Photo By Cpl. Joshua Pettway | Christina Swick, a readiness and deployment support trainer with Marine Corp Family...... read more read more
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Every year, hundreds of families endure months of separation from their loved ones as they defend the nation. Service members travel afar to keep their loved ones safe, while sacrificing a luxury many take for granted – being near their family.
To help the spouses and children better understand how to cope with such a difficult situation, Marine Corps Family Team Building offers the Kids-in-Deployment program. Recently, the program focused on the families of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 251 who are currently deployed aboard the USS Enterprise in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
“The Kids in Deployment program reaches out two to four weeks after a deployment has begun to help and show parents how to talk and interact with their children so they both are able to cope with the deployment,” said Nicole Bright-Hardee, a readiness and deployment support trainer with MCFTB.
During a deployment, families suffer from a void that can’t be filled and MCFTB tries to provide them with a means to better understand how to deal with it.
According to Bright-Hardee, during the program, a book is handed out that features information to help parents identify and respond to different behavior children exhibit.
“The book provides different explanations that help the parent become more aware of how some of their behavior is to be expected, given the situation,” Bright-Hardee said. “Children aren’t like adults and express how they feel in different ways, like when they say they are sick or don’t want to go to school.”
Deployments are stressful for both the deployed service member and their family because they are not something that most families deal with. In a stressful situation such as these, every bit of structure and normality may help.
“Children need to stay in set routines, but becoming stricter with them doesn’t always work,” Bright-Hardee said. “We want to assist parents in realizing that they may have to become more flexible during the deployment.
The programs are meant to help parents realize that they may have to change some of their expectations and how to come up with how they need to be more flexible during deployments. Children feed off of their parents and pick up on their frustrations and body language.
“If parents point or fold their arms, [children] notice it,” Bright-Hardee said.
According to Christina Swick, a readiness and deployment support trainer with Marine Corps Community Services, the program allows children to express and share their emotions in a healthy manner.
During the program, the children are asked questions about how they feel and how they deal with those emotions. They also make different crafts and are given a journal that they can give their parent or a way to say how they feel.
“We want the children to find different types of ways to positively express themselves,” Swick said. “They make different things like quilt squares that are sewn together and then given to the squadron. It gives them a sense of involvement and responsibility.
“It’s important to spend time with their children whether it’s a movie night or a puzzle instead of dwelling on the deployment.”
Communication is important and even though their loved one is deployed, families can still feel connected to them.
At the end of the program, the parents and children are brought together to view video clips of the messages their service member left them. They in turn make video clips of their own to send back.
“It is a simple thing that their [children] will love.” Bright-Hardee said. “We also try to increase the parent’s awareness so they know they aren’t alone. This program lets those who haven’t gone through a deployment before meet people who have.”
The MCFTB offers this program to any deploying or deployed squadron and also offers others to help military families. For more information regarding the MCFTB programs or how to enroll in them, call 228-7311 for the Air Station or 228-1505 for Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island.
| Date Taken: | 02.18.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 02.18.2011 20:25 |
| Story ID: | 65719 |
| Location: | BEAUFORT, SC, US |
| Web Views: | 57 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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