Changing schools too much

3 Comments

Zoning issue made me have to change schools all the time. I went to 3 elementary schools, 3 middleschools, and 2 highschool.
Some schools id make good friends have to start over the next year. Some schools I wouldnt fit in like the others. But this was really shitty for me. Sometimes Id go from being the cool kid to knowing no one and not making friends.

My wife experienced the same thing growing up in the city before moving to our town. She had lots of friends there and then had to move and start over

Is it particularly harmful to constantly change kids schools? We have came to the conclusion we need to be where we want to stay by the time our kids go to school to avoid this.

Yes 5
No 2
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Comments ( 3 )
  • litelander8
    2 years ago

    Total pain in the ass. But not the worst thing. You deal with the hand you’re dealt.

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  • Boojum
    2 years ago

    After the basic physical necessities, the most important thing parents can provide for their children is a stable environment; kids need certainty and to feel secure. Growing up and trying to figure out yourself and the world is challenging enough if you stay in one place and the social circle around you is unchanged from the time you start school until you finish. If a kid is constantly jerked around from place to place or from school to school, that can only create feelings of insecurity, and a likely coping method they'll deploy is detachment. As Grunewald says, why should they bother to go through all the hassle of making new friends if they've already had to say goodbye forever to every other friend they've made before?

    The parallel that came to my mind when I read your OP is US military brats. Children who have one or more career military parent change schools from six to nine times on average before they finish High School. There's a Wikipedia article on this subculture which you might find interesting since it discusses what researchers have concluded from studies into the long-term impact on people who grew up like this. Obviously, a lot of the things in that article won't apply to you since it seems that you remained in the same house through your school years, and your family didn't have to deal with all the other stresses that military families do.

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  • Grunewald
    2 years ago

    It is harmful - I speak as a teacher. Kids just lose all motivation to throw themselves into anything or even make friends because they think 'there's no point - I'm going to move again soon'. They need a sense of belonging and a solid base from which to explore the world from.

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