Families Supporting Our Troops
Supporting the Families of Our Troops
While Our Children Serve
When you see a person in a military uniform, shake their hand and say, “Thank you for serving our country.”
Stars and Stripes: Happy Mother’s Day
May 10th, 2009 by Terri Barnes in Stars and Stripes column Spouse Calls
Happy Mother’s Day! Whether you’re serving overseas, home with the kids while your husband is deployed, or just maintaining normalcy for your military household, I hope that all you moms out there are receiving some warm fuzzies of appreciation today.
The Mother’s Day edition of the Spouse Calls column is all about the mothers of active duty members. Read it here.
One of the moms who contributed advice for this column was Sandy Doell, an Army mom-turned-author. Her book “Mom’s Field Guide,” offers practical advice, mostly for surviving a son or daughter’s deployment.
“Parents need to be extremely flexible during deployment,” said Sandy, noting the changes happening in your parent/child relationship.
“In addition to watching your child leave home for a dangerous location, you yourself are going through some changes: empty nest syndrome, menopause, and other changes associated with midlife. The parents I know who managed this time the best did positive productive things for themselves.”
Attention to one’s own personal development has benefits to parent and child, she said. There is more to a person than parenthood, and there should be more to a relationship with an adult child than caretaking and worry making.
“You don’t want him to call you and hang up thinking how hard it is to talk to you because you are so worried about him,” Sandy said. “You want him to hang up the phone and turn to his buddy and say something like, ‘Wow, my mom just got an A on her first college paper.’”
Sandy’s book is available in print or as an e-book at
http://www.momsfieldguide.com/
More resources for the parents of military members:
- http://somesoldiersmom.blogspot.com/
- http://www.proudarmyparents.com/
- http://www.goarmyparents.com/
- http://www.navy-parents.com/bb/index.php
- http://www.usmcparents.com/forum/default_group.asp
- http://www.navyformoms.com/group/navyparents
- http://www.militarymoms.net/
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/airforcemomsanddads2/
Dr. Laura’s Promotional Giveaway
Listen in to Dr. Laura on Monday, October 15, 2007 as she is giving away copies of Mom’s Field Guide to the first 50 who respond to her announcement.
Dr. Laura knows what its like to have a son in harm’s way, her son is in the Middle East. She know how tough it is, but she also know she has to be strong for her son. She commented to Bill O’Reilly, “…when you’re the warrior’s wife or the warrior’s mom, as I am, because my son’s deployed in combat in the Middle East, you can bitch and whine and moan to each other — but never to the warrior, because that distracts them. It demoralizes them, and that puts them more in harm’s way.”
20 Tip to Help Support the Troops
1. Letters from home are the item most requested by soldiers, so write often.
2. Allow plenty of time for packages to arrive for holidays.
3. Invest in a detailed map of the Middle East so you hear news reports, you'll be able to identify the exact location of activity.
4. Keep a list of discussion topics near the phone so when your loved one calls at 4 am, you won't waste time collecting your thoughts.
5. You can live on "Iraqi time" with the click of a computer mouse. Go to worldtimeserver.com.
6. Make sure you have as much communication technology as you can afford. The more often you communicate, the better you will both feel.
7. The Red Cross will help you make arrangements for your soldier to come home for certain emergencies, such as a death in the family.
8. Find a support group of other people with deployed loved ones. If you can't find a support group, start one.
For more tips, click here to read "20 Practical Ways You Can Support the Troops in Iraq and Elsewhere"
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