Military Family Challenges

Military personnel are deployed as part of their job. Usually deployments are out of the country, where most service members are leaving their family behind. With deployment, sometimes you don’t know where military personnel will be going and how long the person may be gone. The most important question is “Are they safe where they are going?” Not only does the person in the military ask these question, but the significant others such as partners and kids worry about these questions, knowing that sometimes these questions won’t have a straight answer. Not only do military personnel suffer from certain emotions and become affect from being away from their family; the family also goes through the same storm. Some are under the assumption that because the family back at home have the benefits provide by the military, they have nothing

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.

First of all, there is something people need to know. Veterans stay away from their family, but then they come back like they have never left, and they don’t want to remember what happened in battle. Real heroes like this make sacrifices. If they have children, those children might have been upset without a parent or someone else to make them feel better and have been waiting for days, months, or maybe years! It’s sad being alone with no family

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.

Family is something that is always on a soldier or a sailor's mind. They think about them every waking second and getting home to them becomes a number one priority. Interestingly, while a service member is deployed, their family becomes a motivation instead of a grievance from the separation. A soldier's family becomes something they can fight for, something that they know they can protect by the things that they are doing. And ironically, although some can be deployed for more than a year sometimes, the time apart can often make a family stronger, strengthening the bonds between them when they reunite (PTSD). The way that this can happen is only truly understandable by someone who has gone through it; and although there have been many written and told accounts, when a deployee finally meets his family again after being deployed for any amount of time, the feeling of relief and happiness among all the family members is something that isn't felt lightly. For many, once deployed, their new mission is to come back home

Imagine not knowing when you would hear from your loved on gain or them having to just leave at random times getting calls at Randoms hours imagine missing a call from them and not knowing when or if you will ever get a call back. They could be on the other side of the world or not even knowing where they are. While other families are enjoying weekends together at the park, going out to dinners, and vacations many military families are doing the same, but now with a large void. November is National Military Family Appreciation Month, a time to honor the sacrifices made by the military community and their loved ones spouses, children, parents, siblings and grandparents. People in the armed force are also very much impacted emotionally and physically impacted too. Even though they volunteered themselves for such an experience but nothing can prepare them from the things they see or how they are treated when they are serving for their country. such as being raped or harassed and get treated or talk down to by people higher or by fellow soldiers and seeing innocent people being harmed in front of them and they often come back with many mental problems which has to do with the time spent serving such as a very common illness called PTSD can affect their lives forever some have lost limbs or became blind or deaf some have also lost to everything drug addiction or alcohol abuse which they used to cope with

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

Combat deployment, in many ways, has affected every military family; the soldier, the spouse, and the child(ren). The spouses and child(ren) of the deployed soldier are often referred to as the “unsung heroes” of military families, at all times of a deployment. In the military, the families are often placed in the background, but families are crucial to the soldier’s success.

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.

Millions of people in the United States have family in the military. The military should be greatly appreciated since they fight for our freedom. It is surprising to discover that there are many people in my school that have family in the military stationed all over the world. There

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

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.

First of all in 2003 I was born. Most of my family was there, my grandparents, my uncles and aunties, and cousins, but not my dad. The reason my dad wasn’t there for my birth is because he was in the army at the time. He couldn’t be there for most of my birthdays or holidays. I always used to ask my mom where’s my dad, but she always told me he’s serving our country.

The challenges and stressors impacting military families are numerous yet this research endeavor is limited, therefore a focused exploration was required. This brief review will begin with the issues impacting military families, focusing on those related to deployment, relocation, and including a section exploring the impact on the children of these issues. Next, the issues of re-adjustment after service will be examined. Finally, the role of the social worker as it pertains to their work with Service Members, Veterans, and their families, in overcoming these