I have a love/hate relationship with the military and my expected duties as a military spouse. Last week I shared the love side with my top 10 reasons why I love being a military spouse. This week I explore the other side…
1) I spend a lot of time missing my husband.
2) I frequently endure the exhaustion of single parenthood.
3) A cell phone inevitably rings the minute you finally sit down to eat dinner with your husband who came home an hour later than usual.
4) I’m not a big fan of the Hurry Up and Wait philosophy.
5) Ironing uniforms!
6) Moving frequently…this made my list for why I love being a military spouse. Seems I can’t decide whether I love moving or hate it.
7) The typical questions that civilians ask only exacerbate your frustration at not being able to answer them. How long will you live here? When will your husband be home? How much longer until he retires? Why doesn’t he just get out?
8) I’m the one left behind to explain why Daddy isn’t home for a birthday party, why he missed the whole baseball season, or why the Easter bunny couldn’t squeeze him into a basket with the Cadbury eggs.
9) Drastic changes in plans are the norm rather than the exception. One day you’re researching the housing market in Virginia, the next you’re on a flight to Japan.
10) Deployments. That’s all I have to say about that.
Those are definitely things that would drive me crazy too! The hat I least like is playing "nurse" to sick children! I'm in the middle of that right now: cleaning up the stomach flu, at 2 am, on the carpet, that came from the top bunk bed, and then waking up at 5 am with another bout from same child. Is that 10 things? I'm too tired today to tell! 😉
Great list! Completely agree, especially with #7 =)
I'm brand new at this, and I'm already well-versed in #7 – "Can't you just…?" "No, it doesn't work like that."
Ugh I def agree with #7 too!
What I hate more than anything is that chunks of my scrapbook will have pages and pages of him missing 🙁 He has missed so much and will miss more. It's so hard.
Give you a lot of credit! Must be very tough.
My husband travels a lot for work – not like army wives must experience by any means, but enough. It's extremely petty of me, but I hate when his business trips coincide with garbage day – though I am perfectly capable of bringing the garbage and recycling out the curb, I'm convinced it's "HIS" job!
Oh geez, I am embarrassed to be a civilian now, knowing one of my fellow brethren have asked you "why doesn't he just quit?"
You probably have to count to say 100 before you can answer that?
🙂
Swati
My husband is in the Army too. He's going to Iraq in June for 6 months or may be even 1 year. I'm so sad and I'm going to miss him so much! We just moved to Tampa, FL and I have just few friends I met 2 months ago… family is far away… I'll probably stay here alone with our 2 children ages 1 and 2. They're very, very active and I don't know how am I going to do this. I'm so worried he might get hurt that I can't sleep at night. I wake up frequently, worried about him, us and how the kids will go through this. My son is so attached to him!
Well, I'm sorry for the sad post, but that's how I feel right now:(