As an adult how often have you moved?

[Parrothead]

The parents not telling kids about the foreclosure thread has me wondering. We are a transient family. We haven't stayed in the same house more than 3 years since our marriage. Before that I had about 10 years in my adult life without moving and during my childhood as a navy brat we moved every 2 years.

 

So I don't get the comments that due to the foreclosure the children are loosing their security. Maybe it is a foreclosure thing. I've never had that happen so I can only imagine. To me it seems that if one can't afford the house one is in, one moves out and rents something smaller/cheaper.

 

Maybe it is a not moving thing. Not having been raised in one house, then not having a root anywhere as an adult I don't get the lack of security. As a child I never questioned the security of the family unit.

 

I don't know. Maybe it is a combination of the two.

 

Anyway, I'm now wondering who moves around a lot.

 

Poll to follow

[Remudamom]

Hardly ever. Second year in college I had my own apartment, after living at home freshman year. Move back home three months before we married. Married at 20, moved here, at 30 moved a couple of miles away in order to build our home, then nine months later moved back to the farm. We've been here for 22??? years now.

[Parrothead]

I've moved 18 times since I was 18 years old. I plan on at least one more. That could change to 3 more times if dh decides to advance further in his career. He works for the federal government and probably would have to do 1-3 years in D.C. to advance much further.

[AuntieM]

I have moved 15 times since graduating from college. In twenty years of marriage I have relocated ten times with dh.

[AFwife Claire]

Well, obviously we were military, and I grew up military, so we have moved around a lot. I don't find security in my house, and I didn't as a child either. But I definitely found security in knowing my parents had a handle on things!

[KidsHappen]

Born, bred, raised and married military. When my hubby left the military he became a computer consultant and now he travels even more than he did before. Before we moved here, I had never lived in any one place for more than three years. We have been here seven. My middle two were horribly traumatized to move away from their homeschool group and friends when we left FL. They are still serious friends with many of them and my 17 year old is engaged to one of them. My youngest two don't really remember living anywhere else (not very well, at least). They have made many close friends here, are actively involved in school, sports, the community, etc. They have always had the same doctor and dentist. I believe it would be even more traumatizing for them to have to move. So we plan to stay here, in this house, until the youngest is 18.

[Chelle in MO]

After college, dh and I had 10 addresses in the first 10 yrs. We've been at the 10th address for 12 years!

[Tap]

8 times since 21 yo. The moves were in rapid successions though; 5 within 1.5 years, then 3 in another year. In between we were in one house 7 years and this one 9 years. I hope to sell and move within this year.

[swellmomma]

Fromt he time I got pg with my first until he was 3.5 I/we moved 5 times, then we lived in teh same house for 8 years until this year when I bought my 1st place. Those early moves were- out of my folks home when I was pg, then 2 moves for my husbands job, then 1 move back to my hometown when I separated from my husband and then 1 into low income housing where we stayed for years. We will be in this house for at least 5 years before we move again I am sure.

[Hannah C.]

In the three and a half years since I turned 18, I have moved seven times. From my parents' house, to two different rooms in the same dorm, back home, then to three different student apartments on campus, and then with my dh to our current apartment.

 

I've also had thirteen different roommates, not including my husband or my siblings. I only kept one roommate in two and a half years of living on campus. It wasn't that they all hated me or anything, either! It was just that circumstances worked out that way.

[Truscifi]

Four times. None of them since ds was born, so he has lived in the same house all of his almost 7 years. Not for lack of trying, we just can't sell our house. :glare:

[Audrey]

I put 9-10, but 8 of those times were when I was in college.

[elegantlion]

I'm getting ready to make my 11th move, most of them with dh. We historically move every 4-5 years just because. We're hoping to make this one last longer than 5

[smrtmama]

No choice for "other?" I've moved 3-4 times, but I also live in my parents' house...well, the house they raised me in, at least! They live in a new house.

[Alyce]

I moved away from parent year after graduated, moved back to city parents lived in for year, met and married husband and moved to a town about 15 miles from parents and then because of FIL cancer moved 90 miles away from parents. We have now lived her 25 years, have paid off the house mortgage and have no plans on moving. I was an army brat and moved an average of every year of my life. Sometimes it was hard to leave friends and always be new kid on block but it was always nice to know I had the stability of my family.

[missmoe]

Since leaving home at 17, I have moved 12 times. I would guess the security is provided by knowing what is going to happen. If the sale of the house is happening in January, when are the kids going to find out? Everytime we've moved, my kids have known about our plans and where we are headed to. We don't spring our plans on them at the last minute. Discussion goes on. We explore the new place we moving to. We make plans for the new house. ect

[prairie rose]

I am also a military child who married military. I've moved 10 times since the age of 18 (and counting) and about 20 times lifetime total. I've never understood how attached I've seen some people become to a house. It's just a house to me, completely and utterly replaceable. If you move, you find a new one. If it's burns down, you find a new one. If you are foreclosed on, you find a new one whether it be a rental or moving in with a family member. I've just never understood the emotional attachment some people have with a house. We've been in our current house for 18 months now with no foreseeable move in the near future. I am so ready to move :lol:

[Crimson Wife]

I got married 2 weeks after I graduated college, and in the 12 years we've been married, we've moved 9 times. 4 were due to DH's military service, 2 were due to his grad school, 2 were due to job changes, and the most recent one was because we bought a house. We're obviously hoping to stay here for awhile but you never know...

[Annabel Lee]

Twelve times in my adult life, all of which were with kids. The family stays together, so the building shouldn't matter.

[Laura Corin]

Fifteen times in my adult life, including several intercontinental moves. It really depends on the child: Hobbes thrives on newness; Calvin was unsettled by our constant moving and is much happier now we have no intention of moving again.

 

Laura

[cindergretta]

I grew up an Army brat. We moved a bit. ;)

 

As an adult, I have moved 6 or 7 times... (I kind of lost track.... :confused: )

 

Some people do attach a lot to a house. For some, it is a dwelling, shelter from the weather. For others, it is a place that holds dear memories. Neither is wrong. Growing up, I never much cared about the apartments/houses/quarters we lived in.

 

The longest I have lived in one house during my adult life was 5+ years in a rental. Two of my dc (4th & 5th) were born while we lived there and our 6th was conceived there. I lost a pregnancy there. I started homeschooling there. It was the first house we lived in. (We had been in apartments previously.) We simply outgrew it. I cried buckets when we moved out. There was a mail slot in the door that the dc flocked around to "catch" the mail as it came through. There were heaters on the walls where each of the littles would stand to wave to daddy in the morning and watch for him to come home in the evening. Just little things that don't matter, but were such a part of the fabric of our lives. I still miss that house.

 

I think part of the equation is this - is this a house where the family has always lived? Or is it a house they moved into last year or 2 years ago? That would certainly play a part in the attachment issue, too, especially for dc.

 

Whoever it was that said regardless, they would discuss the move with their dc beforehand to prepare them - ITA. We spent years in Germany growing up. When my parents found out we were being stationed stateside, they let us know *right away.* They knew we were going to need a lot of time to adjust to the idea of leaving Germany.

[Mom in High Heels]

Well, obviously we were military, and I grew up military, so we have moved around a lot. I don't find security in my house, and I didn't as a child either. But I definitely found security in knowing my parents had a handle on things!

 

 

Exactly this. My dad was Navy so I moved a lot. James Bond and I got married and then he joined the Army, so it started all over again. Indy is 8 and has now had 5 addresses.

[Mrs Mungo]

We have been married 16 years and we've lived in nine homes, we're moving again in a few months.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

The parents not telling kids about the foreclosure thread has me wondering. We are a transient family. We haven't stayed in the same house more than 3 years since our marriage. Before that I had about 10 years in my adult life without moving and during my childhood as a navy brat we moved every 2 years.

 

So I don't get the comments that due to the foreclosure the children are loosing their security. Maybe it is a foreclosure thing. I've never had that happen so I can only imagine. To me it seems that if one can't afford the house one is in, one moves out and rents something smaller/cheaper.

 

Maybe it is a not moving thing. Not having been raised in one house, then not having a root anywhere as an adult I don't get the lack of security. As a child I never questioned the security of the family unit.

 

I don't know. Maybe it is a combination of the two.

 

Anyway, I'm now wondering who moves around a lot.

 

Poll to follow

 

Since graduation from college, I've moved 11 times. I'm getting ready for my 12th move and it will be the fourth international move in seven years. So yeah, I've moved a bit.

 

I'm not sure if the loss of security feeling was related just to moving, so much as reflecting a feeling that some entity to just come and take away their home.

[Mom0012]

I had my own apartment in my 20's, lived in a rental with my husband for a year after we married and then we built our own home, which I will probably die in because my husband doesn't like change.

 

I think it would be very upsetting to my children to move. We've lived here all their lives. We moved when I was 12 from the home and friends I had always known and it was very traumatic. However, I know people respond differently to this and sometimes moving can't be helped even if you don't want to.

 

Lisa

[TammyinTN]

Military life here as well...we are on move 14 with at least 3 more.

[Carrie12345]

I've moved 4 times since my 12yo was born, and I hope to manage one last move at some point!

 

I didn't catch the other thread, but I will say that it was pretty traumatic for my sisters and me when our mom sold the family home (which we were all living in). And we were 23, 20, and 16 at the time. We'd spent our entire lives there, and didn't know anything else.

 

Our stepfather thought we were crazy. He and our stepbrother had always been moving around, and they didn't know anything but *that lifestyle. Neither perspective has much influence on the other. It is what it is.

 

My own kids look forward to moving one day, but with limitations. When I talk about how much fun it would be to move any place farther west or south, they cry b/c they don't want to increase the distance from my in-laws. When I talk about moving east or north, they get excited. They're not very attached to this place.

[mazakaal]

It's almost impossible for me to count because of all the 'transitional' housing we've been in. After moving to England we rented a house for a month before finding a more permenant rental. That house was sold by the owners so we had two months temporary housing between living there and waiting for our next home to be renovated. That type of thing has happened to us several times. Just counting my 'permenant' moves since graduating high school, it's over 15 though, 6 of those with kids.

[Giraffe]

Since college I've moved 13-14 times (I think that's right). After a while I lose count. I also grew up Navy and moved over 20 times before college. I don't count the college moves because in and out of a dorm/apartment doesn't seem to count to me. Don't know why. I hated moving so much as a kid and as an adult have detested it too, but seem to have a hard-wired need to change environments now. Drives me nuts, as I would like to stay in one place, but can't seem to do it.

 

DD has moved 4 times in 3 years, two of those moves intercontinental. She's done well so far, but being so little during most of them I don't know that it counts so much. This last move was a little harder and she's frequently mentioned staying here ever since, so I'm trying to convince DH to move only if absolutely necessary in the future (he's a rambler, can't stay in one place long).

[JudoMom]

I voted 5-6 times, but it's a bit misleading.

 

I moved from my home state to my current state and stayed with my future SIL & her family for several weeks, then I moved into a studio apartment for around 6 months, then I moved in with dh after we got married, then SIL & family bought a house and we rented the basement for a few months until we found a house.

 

We bought our first home in November of 98. We lived there until we bought our current home in November of 05. We've got no plans of ever moving again.

 

Growing up, we lived in my parent's first home until I was in 4th grade, then we moved into a rental for a few months while their current home they were having built was being finished. We moved in there in 87, and they still live there today.

[RebeccaS]

I've moved 6 times since I was 18. And, all those moves took place in a 3 year span. Now, dh and I have been in this house for almost 7 years. We love the house, neighborhood, church and have no plans of moving. Plus, I adore old houses and, being a log home, this one fits the bill perfectly. :)

[mommaduck]

The parents not telling kids about the foreclosure thread has me wondering. We are a transient family. We haven't stayed in the same house more than 3 years since our marriage. Before that I had about 10 years in my adult life without moving and during my childhood as a navy brat we moved every 2 years.

 

So I don't get the comments that due to the foreclosure the children are loosing their security. Maybe it is a foreclosure thing. I've never had that happen so I can only imagine. To me it seems that if one can't afford the house one is in, one moves out and rents something smaller/cheaper.

 

Maybe it is a not moving thing. Not having been raised in one house, then not having a root anywhere as an adult I don't get the lack of security. As a child I never questioned the security of the family unit.

 

I don't know. Maybe it is a combination of the two.

 

Anyway, I'm now wondering who moves around a lot.

 

Poll to follow

My life has been the same way. Military brat followed by transient adulthood. I do know that there are those that think "staying in one place is a sign of stability and security". I don't always agree...I've seen some transient families that were more together and stable than some non-transient families. I really believe it depends on the family.

[Sasharowan]

WE moved a lot as young adults and both grew up moving a lot as kids. The longest that I lived in a house as a kid was 6 years, but my dad was Navy so I knew it wasn't permanent. We have been in this house for 11 years now. All 3 of the younger kids have been born since we moved in here and have only known this house. Since dh and I are both older now and, barring unusual circumstances, don't plan on moving anytime soon, this is where we'll stay. I combat itchy foot syndrome by going away for vacations and taking camping trips and rearranging the house. Ds14 is very big on routine and moving previously affected him for years, although he has much more resources for dealing with it now than at 3.

[The Girls' Mom]

8 times since I moved out of my parents' house. Over 20 times over the span of my life. And I cannot imagine not telling my kids of an impending move, but then we are pretty open with our kids about things that will have an effect on their lives.

[TravelingChris]

16 times with a 17th happening in a little over 6 months. Dh and I were discussing whether we will buy a house with this next move if we move where we think we will be moving. He wants to since his plan is stay in the job for 3 years and then retire and get a very good paying job. I like the city but it isn't my preferred retirement place. On the other hand, he says that by permanent, he means maybe 10 years. He thinks he will be moving again in the civilian world.

 

I haven't minded moving so much except how it has hindered both of our hobbies. I like gardening and can't do major landscaping changes in a rental home and even in the few homes we bought, we never got to see the mature garden because I have never lived anywhere more than slightly less than 4 years.

[JFSinIL]

Well, if you count moving from college to college, or from dorm to apartment to dorm etc., then 7 - 8 or more moves.

 

If we discount the college stuff, then 3 or 4. I moved from California to Illinois for more grad school, so I will count that college move (;)), then moved into our first apartment, then to a townhouse in the "city in the suburbs" (new logo for where we live now - gag me!) and last of all to the 100+ year-old house we have lived in for over 16 years.

[QuirkyKapers]

I have moved 4 times. Wow, some people have moved a lot.

[simka2]

I'm packing for my 9th move in 12 years ;). This move is hitting my yougest the hardest as he has had the fewest moves.

 

Really, they are all doing great with it!

[6packofun]

It would be interesting to see the breakdown between military and non-military families. The military families kind of skew the results! LOL ;)

[Luckymama]

Non-military but 10 moves since I left for college 26 years ago. Crud, that sounds like a lot! To college, to grad school, to job, got married so to apartment, to NY, to DE apartment, to rental house, to first house, to second house, to forever house :)

[Jackie in AR]

8 times since I finished graduate school.

[mommaduck]

It would be interesting to see the breakdown between military and non-military families. The military families kind of skew the results! LOL ;)

I'd like to see how many military brats became transient adults vs settled adults.

[stripe]

I was told by someone that I shouldn't move anywhere because of my kids. Considering that I moved constantly as a kid, I understood the advice but found it a bit unrealistic.

[Mom22ns]

I didn't count college. I moved each school year and each summer - 8 moves in 4 years. After college, I got married and we moved to an apartment. A few years later we moved to another state and bought our first house. I think 6 years later we bough the house we are in and we've been here 12 year. Neither of my kids remembers living anywhere else. We probably won't move again before they go to college.

 

If kids are like mine and have only lived in one place, the house does provide stability. If they are used to moving, I can see where it would be less traumatic.

[Renee in NC]

We/I have moved quite a bit. HOWEVER, the foreclosure was extremely hard on my dc. Some of them had never lived anywhere else (or didn't remember the place before.) It was supposed to be our forever house - we built it thinking we would never leave, so that was always our attitude.

 

The other reason it was traumatic was that we went from a nice (but modest) house in a rural area to a trailer in a not-great park. The trailer had burned and we rehabbed it, but it still was bad enough that even with the heat running full blast it would get into the 40s and low 50s every night that winter. Add to that the incident where someone kicked our front door in, the incidents of domestic disturbance that we could overhear clearly, and the fact that instead of having 11 acres to roam they were restricted to our yard due to safety. It was a MAJOR shift for them.

 

Since then, we moved from the house to a trailer park in NC, to my mom's in FL, then to this trailer. They aren't used to this moving around. We, of course, are moving again, most likely back to NC. Then, I hope we can find some stability somewhere. NOT in a low-income neighborhood, I might add (I'll live in a super small house in a better area if I have to.)

 

I moved almost every year as a child. Before I dropped out in 11th grade, I had changed schools 16 times! Some of those were back to a previous school (still 12 different schools), but it makes me want much, much better for my dc. I was less worried when we homeschooled, but now that they are in school (and most likely always going to be there) it is more important that we find a stable place to STAY for awhile.

[Parrothead]

8 times since I moved out of my parents' house. Over 20 times over the span of my life. And I cannot imagine not telling my kids of an impending move, but then we are pretty open with our kids about things that will have an effect on their lives.

I, too, can't imagine telling dd we are moving again. Once the boxes come in from the garage it would be pretty obvious. It is the foreclosure part that bugs me. I still can't imagine telling her about my finances.

 

It would be interesting to see the breakdown between military and non-military families. The military families kind of skew the results! LOL ;)

I was surprised at so many non-military people/families moving more than a few times.

I'd like to see how many military brats became transient adults vs settled adults.

My vote would be for transient adult.

[zookeeperof3]

I'd like to see how many military brats became transient adults vs settled adults.

Oh, I can answer that. I have moved 18 times as an adult, not counting moves as a brat. I literally get an urge to move every few years. The house we are in now, we've been in for 5 years, the longest I have lived anywhere since I was 7. The house is now up for sale. lol

Kim

[mommaduck]

I, too, can't imagine telling dd we are moving again. Once the boxes come in from the garage it would be pretty obvious. It is the foreclosure part that bugs me. I still can't imagine telling her about my finances.

 

 

I was surprised at so many non-military people/families moving more than a few times.

 

My vote would be for transient adult.

 

Ditto.

 

Oh, I can answer that. I have moved 18 times as an adult, not counting moves as a brat. I literally get an urge to move every few years. The house we are in now, we've been in for 5 years, the longest I have lived anywhere since I was 7. The house is now up for sale. lol

Kim

Hubby stayed in the same area as a kid, but moved houses every few years. I moved nine times as a kid, not counting the times we lived with other people or in temporary housing while waiting on housing to open up. Hubby and I have both been itchy. We want our next move to be our "forever" home.

[Laurie4b]

I checked 5-6 times since you seemed to be asking about dwelling places. I moved once out-of-state to go to college and have been here ever since. In number of times moved, I included the move to college, two changes of residence in college, then 2 houses I've lived in since.

 

I think the lack of security for the kids in the foreclosure is the combination of the foreclosure and the significant probablility that the parents don't know where they will live after that. That is insecurity.

[Parrothead]

Ditto.

 

 

Hubby stayed in the same area as a kid, but moved houses every few years. I moved nine times as a kid, not counting the times we lived with other people or in temporary housing while waiting on housing to open up. Hubby and I have both been itchy. We want our next move to be our "forever" home.

As a kid I was in 7 different states and one foreign country. We lived in 11 different houses. We've been in this house just over a year, and I'm not ready to move out of it yet. We have the option to buy it, but I'm not sure I want to unless it is to buy and then rent it out later. Dh has too many years left before retirement to build the forever house right now.