Settling down after a successful house shifting with a toddler.

It has been months since we shifted to a new rental accommodation. We had a smooth shifting my toddler cooperated a lot. We even celebrated our first shifting together. I shared our plan for fuss free moving houses with under 2 years old in “Moving with my toddler (under 2 years)” .
Life is like a wave. And my motherhood journey got fair share of success and failure so far. While shifting was a success, settling was a big failure.
Late night of the day we moved, furniture were settled, cupboard set, kitchen basics done; this story started.
Penguin hold my hand and pulled me towards door around 10 pm. It was midnight as per his then night schedule. He communicated in his babbling language “Time out Maa. I want to go our home.” That broke my heart. He thought it was a game all day and wanted to return to HIS BED.
I wasn’t expecting this. We travel good and every time he settles well in hotels. It was first time that he expected we were about to return home.
I tried creating similar environment in bedroom as the old one. Except bed rest cupboard were different and noticed by my son. Further the house was not entirely clean. Boxes were lying here and there.

If that wasn’t enough, we all caught down by heatwave. So, next 10 days I saw my healthy son puking, pooping endlessly. He refused any food and water. For first time he was forced fed water and ORS. We survived those days on marathon breastfeeding.
Surprisingly, my little social butterfly declined to make new friends. It took us over 3 months to get settled. 8 months later to that situation I am sharing my failures that could have been avoided.

Getting help forehand

We had a cook and cleaning lady in our earlier home. As we shifted we got new cook and domestic help but it wasn’t same as before. Within a fortnight we had to manage our food on our own completely. Though it got okayish with time still having a cook helps a lot.

Schedule blown up

I never realized earlier that kids won’t play outdoors during summer. My memories of summer vacation did had outdoors, tan and fun. Some how, after our recovery from heat wave we missed meeting human just before sunset. 5pm is good enough time to hit ground, while that was in my mind, this new place had a norm of evening play after 7pm. Kids play here outside till 9pm. Our dinner time earlier was 8pm and we used to hit bed by 10pm. Our schedule got lost for long. Now, we are outdoors till 8pm and hit bed by 11pm. Can you feel the mom’s burden? I wanted to live by “Early to bed, early to rise”. I still do. Sigh!continuous efforts are made to reach there.

Pest control

In our rush of shifting we completely forgot to do a pest control before moving. It is still annoying to see unwanted guests bossing around kitchen. After regular pest control, population has reduced drastically but still it’s not good enough for me. Rather, I wish can breakup their relationship in kitchen permanently. Do give me tips, if you can!

Get ready made friends

We have a pair of Penguin’s best friends and a great company too. Unfortunately, we missed to send them an invite to join us. They are the Grandparents. We could have asked our parents or any other relatives to move in for a week or so. Penguin wouldn’t had felt lonely or missed old friends. They could have stayed till Penguin got settled in. Lesson learnt hard way.

Sadly, this is a cycle. Next time when we shift to new rental place, I would plan vigorously again try to keep gloomy outcomes away. But by then Penguin would again grow up and get attached to people in this place. Again, he would be upset to uprooting his comfort zone. This would go on till we have our own home. Or it would still behind us? On brighter side, maybe Penguin would explore the world more. He is yet to go school. Moving after schooling would be another story.

How does your kids cope up as you keep shifting rental homes or cities? Do share your experience and ideas.