Often times around this time of year... when we Realtors find a great home for a buyer that just suits them perfectly, we all start talking about writing an offer.
Perhaps it's because what up til now was just a grey possibility in the future, and finding a nice home brings the decision into the "right here and right now"... we often hear... "Oh my gosh... it just hit me. We can't move now... we could NEVER do that to the kids. We want to wait until the end of the school year. If we "uprooted the kids"... well... it would just be much too hard on them."
Well... here are some thoughts on that... from a former Junior High School teacher.
Regardless of when parents decide to move, very often the kids will not be pleased. They will talk all about leaving their friends behind, about how miserable they will feel in that dreaded "new school"... and how terrible and self-conscious they will feel being 'the new kid in class."
While the fears children have about all those things may certainly be real... the actual move itself is rarely anywhere near that bad.
"Oh Mom, I won't have any friends there. All the kids at the new school will already be in their little cliques... and they never let new kids in."
Sound familiar ? Well, very often the reality is about as opposite as can be. Let's picture it. It is January 4th. Everyone comes back to school after Christmas Break. (I can use the word "Christmas" because I rarely choose to be "politically correct.")
It is early on the morning of January 4th. Young Donna and her brother, little Jason have just arrived. They want to "sneak" into the room... hoping no one sees them. Everyone, of course... is "staring at them." Oh so scary! What often happens at recess or lunch... changes everything !
That's because there are also five other kids in their class who are spending their own first day in school that day... and they have the same fears. What happens at lunch? Why, they all end up at the same table, and end up just thrilled at finding other "new kids on the block."
Moving during the school year finds your children being able to invite their very best friends from their old school over for weekend sleep-overs... and also invite their brand-new frieds to the sleep-over, too.
Note: One more negative surprise about waiting for the end of the school year is this:
Imagine... school is over... it's the end of May. You pick Donna and Jason up after the end of their last day at their old school, and bring them home to their new neighborhood. They are excited. They change into their summer play clothes, and out they go. Forty Five minutes later... in they come. "Mom... Mom... I don't have anybody to play with !" And, there they are... all alone... not knowing anyone in the neighborhood... facing the entire summer... all by themselves. If they moved during the school year... this would never happen.
Having taught Junior High School for Nine Years, I have seen their frightened faces turn into Happy Faces quicker than you can say "Go Cowboys." Move by the end of the year ! You get a larger, more spacious home, you get the tax advantages, and your children get to keep their old friends, and make new ones. It's win-win for everyone !
One of the nicest, most Christmas-worthy events I have been to over the last too-many years happened at a title company Christmas party a year ago... Christmas of 2007. I know both Christmas and New Years, and even the Eastern Orthodox celebration (January 6th) have all passed, but this memory just came bouncing into my head just now... and I wanted to share it.
I usually do not attend functions like these... much too boring. And... ha ha... the last place I would want to be around Christmas is surrounded by a building crammed-full of other Realtors. Perhaps they feel the same about me. Who knows.
Anyhow... at this "gathering"... there she was. Over in the corner... almost behind a little Christmas tree the title company had set up. She was a young woman... and she was playing the harp. As I listened... it was clear to me. She was just excellent. I was totally mystified. I was entranced. I somehow managed to find a chair fairly close to her, and just plunked myself down, and was just amazed. This is where I spent the entire ninety minutes or so I was at this gathering.
I just sat there... and occasionally a memory of happier times came back to me. Some were of my daughter at Christmases... many years ago. Some were of my own childhood... back when I had family. And some were from the few times when I could actually feel the love and caring of the season.
Back to this "gathering." When I sensed the harpist was about to take another break... I figured it was a good time for me to leave. I also wanted to make sure I told her how absolutely angelic her playing was... and that I could easily imagine that this night... would be the most celebratory of all of the nights in my own "Christmas season" that year. I asked her if I could give her a "tip." She looked surprised, and said no, but I persisted. I told her how much she had added to my Christmas mood... and finally she accepted my twenty-dollar bill.
She almost fell over. I felt sad that she was so surprised by my gift... as I thought her music was worth so much more than this $20 I gave her. I of course made sure that my gift was given to her unnoticed by others.
As she protested... I thought to myself... "what would I have had to pay... for a ticket... to a solo concert where I could sit that close to such an artist... and be mesmerized by her for about two hours ?" I told her that, thanked her again... and off on her break she went as I went off into the night... and back to my home and to Mollie T. Cat... who was, of course, waiting for me.
As I remember it... it was one of the nicest, more angelic Christmas "happenings" I can remember.