April is The Month of the Military Child
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Why do military kids have an entire month dedicated to them? To answer this question, think about all the things that military kids endure:
- Their parents have to head out on deployment often, sometimes for months at a time. This means that military kids have to grow up with one or both parents gone a lot of the time, with limited communication as the norm.
- Military kids have to move a lot. Service people get assigned to new military installations as often as every couple of years, so it’s not uncommon for military children to spend a couple of years stateside, then get uprooted to some overseas location, and then off to an entirely different location a couple of years down the road. This isn’t easy for adults, let alone kids.
- Young military children don’t understand that all the people who attack the military - or, at the very least, loudly denounce the military in the media - aren’t personally attacking their own parents. This can be incredibly confusing for children.
People talk about spouses taking the brunt of the stress from having a military spouse, but people who experience military life know that it’s the kids who must have thick skins and be adaptable.
So why is this the month of the Military Child? The reason is simple: To celebrate the littlest troops this country has.
Melissa Haynie says...
Military kids certainly do deserve an entire month and a lot more. My niece is a military child. She is 2 and 1/2 years old and my brother (her military parent) has not been to a birth day party for her yet. He has been in Afghanistan and Iraq for them. He will be there this year but will be in Afghanistan for her 4th birthday… So we are looking forward to my brother being stateside for a sum and total of 1/4 of the birthdays that she will have by the time that she turns 4. It is heartbreaking at times for both of them… but we are all very very proud of her daddy and we make sure that she knows that. Hopefully she will grow up and be proud of her daddy and not resentful.