I'm dealing with moving my family unexpectedly and having a teen in angst

We recently moved due to my teenager having a hard time, picking the wrong crowd, getting bad grades etc. We moved our family of 4 and I have a great new job. Kids are adjusting nicely. Teenager is doing great. We left a house we lived in for 12 years. We built it. I’m having a super hard time with this piece of the puzzle. I would like some insight on how to handle this
Asked by Mo
Answered
11/09/2022

It sounds like you tried to make the best decision for your family and that for the most part things have gone well as a result of the decision.  I think that even though you are experiencing positive change as a result of the decision, there is still a need to mourn the loss of what you left behind.  My assumption is that when you built your last home, moving was not on the horizon for you this soon.  Without a little more information it is difficult to give you detailed direction or tips on how to deal with the emotions you are feeling regarding leaving that home behind.  With the information I have, I can give you a little insight.  

First, my guess is that being somewhere for twelve years you created lots of memories as a family and had planned to continue creating memories there until you felt it necessary to move for your teenager to be successful.  As parents, we can build the seemingly perfect life and nurture environments where we believe our children will be successful and things still go awry.  It is important not to be too hard on yourself in regard to that, but also recognize your limitations as well.  As I mentioned earlier, allowing yourself time to mourn the change that occurred - leaving the house that you built for your family - is important.  I would encourage you to take time to think through what you are having a hard time with - is it the actual home that you left or is it the life that the home represented?  Once you can establish what it is that is actually causing the stress you can work from there to process those emotions.  

There are some wonderful ways to preserve the memory of your last home - perhaps you could try to have a picture or drawing of your former house framed to put in your current home.  The most important bit of help I can give via this platform is that it is perfectly okay to allow yourself time to feel these emotions of grief or loss of this home whether it is the physical home itself or the memories tied to the home - or both.