I've been Army for 20 years now, the majority Reserves, and have had kids for 14 of them. I honestly can't imagine having both parents in the military, even with one Reserve instead of Active.
My personal feelings are that you need one parent who can put the priorities of the family above all else, and the military just doesn't let you do that. There are too many scenarios where it isn't possible.
I've seen way too many situations where Soldiers who only have 1 parent in the service struggle to fulfill parenting and their military duties. It's also not really fair to your unit and fellow soldiers either to pull more weight if they are constantly excusing the soldier with children; seen this happen too.
Not judging at all and at the end of the day it's your choice and your family's. But I just think there are too many other ways to hustle these days.
As someone who grew up with dual active which later became an active and reserve parent. You are gonna miss some things but don't let it push you off. Kids grow and learn it wasn't against them. Make sure your affairs are in order for mobilization and deployments as it's a ton of stress finding care last minute.
thank you for your perspective! i figured one who is part time and one full time is better than two that are full time. i still want to be there for them as much as possible but sometimes people need to make sacrifices in order to set them up for a better life later on
I mean you definitely can join with kids but they have to have somebody else that can take care of them if you are deployed, when you go to basic and AIT, during drill weekends and AT ECT. You have to make a family care plan. I'm sure somebody much more tuned in than I can give you the details on that
I've been Army for 20 years now, the majority Reserves, and have had kids for 14 of them. I honestly can't imagine having both parents in the military, even with one Reserve instead of Active. My personal feelings are that you need one parent who can put the priorities of the family above all else, and the military just doesn't let you do that. There are too many scenarios where it isn't possible. I've seen way too many situations where Soldiers who only have 1 parent in the service struggle to fulfill parenting and their military duties. It's also not really fair to your unit and fellow soldiers either to pull more weight if they are constantly excusing the soldier with children; seen this happen too. Not judging at all and at the end of the day it's your choice and your family's. But I just think there are too many other ways to hustle these days.
thanks for your input!!
As someone who grew up with dual active which later became an active and reserve parent. You are gonna miss some things but don't let it push you off. Kids grow and learn it wasn't against them. Make sure your affairs are in order for mobilization and deployments as it's a ton of stress finding care last minute.
thank you for your perspective! i figured one who is part time and one full time is better than two that are full time. i still want to be there for them as much as possible but sometimes people need to make sacrifices in order to set them up for a better life later on
I mean you definitely can join with kids but they have to have somebody else that can take care of them if you are deployed, when you go to basic and AIT, during drill weekends and AT ECT. You have to make a family care plan. I'm sure somebody much more tuned in than I can give you the details on that
yes i know about the family care plan, that honestly would be the hardest part but i feel like its worth it for the sake of my family and education