Busting the Stereotype of a Military Brat

One of the most obvious differences between a military child and their civilian peer, is the seemingly continuous moving that is associated with their gaurdian’s occupation. Whether it is moving across the state or moving across an ocean, each move brings it's own challenges and it's own advemtures.

Is it too farfetched that children of military personnel have their own subculture? Military Brats are children of active military personal that move don’t have a set home they live in. They are actively moving from state to state and from country to country. Despite this sounding like this sound like someone who just moves around a lot, there is a whole lot more to Military Brats. Military Brats are in fact, a subculture that have a real presence in our society and have their own struggles they face as individuals.

Military life can be a big amount of stress for children. There is multiple deployments where they go through long separations from their parents. Children even could experience a parent getting injured or possibly a death. That all is the reality for children who has a parent in the active duty military(website 1). There is such a huge impact on children’s mental health and high rates of trauma from them experiencing their parents going on deployments. More than two million American children have had a parent deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan. At least 19,000 children have had a parent wounded in action and over 2,200 children have lost a parent in Iraq or Afghanistan(website 1). After all of this occurring in their lives, it then causes a huge change in the child. These changes are lashing out in anger, changes in school performance,

non-military population. A military brat is a child from a parent who is in the military. My

The article “Children On The Battlefield”by Marcie Schwartz describes the experiences of boys in the military during the Civil War. Boys under 18 signed up to fight in the war. Although they were underage, their parents, religious leaders, and schoolteachers supported their descions to enlist. Sometimes boys would lie about their ages or runned away and changed their names to enroll. When enlisted boys would become musicians,serve as powder boys,water carriers, ect. There were boys who would play music to use music to communicate orders during battle. Powder boys would follow rules to obtain their pay in position. Overtime they would become homesick. Young boys in the military had properly fitted uniforms,found it difficult to maintain

The service taught him that all of the soldiers are united. “When you are in the army, all of the soldiers are like brothers, they are there for you” he told me. It also taught him how to cook. He was also taught how to shoot a rifle and use a bayonet. “If you are born with freedom, you will take it for granted, but if you fight for it, you will appreciate your freedom more”, he told me.

Long absences can very often lead to complications in marriages and in relationships with children. Soldiers can miss very important moments because of a war, such as holidays and birthdays. The parent who is not at war also has to take on all of the responsibilities for home, children, and finance while their significant other is deployed. In addition to this, the parent who is left behind often finds themselves dealing with a change in behavior from their children, which is very likely a result from their other parent’s long absence. Many returning veterans blame the complications in their lives after their life in the military on their time deployed. It may seem insignificant, but this is a big reason why military force has an impact on the everyday lives of Americans who do not even serve for a military branch.

According to the Department of Defense Education Activity website, “the average military child will move six to nine times during a school career”—three times more frequently than non-military children (DoDEA, 2016). Because of this, military children have difficulty in school due to “differences in achievement standards, school protocols, course offerings, extracurricular activities, and academic requirements” (DoDEA, 2016). According to the Department of Defense Education Activity website, the Department of Defense Dependents Schools are schools who serve more than 73,000 children of active duty military and Department of Defense families.

One thing that all military installations offer to families is a mock deployment line. A mock deployment line is a wonderful thing for a child to experience. During a mock deployment line, the child will go through all of the steps their parent does when preparing to deploy. It cannot be stressed enough to parents the importance of informing their children’s caregivers and teachers that a parent will be deploying. Doing so is a vital step in helping the child cope with the upcoming separation. The child’s teacher, once informed of an upcoming deployment will help the child cope by incorporating activities such as reading books where a family member is taking a long trip, or talking with all the children about how they feel and why they feel the way they do into their lesson plans. Parents need to make sure they do not put off telling children of the deployment, letting their children know about the deployment as soon as possible will provide them the opportunity to become involved in preparing for the separation. Children will want to have many conversations with their parents about the deployment; parents need to make sure that they keep the discussions honest, straightforward, and factual (Clash, 2008).

While many articles look at military children and how they cope with deployments this article (Cozza & Lerner, 2013, p. 3-11) examines the resilience of military children so that professionals can better understand military children as a whole child not just a child during and post deployment. This article also looks at how military children need to have policies and programs that are designed to meet their developing needs. The article further goes on to look at how professionals need incorporate the strengths of military children and the strengths they bring to their military families, so they can cope with the challenges that arise in their lives. This article points out that many children exposed to traumatic events tend to be healthier. Then the article discusses how overgeneralization of military children and families can hurt how programs and policies are enacted to benefit military children and families. It also looks at even though military pay has improved the wages of a military spouse are much lower than their civilian counterparts. A look at how the youngest of military children are the most vulnerable, how there needs to be more childcare as well as community support programs. Concluding with how we can gain insight and learn from the resilience and strengths that military children and military families

Most military families face the possibility of a loved one returning to service which can also cause a great deal of fear and unpredictability within the family. Studies also prove that family members struggle with emotional distress and children often have behavioral issues as a result of parents deployed to serve in the military. “The strain of war deployment with associated risk that the service member may be harmed or killed, adds to the stressors inherent in military family life, even in times of peace” (Link, P. E., & Palinkas, L. A. (2013). This also suggest that family separations due to irregular tours and training deployments. Often impact the relationships in the family and can change the family dynamics often leaving one caregiver with a majority of the responsibility of raising a family. The military culture can adversely affect family functioning with inflexible hierarchical relationships, expectations and of obeying rules and

An article titled "How Deployment Stress Affects Children and Families: Research Findings" estimated that “by the end of 2008, 1.7 million American Service Members had served in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF).” Each person is different. They experience and interpret situations unique to their personality that varies depending on the person, but war produces the same problems for members of the nuclear family. War creates a cloud of worry and anxiety. “Parents of [military personnel] often have misgivings (Lediaev).” These reservations and

These problems and challenges listed above are not experienced by all military families, many of the families are able to adapt well. Military families and children have a great capacity for adaption and resilience. In the military resilience is very important in all stages of deployment, it helps lessen the stress and improve the capability to adjust. About 74% of children become closer to friends and family. The children also become more responsible, and independent. When families function positively they find a meaning in military life and are able to accept the work of the soldier; this helps the morale of the soldier, as well as the ability to carry out the given mission. The strength of most military families can be a source of pride and inspiration for many non-military members.

Military brats can be found in many countries from Asia, Europe, and the United States. They can be some of the most experienced people due to moving to different places every few years and adapting to the culture.

Boys have served in the military for generations, including the Civil War. Also boys could be enlisted for the army in many different ways. The School teachers will tell their students to go to the army and their parents won’t’ mind at all. The father of a family sometimes leads his son(s) to sign up a sheet that makes them become listed as a army soldier. And also boys marked daily routine of a camp by signaling.Sometimes young boys brought up canvas bags of powder from the magazine to the gun carriage areas. Young drummers often found it difficult to maintain regulation 26 pace during march. Being bullied from older soldiers also dampened young recruit’s spirits. New recruits were also exposed to the previously forbidden adult vices of tobacco.