LAW, a longtime friend of SpouseBUZZ, has a message for military parents. Please read it and pass it on to those you think would be interested.
From LAW:
A Call to Parents of Serving Soldiers
A page for parents - a place to gather online to talk to other parents of serving soldiers, to get information, to connect... would you be interested?
From a blogging dad:
I know the one thing that {my wife} and I felt during [troops name]'s first deployment was a profound sense of isolation. Since that time, we have found (or rather they found us) some other parents who were facing the same issues. It really helps to have some one who is in the same boat with you to cope with these long deployments.
My son was in Iraq in 2003 -2004, at the same time my husband was deployed to Bosnia. And I felt so disconnected from our son... he was with a unit based out of Germany, and I knew not one person he was serving with.
Being an Army Wife, I understood a whole lot more than many of the National Guard parents of the kids that my husband was serving with in his subsequent Iraq deployment. From everything to the military acronyms, to telling them that NO, jimmy couldn't come home for his sister's graduation if he wasn't granted leave... the whole gamut. Our parents were at least served by the FRGs. But the parents of active army, which is what I was with our son, had NO information about the unit, no access to the Rear Det folks. I would have loved to have been able to connect with the parents of another kid in his unit... or anyone in the division! Parents who don't have that knowledge, those are the parents we want to help.
SpouseBuzz has been a life saver for me, when we recently went through a very long deployment. Since the beginning, it's been a great place for spouses to gather, to talk, to ask questions. I want the same but more for the parents. We need a place for parents to get information about military jargon, the rank structure and who really runs the unit, where their kid is, how the Army/Marine Corps/Navy/Airforce really operate and connect with other parents. We could be a place for all the parents of such and such unit to gather and make their own page, a place for parents to realize that there might be a fellow military mom down the street, in the same apartment complex.
So if you are interested, please comment, give us a way to contact you by email, and please remember, you aren't alone out there!!
