How Wartime Affects Military Children
Being part of a military family will either make or break you. From an outsider looking in, many people that meet military families and children think that their lives are as perfect as a fairytale. From a personal experience many people have told me “You have the perfect life.” However, when one has to say goodbye to a husband, father, or other loved one who is being deployed to a warzone, it’s no fairytale.
When a parent is deployed it calls for a single parent household. This causes alteration in children or any loved one mentally, physically, and psychologically. Long separation from a parent is difficult for a child at any age. Moving constantly requires a family or child to readapt to their environment which can be very hard, it can either be a beneficial move or very disruptive move.
The mental and psychological alteration comes months leading up to a deployment. Getting the news that your loved one will be deploying is a vicious cycle. It starts when you first receive the news, which then leads to mental and psychological preparation. The big day comes and they are gone. Day by day from that point on you are left with nothing but fear, wondering if they will even return. Coming back home and getting accustomed to family life again seems to be the roughest part after a deployment. The children have taken on new roles and they have to reintegrate themselves back into the family.
To a child who deals with this multiple times,