Oh my lord! It's suddenly hit me what this move means

[OrmRenewed]

We are leaving behind all my DCs early years.We came here with a 6m old boy, and we've had 2 babies here. Now DS#1 is 13. I have spent the last month sorting and chucking away. I've just got on with it. No fuss, no sentiment. But tonight I unearthed one of those activity centres you sucker to the side of the bath - that we gave DS~1 for his first birthday. All the DC have played with it and it's got increasingly battered. And there is no reason on earth to keep it. And no charity shop will want it. So it's going to landfill.

ATM it feels as if all my DC babyhood is going to landfill as well.

DD is leaving primary at the same time. I will never buy her red gingham dresses for school anymore. We walked home from school this afternoon and it occured to me that it won;t be happening too many more times.

Yes change is good and we have to move on but right now it hurts

I feel for you. We've moved house 8 times since DD was born and country 3 times. It doesn't get any easier.

I'm sure it doesn't kreecher.

Sorting out 13yrs of stuff is so hard I have chucked away treasures like kids' christmas cards and pictures, and heaps of toys that I clearly remember being so important to them for a while.

Can you not take pictures of the toys and put them in a scrap book with cards etc? Then donate the toys to the childrens hospital/charity shop/refuge? (go and get them back)

belle - that is a lovely idea. Thankyou. But most of them have gone (to charity shops if in reasonable nick).

Do you know, when you posted a few weeks ago about what to do before your move, I nearly said "take lots of photos"

(but didn't as you already had enough on your plate!)

but honestly, if you have time, do go round the house and the local streets and take some photos (or delegate to the 13 year old maybe?) - you and your kids will love looking back in a few years and saying "oh that's where we used to walk to the park" etc.

I think I may do some 'school run' photos. DS#2 will still be there next year but I suspect he will be driven to school most days as time pressures will dictate. I used to love the leisurely wander back from school on a Monday, usually via the ice-cream van or cake shop