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Successful Transplants- Uprooting Your Urban Offspring

by Sheri Dixon (continued)

    Rule Three- Acclimate.

    Spend time in your new neighborhood. Go to the grocery store, the feed store, and the playground. Visit the school and meet the teachers. If you are too far away to do this in person, take advantage of the Worldwide Web and travel via the ‘net. Collect souvenirs from your new home in the form of newspapers, mom and pop restaurant menus, current school papers, park information, and community fliers about local events. Every little town has something that they are proud of- be it the yearly Marsh Marigold Festival or possession of the World’s longest tapeworm. Find this and learn about it. Acclimation should also include finding comfort items, if only for reference. Where is the closest mall? The nearest Chuck E. Cheese? Knowing that these things are only X miles away will take the sting out of being thrust into unknown territories.

    Rule Four- Meditate.

    Brainstorm about what will be good about moving to the country. Think about what all of you will be doing in the way of chores once you are moved and mentally move through the days on the ‘stead even while living in the ‘hood. With your youngster’s friends, figure out a plan to keep them in touch, and start now- thanks to the internet, they can share via blogs, email and even websites. There’s always the telephone- buy a certain amount of minutes just for your child to call friends with every month. If you are not moving too far away, plan and carry out a slumber party at your new place, so your child’s friends have a concrete place in their thoughts to envision your child instead of just ‘to the country’ or ‘that stoopid farm’.

    Rule Five- Instigate.

    Make sure you save some of the ‘fun stuff’ for your children to do. If you are building a house, take their ideas seriously and if they are reasonably safe, do not break too many rules of physics, and are within your budget, let ‘em do it. Ditto for renovating an existing house. In the grand scheme of things, will there be a negative shift in the universe if your child’s room is painted purple? And if you are honest, aren’t the ideas of a tree house bed, a slide into the indoor tub or a skylight for stargazing before drifting off to sleep all pure genius? From planning, to budgeting, to shopping, to building and finishing, letting your child participate in this aspect of the homestead will cause her to set roots in it. Try to find out what outside aspect she finds appealing as well. Is she interested in gardening, animal husbandry, food preservation, record keeping, soap making, yak herding? Tell her to go for it and help her make it a successful venture- not so much financially as soul satisfyingly, but if it surprises you and brings in some cash, even better.

    Rule Six- Create.

    If you and your family have worked through steps One through Five, you are ready. Ready for the adventure of all of your collective lives. Ready for the tests, trials, successes and failures, and constant everyday learning that is referred to by those who flat don’t know any better as the Simple Life.

    Welcome home.

 
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