The global pandemic has forced many people to put their plans on hold, not just for weeks but potentially for many months to come. Perhaps you were about to move or were looking for a home in another part of the country. Maybe you were planning to upsize or downsize. Whatever your reason for moving, the fact is you won’t be going anywhere for a while.

So how do you cope with the disappointment? How do you tell the kids who were all geared up to move? And how do you fall back in love with the house you were about to leave (and in your head may have already left)? 

In life, there are things you have control over and things you don’t. We have limited control over the virus but we do have control of how to make the best of a bad situation.

• From the children’s point of view, the best thing is to emphasise the positives from their perspectives – they won’t have to move away from their friends now and they can continue, albeit online, to be in the same school and connect up with their fellow pupils for virtual home schooling and to do projects together. Children tend to be resilient and adaptable to change – it’s the parents who convey to them their own insecurities and disappointments. So it is very important that parents don’t take a negative attitude towards what has happened because that will undermine their children’s sense of security and stability.
  
  
• Parents need to remain upbeat and see the advantages of staying put. The same applies to couples and singles. Try thinking: ‘Now we can take some time to get the house ready for a sale early next year’ or ‘in the bigger scheme of things, moving house is less important now than remaining together and healthy’ and, of course, that thing we often tell ourselves when a house purchase falls through under normal circumstances: ‘It wasn’t meant to be’.
  
  
• Looking on the bright side, in insecure and uncertain times, being in a place you know, with neighbours and friends who are there for you if you need them, is a real positive. Had you moved just before the crisis and not had time to get to know anyone in your new neighbourhood, it might have proved extremely stressful for everyone.
  
  
• Added to which, you now have the luxury of time to think through your next move. Perhaps your idea of what makes a dream home - and where it is located - will change. Maybe a few months without a garden will make you think again about that city apartment you set your heart on. Having to rely on your neighbours could make you feel differently about the remote cottage that seemed so ideal pre lockdown. Maybe you will even decide not to move at all.
  
  
• There are upsides to this. If, when life returns to normal, you decide to proceed with your moving plans, it could well be that, having benefited from more family time, your children will be less stressed about making new friends and moving to a new school. Equally, as parents, you will be more secure and able to embrace the new challenge of a move. As Confucius wrote: ‘our greatest honour is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall’.

Professor Sir Cary Cooper, CBE, is Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at ALLIANCE Manchester Business School. He is co-author of the recent best-selling books, The Apology Impulse and Work and Wellbeing.