House hunting with kids is not for the faint hearted! In fact you really need to have your wits about you. Either that or be medicated – there is no in-between. Really! This post is about my 5 top tips for house hunting with kids.
Why Are We House Hunting with kids?
This is a process that you go through at various stages of your life. I’ve done it as a stepmum with a little girl who wasn’t sure about me, until in one house we both got a ‘sense’ of something not quite right and her little arms gripped my neck so tightly I could barely breathe. She’s 15 now …
I’ve also done it with two over-tired and disinterested little girls who think everyone’s dogs are as mentally challenged as their Gaya’s. They aren’t.
So in my vast experience spanning more than 10 years of house hunting, [although most of these are very recent] here are a few of the things that you can expect when house hunting with kids.
Unfortunately all are based on real life experiences:
Dogs
Most houses have dogs. IF the property is lived in by children (identified by broken plastic toys in the front garden, or a unused swing set) things should be okay.
IF the house is NOT lived in by children then the dogs will either attempt to kill the children or be absolutely terrified of them!
Please note: your two year old Rottweiler is not a “puppy” to my four year old child! Beware of all dogs!
[Clean] Glass doors!
If your child wriggles free of your iron like grip on their wrist, they are quite likely to run full speed into a closed glass door! Whack! (True story – this actually happened.) How she didn’t go straight through it I will never know! Be careful of glass doors vs kids!
Stuff! Breakable Stuff!
Think, ornaments. Glasswear. Picture frames. Precious things.
Now, if your child is a ‘toucher’ they will attempt to touch everything in every house you view! Your best bet is to monitor it carefully. Complete banning will just result in failure on your part, and tears – also from you!
Stairs!!
Let me start off by saying that no two houses have the same type of stairs. I don’t really care if you are an engineer and disagree with me. They’re not.
If your children are not used to living in a house with lots of stairs, a double-storey or a duplex house, for goodness sake don’t let go of their hands!
My eldest fell UP some steep tiled stairs and grazed her shin resulting in major melt-down and a bleeding shin! Another true story!
Toilets
Yes. Really.
My advice is to keep your children on the brink of being dehydrated. It’s either that, or they will “desperately” need to use the toilet. In every single house you view! Every. Single. One!
So there you have it: dogs, glass doors, touching, stairs and toilets!
Really, my best advice is simple: Just don’t take them with you if you can help it!
Having fun !!!!
We in the exact same boat also house hunting with the two kids ?? it’s not for te faint hearted!!
I did it alone today – as in with out my husband. Even worse!!! ?
This is hilarious! I guess we learn by experiences! Good luck house hunting further!!
Thanks – I wish I could say this was learnt already but sadly I’m not sure this list is exhaustive!
Ugh! Sounds like a tough day… ?
Oh gawd — prepping for the exhaustion that will come when we house hunt in a few months. Good luck!
Thanks. We’ve put it on hold. Told hubby he must sort it, I just can’t even anymore.
[…] winter here, it’s around 23 degrees (at least) most days. After a few days of hectic house hunting (okay, we’re not really on holiday, we’re scouting out the place we will be moving […]
I hated house hunting, I’m so glad it’s over. #GlobalBlogging
I’m naturally a nosey person so I like seeing inside other people’s houses, but taking the kids with is not fun.
Yeah, I only had to take the Hubster with me and that was hard enough. Keeping kids from messing with other people’s stuff must be hard!
Oh no! Nothing like a busted shin on a home showing!
Thanks for the tips. :-)
[…] To say that it’s getting us all a bit down is an understatement. It’s quite literally exhausting, stressful and confusing. The nightmare statement in our ‘house’ right now is “We have another house viewing”. If you’re not sure what I mean, check out my post from last week: 5 Top Tips for House Hunting With Kids […]
Oh my, I felt your pain reading every point here! Although a little funny, it must have been hectic!!! #globalblogging
Very hectic. ??
Funny but true! My kids will leave their grubby fingerprints on everything! #globalblogging
The windows and the bathroom! Ugh! Stopping by again, from #globalblogging <3
[…] suit, to view fancy houses that were all staged and white inside. The kids behaved atrociously (See previous post about how they behave in house viewings, double it and subtract one parent!) and it was all round, just shitty day! I stopped to buy wine […]
Oh man do I remember this when the girls were one and four. I almost bought every house just so we could be done! Thanks for linking up to #globalblogging
I would be instantly put off viewing a house with dogs! I would be sneezing all the time. Also agree with the toilet situations. Kids will always want to go when it’s least convenient! Thank you for sharing with #StayClassymama
Loving this one again at #FridayFrolics xo
Haha – yes, not the easiest activity! I did it with two toddlers. The big problems were toys in kids’ bedrooms, toys in gardens, and kissing ALL mirrors. My eldest – then nearly 3 – did announce in EVERY bedroom of EVERY house ‘I love it, I’ll have this one ‘, though, and that was pretty funny. Thanks so much for joining us for #FridayFrolics
Haha, cutie pie. It’s all funny now but it’s s stressful at the time.
I can remember house hunting with our eldest and whilst we were talking to the estate agent, he decided to take a nap on the coffee table!
Bean ahaha! Love it.
We have just been house hunting and we took out toddler along to a couple of viewings and left him with my mum for a few. Although he was pretty distracting when we took him, it meant I could see any potential negatives about each property.
When we finally made an offer on a flat, we took him along to the second viewing and let him run around. That way I could be sure it was suitable for him as well as us (luckily it was empty so there were no ornaments to break!)
#ItsOk
Yes, that’s a good point. Some of the houses we saw were definitely not child friendly!
Great post! We’ve toyed with the idea of moving house, but GinGin is very reluctant, so we’ve not pushed the issue. I dread the idea of taking Roo to strangers’ homes, though. She’d probably break everything and then we’d drag her out kicking and screaming!
#ItsOK
I would never move again if I didn’t have to. The whole process is awful!
It’s not just the kids you have to worry about with clean glass doors, my husband walked straight into ours the day we moved in. Obviously hasn’t been a problem since because that was the last time they were clean. #itsok
Oh no!!! Is it wrong that I’m usually more worried about the door than the human? ?
Hahaha! I completely agree. We took ours with us for a couple of viewings and they were an absolute pain in the arse. So the next time we viewed a house we left them with friends. #ItsOK
Yes! That’s definitely the best option! ?
Oh my – I’ve never been house hunting with kids, but I started to feel clammy at the thought of it reading all your tips! It’s stressful enough going round to a friend’s house for a playdate with my two, but viewing a complete stranger’s home – uuugghhh! #itsok.
Very stressful. If you have an alternative option I would definitely go for that.
Thanks! I’ll bear these tips in mind when we eventually start house hunting – hopefully around Christmas. Leave them with somebody else seems to be the best idea! #itsOK
Without a doubt!!
We’re house hunting at the minute but our little girl is small enough that she stays in our arms. She stares at everything and looks like she’s appraising the house which is so cute, but a bit disconcerting for the estate agents. There was was one embarrassing incident when she filled her nappy just as we were entering #ItsOK
My goodness, YES to the toilet thing !! Why can they not resist a strange loo?? #itsok
We only took all three to one house viewing, that was bad enough. Luckily the babies were in portable car seats so we dumped them in one room and left them – obviously they screamed the whole time, and the toddler was a ‘toucher’! Never again. #ItsOK
Oh I’ve done this a couple of times with my two girls and it was far too much stress for me. The other times I left them with my mum. You just cannot look around in peace and ask the questions you need to ask! Luckily the house we had been renting came up for sale and we are in the process of buying it now. Sale is almost through and it meant we didn’t have to go looking at any more houses. Well at least for the foreseeable future!! #itsok
and this is why we took the day off work when the 5 kids were in school to view houses when we were moving lol #itsok
I had never considered how stressful house hunting would be with kids until I read this and realised that yep this would be my kids looking around and touching everything ?#itsok
We’ve never done this but it sounds like a nightmare! #itsok
Thanks for the reminder to hold our kid’s hand on the stairs while house hunting. My sister mentioned she wants to start looking at properties for sale since she needs more space for her two growing sons. This info should be helpful for her since one of her sons is still fairly young.