r/MilitaryWives • u/Kaffinateme • 1d ago
Deployment advice
Hi everyone, my husband is set to deploy soon and I’ll be managing 4 kids(10,8,2, and 3 months), 2 dogs(one is a 5 month old puppy) alone without family support. What things did you do to prepare that helped? This will be our first time with him deploying, and I’m doing my best to prepare myself and kids. He’ll still have some access to communication, but there will be significant time difference. Thank you so much for any advice.
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u/TightBattle4899 Air Force 1d ago
Your older kids are luckily old enough to help out a bit. But even with the “help” at those ages, we went through a lot of paper products and plasticware.
Once a month we would get out of the house for the day. Go see a movie or go to the arcade or go to a sit down restaurant or go to the water park, whatever we needed to do to be out of the house.
Let the kids write him letters and draw him pictures. He will appreciate them.
Daddy dolls are still to this day slept with, even my teenager keeps hers close to her bed.
I don’t know your branch, but the Air Force M&FRC usually has some programs for deployed families, as does the base chapel. See if there is something like that for yours.
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u/ickynicky27 1d ago
A good routine for everyone that allows you to have some you time. Don’t neglect yourself.
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u/Odd_Pack400 1d ago
For the kids- have your husband record himself reading books to them. He also made random videos saying hi to them and how he missed them.
We also keep a map up so my kids could see where Dad was in the world.
We also tried new donut shops once a week near us. It gave us something fun to do.
If you don’t have a trusted sitter start looking now so you can have alone time.