many people who work regular day-to-day jobs usually stay in the same city for their whole life and don’t have much of an adjustment. Change when done the right way can be beneficial; it doesn’t always have to be a traumatic occasion. In the end moving isn’t always bad there are many great experiences that come out of it. You can always learn from frequently having to move and make the best of out it. For me I’ve had the privilege of being able to travel to many states and country.

I wouldn’t trade the experience for nothing. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many great people who have affected my life for the good and bad, but most importantly have taught me life lessons. If it wasn’t for my father being in the military I wouldn’t be as blessed as I am today. His sacrifices have given me many great opportunities. I’ve been able to travel to places that many young colleges student have yet to experience. For one I can say without traveling around the world I wouldn’t be the same person I am today, and I’m proud of what that those changes have taught me.

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Effects of Constantly Moving. (2016, Aug 20). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/effects-of-constantly-moving/

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