Our family’s first deployment with the Army was 15 months long. My son was two and my daughter was eight.
I remember trying to make sense of the fact that out of 455 days, the kids and I would only get to see him for about 13 days during his R&R. I was an adult and couldn’t process it, so I could only imagine my little guy trying to understand why one day dad was there, and then one day he wasn’t.
My daughter understood, but she would cry a lot. My son eventually begin to have these horrible tantrums that weren’t just part of the terrible two’s.
I soon realized that he was acting out because he didn’t understand where dad had gone and why night after night he wasn’t coming home from work.
Deployment Support Deck
We emotionally survived that deployment and went on to deal with more after that.
As a military lifestyle blogger I am always amazed at all the new resources that are out now and how much things have changed since that first deployment 13 years ago. I wish we had some of these things to help us through back then.
In fact while surfing through Instagram yesterday I came across a new product called Deployment Support Deck cards created by military spouse Jennifer Mullen of EverAnchored.com, who also experienced watching her little ones deal with the anxiety and confusion of their dad being gone.
Her husband was deployed more than 75% of the time, and with that she sought to figure out a better way to explain to her children why dad was always gone, and what he did in the military.
The Deployment Support Deck is a 53 question deck of cards created by not only a milspouse, but military kids too. The cards were created to help military children make sense of their parent’s temporary absence, and to make a hard time a little easier by allowing the children to talk, ask questions and receive honest answers. Military moms or dad can make these discussions normal by picking a card and discussing while in the car or over the dinner table—which creates a fun and comfortable environment.
The card deck also includes a downloadable deck and question sheet to send to the deployed parent.
The Deployment Support Deck retails for $18.95 and is great for children ages 3-8 years of age.
Buy it here.
See a live review of the Deployment Support Deck below:
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Army Wife 101
Krystel is the mom of two and an Army Wife. In addition to Army Wife 101 she is the Co-Founder of SoFluential.com a digital media agency that connects brands with the military market. She has appeared on MSNBC ,FOX LA and formerly was a weekly contributor to HLN's "Raising America". She has written for various outlets including Sheknows and Lifetime and is a big fan of cupcakes and french fries.
Krystel is the mom of two and an Army Wife. In addition to Army Wife 101 she is the Co-Founder of SoFluential.com a digital media agency that connects brands with the military market.
She has appeared on MSNBC ,FOX LA and formerly was a weekly contributor to HLN's "Raising America". She has written for various outlets including Sheknows and Lifetime and is a big fan of cupcakes and french fries.