A little piece of advice from someone with experience! The joys of modern technology.
I would literally snog the person (man or woman) who invented those dvd players that you strap to the back of your headrest in the car. You probably don’t need me to tell you that moving is an expensive buisiness. If, like me you are relocating with children, then here’s my first piece of advice: even if it means sacrificing new curtains in your new house, even if it means sacrificing having even a fridge in the new house; invest in an in-car dvd player with enough sets of headphones for your brood in the back. (I recommend cordless to avoid inevitable tangles.) As much as you may like to do the proper thing; fun games of Eye Spy and How many animals you can think of beginning with A; if there’s a better time to have a reasonable excuse to plug them into the telly, I don’t know it!
We have wanted to involve our offspring every step of the way; the intention being that if we an keep their interest, they’ll be less likely to hate us for making them leave their friends. However, when you’ve crammed as many viewings into a Saturday as possible and driving between them you’re trying to remember if the last house had something important like central heating; it doesn’t help when one kid’s complaining there isn’t a pink room; and the other’s badgering on about the nearest skate park. Switch on the telly, hand out the headphones and ah! – peace and quiet. You’ve got a couple of minutes to gather your thoughts on the last place before trying to remember vital questions to ask at the next one. And you can do it without being interrupted.