Family Life & Relationships

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Children and Homecoming

The homecoming of a service member is a major change for the children in a household. They have grown physically, emotionally, and socially during the deployment. They are not as skilled at coping with their stress because they have little life experience. As a result, they may become firmly attached...
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Preparing Your Children for Deployment

Children of military members make sacrifices every day. They have less quality time with their parents because of lengthy deployments and longer working hours. During your deployment it is important that your spouse and children are aware of the support programs and services available in the military community. You should...
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5 Lessons on Fatherhood from…PT?

Fathers, like children, should walk around with their eyes wide open. There are lessons everywhere – something to learn from everyday activities, wisdom to glean from our superiors and our subordinates, and a lot of applicable knowledge from our military careers. Yes, even PT can teach us a thing or...
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Marital Counseling

Marital counseling is a great way to improve your relationship and strengthen your family. Service members and their spouses face constant stress from all aspects of their lives, but especially when preparing for deployment and when reuniting. Seeking help through these difficult times is a brave and beneficial thing to...
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Caring for Yourself While Supporting Your Service Member

Deployment and reintegration can be extremely difficult times for a family. If you are the spouse of a service member, a lot of your energy will be spent supporting your loved one. However, it is important that you take care of yourself as well. Staying Healthy Eat well. Be conscious...
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The Military Man’s Guide to Pregnancy: The Top 10 Last-Minute Preparations

So, you’ve made it through almost nine months of taking care of your wife through it all: Her mood swings, her stress, her pain. You’ve probably heard nothing but nonstop conversation about the baby – decorating his or her new little room, picking out strollers, what brand of diaper to...
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Traveling with Children – Volume 1 – Timing

We moved to the UK when our oldest child was 4, our middle child was 2, and our youngest was, unbeknownst to us, a mere 9 ½ months away. We love to explore new places and we were determined to travel every chance we could, children in tow. We were...
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Divorce Considerations for Military Couples

Divorce is a difficult decision and a painful time for any family. You will have to consider the responsibilities of each person and the consequences of ending your marriage, which is especially complicated when you or your partner are members of the military. Filing: Which State? Filing for divorce can...
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The Military Man’s Guide to Pregnancy: 7 Things to Do When She’s Pregnant

Maybe it happened like this: You came home, kissed your wife, unlaced your boots, peeled your socks off of your blistered feet, washed the smell of mud and gunpowder out of your hair, changed into something comfortable and collapsed on the couch. She was staring at you, doe-eyed and dreamy....
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Just the Two of Us: Child-Free Couples and Military Culture

I still remember the first Family Readiness Group dinner that I attended after getting engaged to my husband. Most of the women in attendance were either pregnant, shepherding fairly young children, or both, and I barely lasted five minutes before a complete stranger hit me with the apparently inevitable (and...
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