Being a military parent can often come with a lot of guilt. It may break your heart to move to a new city yet again and watch your kids have to adjust to a new school. Yet, although there are a certain amount of challenges that come along with moving around, there are also plenty of perks. Believe it or not, your children might just thank you later in life for the experiences they gained from moving so much as a child. Take a look at some of the most important benefits that kids get from moving around a lot.
You Experience New Cultures
If you manage to get to live in an entirely new country, then it’s better than any language class you’ll ever take. You get to experience an entirely new culture and open up your mind to new ways of life that you may not have ever gotten to see before. People who have lived in a different culture are much more open-minded about life in general. They are more tolerant of others and see the bigger picture in ways that others who have only lived in one place simply don’t.
Less Fearful
It’s rare that a child is excited about moving initially. It’s daunting to have to move around and adjust to life in an entirely new setting. However, once you take the dive, you start to realize how resilient you are and you start to become less and less fearful. Things that might have scared you once upon a time now seem like no big deal. Once you’ve taken on such a big challenge like moving to a new place, everything else seems small in comparison.
You Have More Stories to Tell
Let’s face it— people who haven’t had a lot of adventure in their lives don’t have a lot to talk about at the dinner table. When you’ve lived in more places than other people, you naturally have plenty of stories to talk about, making yourself a joy to talk to. When you’ve lived in different places, it’s easier to make new friends since you have more things to talk about.
Better Social Skills
When you’ve experienced having to adjust to a new school and make new friends over and over, you start to get so good at making new friends that it becomes like second nature. Often people who have moved around a lot have excellent social skills because they’ve been forced to insert themselves into a new social group so many times. This can be especially helpful for your career. When you go into an interview there’s no stopping you. You’re not afraid to shine and make a great first impression!