Captain’s Column
MWR put on a terrific event for our families this past Saturday with their Spooktoberfest. If you weren’t able to make it, you missed out of a great event focused on all our family members – young and old alike. Besides the costume contests, truck or treat, inflatibles, face painting, and free food, numerous volunteers worked hard at putting together a scary haunted clinic tour.
That leads into November being a month full of appreciation, and one in which we honor the Military Family.
Sometimes it’s hard to know how to honor the sacrifices our families make on our behalf. Military life is sometimes challenging for the service member, imagine how challenging it is for our families! Our spouses often spend months alone, wishing their service members were home to help with the daily routine, help celebrate birthdays, or even just eat a meal together and share watching a movie!
Our families have had to move several times in just as many years, leaving friends behind, based on our careers. It’s tough for them to leave their “new best friends,” to meet a sea of faces in a new school, state or town.
Our spouses depend on the ability to be flexible in light of long deployments and separations, as well as the issues that can come up with reintegrating after coming back from deployments and missions. Our children must learn flexibility when they wish their parent was at their awards ceremony in school or there when they fell and hurt themselves and had to be rushed to the hospital. Some of our younger children don’t understand why their service member isn’t home while their friend’s parents are there to share in their day-to-day routine.
All military personnel have heartbreaking stories of their children missing a parent. Older children don’t have as hard a time understanding the military way of life, but they have a different set of struggles. They grow up with a parent who is often absent for their big game or first dance.
No matter the age, our families have to be resilient, self-sufficient and flexible. It is not only the service member, but our families that must make sacrifices on behalf of our nation. Our children are our nation’s children. Whether we are living on base or in the local civilian communities, our families experience unique challenges relating to military life and culture.
Stressors also include family reunification and reintegration of their service member into the family. They also can face traumas of the service member returning home with a combat injury or worse.
Our children are resilient, and the military life style tends to teach them valuable skills that help them become well adjusted, adaptable adults. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not really hard for them, and we as parents need to be ready to reach out to some of the professional tools available to help our children through the toughest times.
Don’t hesitate to use the resources made available through our ombudsmen, the Fleet and Family Support Center, chaplains, and other sources of help the military has to offer. Care of our families and children helps sustain our fighting force, and helps strengthen the health, security, and safety of our communities.
So, in this month of honoring our families, let’s take time to determine what we can do to ease some of the challenges they face.