Growing Up In A Military Family

Most people can relate the word “home” to one area where they grew up and made memories. Unlike most people, I called many places home. Growing up in a military family was an arduous task which had great impacts, both positive and negative, on my life. It shaped me into the person I am today. A person with a laundry list of flaws and imperfections, yet has learned to love herself.

Since the day I was born, I have always lived my life as a military child. My father was in the Navy during the 1990’s, and my mother has been in the Air Force since 1997. Life as a military child has always been my normal format of life, so I am unaware of what it is like to live differently. From roughly 2002 to 2007, I lived in Fairford Air Force Base in England, where my childhood began, though I do not recall a substantial amount of it. However, I do recall that I attended school, albeit a primarily religious one, for the first time, and that experience was unlike any experiences I had with the American educational system from 2007 onward. I also remember being highly adventurous; I often ran out of my house, away from my local Child Development Center, and my school, though I

There is a large amount of military families around the world. About Forty- three percent of active military members have children (Website). These children face so many challenges and struggles in their life while having a parent in the military. Children of Active duty military members exhibit anxiety, depression and stress just as much as the service members and spouses experience. For instance the children experience going through multiple deployments, long separations, frequent moves and awkward reunions when their parents return home from deployment. Even more so if the parent has been physically or mentally traumatized from overseas.

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.

The military is part of my family. My job in the military is part of my work. When leading Soldiers, I lead my family to victory. If you fall, I fall, and we fall. One team, one fight. We will build each other up by never quitting, never accepting defeat, and never leaving a fallen comrade. Enforcing the Warrior Ethos. When you feel as though you are ready to throw in the towel, think about your family and ask yourself, “How can my military family help me with my problem?” I guarantee we can come up with a solution together as a team…as a family.

The biggest challenge we face is finding harmony amongst our military obligations, our family obligations, military and civilian education, as well as mandatory training and operational deployments. Your family has to be your first priority. If you don’t get this right, nothing else will work well in your

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

As mentioned above the military family members go through many challenges. The service member when deployed leaves the other parent to the care of the family and home. Many divorces happen due to one parent being away from the home for long periods of time and the stress placed on the one parent at home. With one parent left to take on the role for both parents, this can either become a stressor for that one parent or strength building time. The children may receive less attention because the one parent is doing the duty of two. They become self-sufficient during this time. The service member that is deployed is focusing on the duty at hand. This may be patrolling the boundaries of the

Some children in a military family had to move a lot, and leading them to say good-bye to all the experiences with their friends. This is a rather sad for the lot of them. I know it was hard for me losing great friends that you grew up with. That’s how my life was, I moved 5 times until my parents left the military and found a new place to live. When ever I moved to a new place to live I had to make new friends, find new things to do, and adjust to the school.

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 professionals consider it a great honor to be able to defend their country. However, being away from one's family can be incredibly difficult. Many military people end up missing important dates in their loved one's life, such as family vacations, graduations and wedding days.

What do military families truly endure to maintain a relationship despite constant time apart during deployments? Husbands and wives are often forced to fill each others role while the other is away. When a parent is not used to being around a child it is hard to know to act and react to the child’s actions. All members of a military family can face some form of post traumatic stress disorder due to the unnatural lifestyle that is lived daily. Deployments cause military families to struggle more so than nonmilitary families due to role reversals, added child maltreatment and PTSD.

For example, almost every kid whose parent or parents are in the military have been deployed before. Meaning that their parent is going away for duty to another country like Iraq or Afghanistan for 6-18 months. This puts stress on the family because they do not have both parents for support. Not only does having a parent deployed for a long time makes things stressful, but also moving to different cities because of one's parent received orders somewhere else to work. This part is also stressful due to the entire moving process. Parents have to get paper work processed and kids have to complete paper work for school, so they can stay on track from their old school to their new school. But besides the school and paper work, this is tough on the kids because they have to keep making new friends everywhere they move to. However, with moving comes new experiences. Such as, if one family gets stationed in Germany they can travel to different countries and experience other cultures. Or one can learn the country's language and communicate with others outside the military to adapt to their

How does having a sibling in the military affect young adults? Despite increasing attention to the challenges faced by spouses and children of service members, the siblings of service members have been largely ignored. An analysis of military deployment reveals challenges facing countless families in the United States of America: the deployment period causes stress on the family and friends. I am affected by military deployments, because my father was in the United States Navy, and my oldest brother is currently serving in Northern Iraq with the United States Army.

Military children, the most affected by the deployment, get fearful about their military father’s deployment, and will eventually rebel in his absence, thus adding more stress to the non-deployed mother. However, the experience will help them forge stronger bond with their mother and gain maturity and flexibility in their daily lives.