Starting a new feature here at wivesoffaith.org… Received an email through our info@wivesoffaith.org address from Christy who is looking for advice on how to help her daughter cope with her dad’s upcoming deployment. What would you tell her?
I would like your advice and info for deployment. My husband will be going for the first time in August. My sons could be going also at the same time. My daughter is 14 and she is getting really clingy to her dad. She will go to military kids camp this summer so I hope that helps.
Comment below with your thoughts and help this military wife and mom out!
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when you say military camp do you mean operation purple and if so will you please contact me privatly.
pam
I have five kids, ages 11-18, and my husband's first "real" deployment was last year. We found several things that really helped which I will share, but understand that all families are different.
Skype video calls and prerecorded video messages from my husband to my kids. The kids watched them over and over.
Our FRG had some cool diaries for our daughter. They included prompts like: What do you think your dad is doing right now? What movie did you see recently? Write about it here so you can remember to tell your dad.
Slumber parties with Mom: My kids occasionally piled all their pillows and blankets in my bedroom and we all slept in "Dad's room". Somehow that made a difference.
My husband gave each of the kids something that smelled like him – I know it sounds strange, but my teenage daughter had his pillow. When she snuggled up with the pillow at night, it felt and smelled like hugging Dad. My son had one of his tshirts to sleep in. Nighttime seemed to be the hardest time for my kids.
Hope these ideas help!
Casey
Casey Pitts
i have a three year old son that has really been missing daddy – now that we are close to daddy coming home for a break, i made a simple calendar (just blocks with the dates inside) so that he can put one sticker in each square everyday – when the all the squares are full daddy will be here! when he seems to be really missing daddy, we count the days without stickers to see how much longer it will be – it seems to help
also, my husband ordered a "flat daddy" when he first left and my son loves it! we have it on the wall by his bed
jenn