Military brats have a tough life. They have to move every two or three years. They have to make new friends every time they do. They have to re-make their tribe every time just as we spouses do.
Their roots are as complicated as we spouses find them to be. Perhaps it is even harder for them as they are much younger and in a different environment.
Their roots are with the family who moves with them and the family who doesn’t but follows them with their heart. Friends who would follow milestones since meeting them in preschool and growing up with them after that don’t exist.
It is up to family members to make up that difference. One hopes that they do. If they don’t, one wonders why not?
How hard is this to understand? It’s not rocket science. Military brats need their extended roots too.
Maybe even more than we spouses do.
About SemperFi Wife
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I will always remember my mom kicking me out of the house to go play and find new friends everytime we moved. I still have a hard time going up to peole and starting a conversation but I make myself do it. I would not have made it through some TDYs or other things if I did not have other military brats to hang onto. Now, I push my Kiddos out the door when we arrive and make them make new friends. I think they are doing better than I did.
The extended family – huh! As a State Dept Brat, I have the same extended root problem. My dad's family was the kind that said " you're not From Here".. so did DH's (he's a Navy Brat). But the friends the kid made when we got out and lived in one neighbourhood for years – he doesn't hear from them either. Thanks to the internet – I'm in touch with HighSchool friends (go Wildcats!) and DH just met up with some of his high school friends.
Reasa – my mom musta known your mom!
LAW
LAW I think she just wanted us out from underneath her feet. LOL I usually ended up at the library or the pool in the summer time.
I was really lucky that my parents, inlaws and siblings made it a point to be a part of my children's lives.
Not everybody is so lucky though and that's just sad.
and yeah…my mother used to kick me out the front door with the same instructions..:)
The pool – oh yeah, Naples Italy, the Enlisted Pool (the Officer's club pool was NOT the place to go.. the kewl kids hung out at the EPool) I had the BEST tan of my life that year – Senior year in HS. the library on AFSouth sucked.
LAW.
I disagree that friends come and go as military brats move. Military brats are like other "third culture kids" or TCKs. Their childhood friends are those who have had a common and/or shared experience of growing up as a military brat and especially if having lived outside the USA, as an overseas brat. Just look at the Naples Ning Ring (social network for Forrest Sherman H.S. or Naples American H.S. – Italy) and you'll see that in just a few short months, there are more than 1,000 members spanning from the 50s/60s to the present day. Our high school reunion for the classes of 1980-1986 this past summer was extremely successful with over 200 in attendance.