When should my child view the house we are buying?

Rural_Puppy

Buy her a special present for moving day. A toy or doll or a new item of clothing. Leave it in her new bedroom. With luck she will be soooo excited that she won't care about the change of surroundings. 
We never moved house when I was a child. It was an alien concept I never understood until adulthood!
But when my younger brother was born, when I was nearly 4, I remember being packed off to my uncle and aunt for the day (very unusual), and when they took me home (in their enormous car), taaa daaaa - there was a new baby, an exhausted looking mum, and a pair of pink fluffy slippers for me. Apparently my baby brother had brought them.... 
Best of luck with your move, I hope you and your family will be happy in your new home!
 

barbiedoll

I must admit, I'm quite surprised at the replies so far. I thought it was quite normal to take your kids to view a place that you're going to move into? Maybe not for the first viewing, and I guess it's definitely not a great idea during a pandemic, but certainly if, like OP,  the buying process is well under way, why wouldn't you?.

We took our son, who was almost four, to see our house. The vendor was happy, we'd asked her first, and she had a huge rottweiler dog, we weren't sure if he was used to kids. She kept the dog in the garden, gave our kid an ice-lolly and left us to it. We showed him his new bedroom, which he loved, despite the orange ceiling and nasty tiger-striped wallpaper, and he was thrilled at the prospect of having stairs at last (we lived in a ground-floor flat at the time).

OP, you're doing the right thing by showing photos to your daughter,  moving house is a big change in a child's life, especially at a young age. She'll be fine of course, but she should be part of the process, it will be her home too!

Hope it all goes smoothly from here....good luck! 😊

gettingtheresometime

I'm in the 'son got to see the new house on moving in day' camp 

iampetesmith

When my parents moved house, I was 12 and my sister was 8 and we both went on viewings and asked our opinion on the houses. The one we eventually moved into, we all liked and had a 2nd viewing. I'd been away with the school for a weekend and when my dad picked me up, he told me they'd put an offer in on that house while I was away. From then, we were all excited for the move and the only thing I didn't like was having to sleep on a mattress for the first night and missing my friends from where we used to live.

20 years later, I bought the house we've got now but our son was only 2. The first time he saw the house was after we had the keys, he stopped at his nan's for a few days while we decorated his room and put the furniture in. I'm not sure if he remembers the old house, but he's happy enough here and I think it would be easier for your 4 year old to see the house when it's all done and you have the keys.

davidmcn

barbiedoll said:

I must admit, I'm quite surprised at the replies so far. I thought it was quite normal to take your kids to view a place that you're going to move into?

Yes, I got the impression it was standard practice to drag your kids round with you on viewings, though I appreciate for one reason or another it might not always happen. I remember going for the viewing of the place we moved into when I was 7.

NeverTooLate

When we bought our house we had to take our 3 kids with us to view as we couldn't get childcare. Whilst being shown round by the owners our 7 year old son pipes up with 'Why does this house smell funny Mummy?'

ace33

We took our kids on most of our viewings, they liked looking around with us if nothing else.

More importantly I think making their new room homely for them is important. We put all of our daughters things in her room and thought everything was ok but she got very upset after a week and said her room wasn't pretty like her old room. Changed her curtains from the cream ones that were left for some cheap pink ones and she loved it. Simple things that help them adjust sometimes

Comms69

I literally dont understand why a 4 year old needs to be consulted on a house purchase...

Davesnave

At four I didn't give a !!!!!, but by 9,  I'd a  reasonable grasp of what moving entailed. My parents had decided they'd buy a shop and 62 years later I still remember exactly where they all were. I say 'were,' because two of them no longer exist, being totally unviable within about 10 years. The third still bears our family name.

Unfortunately, that was the name on it when we viewed and it wasn't the one they bought!

hazyjo

Comms69 said:

I literally dont understand why a 4 year old needs to be consulted on a house purchase...

Thought we'd established they aren't being consulted. Just shown.

We all seem to have different experiences and opinions on this. As I said, it should depend on the child. There's no right and wrong.