The first time my husband deployed was just a few short weeks after we got married. We had a son who was three and a half at the time, yet the three of us had never actually lived together. To say we received more than our share of doubts that our family would “make it” would be putting it lightly.
Periodically, I like to scan the literature to see if there have been any new articles related to military families and couples. Recently I ran across an article by Dr. Pflieger and colleagues (2019) focused on the strengths of military couples, and I was intrigued to learn more – if only because most research focuses on challenges that these families need to overcome
While the majority of military spouses are female, male military spouses represent a unique and often unrecognized segment of military dependents. In this blog, we examine what, if any, advances in understanding this population have been made through recent DoD demographics and research publications
On Thanksgiving Eve, I spent much of the day asking and hearing about other folk’s plans for Friends-Giving, ranging from the traditional turkey potluck to movie and shrimp scampi at a designated friend’s home. Whatever the plans, they are sure to include the camaraderie of friends – old and new – and a really good meal. This just goes to show you how military friends can create an impromptu family.
A lot has been written on the importance of promoting readiness in the military population, but this concept of “readiness” can be applied to military families as well. It is important that military family members are prepared to meet the challenges that accompany military life, which in turn, helps to ensure that their Service members can be “mission ready.” In March of 2018, “What We Know about Military Family Readiness: Evidence from 2007-2017” was published, which summarized the literature on military family readiness from the past 10 years.