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The Strength that Lies Beneath: Our Children and their Dragon Hearts

Every year since we returned from Europe, our children’s schools have held assemblies to honor Veterans. Every year our children have asked their dad to attend. He refused to do so the first two years, but has been swayed since then by the righteous indignation of our children, especially our...
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Relocation, New Friends, and Long Distance Friendships

A host of recent studies have examined the effect of frequent relocation on children and adolescents. Military families relocate significantly more often than civilian families, and service members’ kids are not the only ones affected. Leaving close friends and established support networks, and bidding farewell to friends as they leave for...
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Packing Out – Ten Tips to Stay Sane

We took a BIG load of moving boxes to the recycling center today. They had been piling up in our garage since we moved in to our “forever” house eleven months ago. This is one of the downsides of retirement: the motivation to unpack and get rid of boxes is...
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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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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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Lessons on Fatherhood From General Patton

For those of you who are up on your U.S. military history, you know about General George S. Patton: He was a complicated, mercurial man with delusions of grandeur, severe dyslexia and bipolar disorder. He was also one of the finest military minds that history has ever produced. He graduated...
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9 Reasons To Be The Best Military Dad You Can Be

What makes the difference between a good Marine and a great Marine? When I take the measure of my Marines – their capabilities, their strengths, their weaknesses and their welfare – I use a lot of metrics to form my judgments. But there are some things, called “intangibles” because they...
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A Guide to Understanding Deployment

Being a parent can be a difficult task in itself, but being an active duty military parent can not only be complicated, but also strenuous on a family unit. The United States Armed Forces have taken precautionary measures to insure the safety and well-being of all military dependents. Why The...
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