Will Roommate Solve Problem of Deployment?

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Certain questions will never be fully answered on SpouseBuzz. Is the commissary cheaper than Wal-mart? Should officer’s wives be required to wear a cardigan? Should you ever move home for deployment?

While I can’t answer the first two, an interesting suggestion has come up about the third one. Instead of moving a young spouse and baby home to mom and dad for the duration of the deployment, what about getting a roommate?

Chaz is a soldier who is deploying for nine months. He wrote us recently because his wife wants to get an apartment with a girlfriend. The women have known each other since childhood. The roommate has a child that is about a year older than Chaz and Mrs. Chaz’s baby.

So many advantages to a deployment roommate.


On one hand, I’m thinking this is a great idea. Getting a roommate splits the housing cost in two.

Getting a roommate who also has a child means that both moms will have another adult to share some of the childcare. The ability to dash out and grab milk without getting a baby out of the crib is a major contributor to one’s sanity during deployment.

Getting a roommate could also contribute to safety -- or at least perceived safety. I think if I had a roommate during my husband’s first deployment I might have been able to turn off the light at night and slept a little better.  And maybe I would have cried less if I had someone to watch a little TV with me or walk around the block.

Chaz could see all the advantages to the roommate, but he doesn’t know his wife's friend all that well. He is having some mixed feelings about it. Chaz wrote:

It could go bad with her friends having boyfriends. Then their boyfriends could have friends, too. Does anyone have experience with this? I get it that it helps pay the bills and nice to have a friend there but is it a bad decision?

What do you know about military wives and roommates?


Since I only know one person who had a roommate during deployment, I thought I would put this out to our SpouseBuzz community. In your experience, is a roommate a good idea during deployment, or a recipe for trouble?  Have I missed any of the advantages?  Disadvantages? Story Continues
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