Military with children?

[Slim]

I grew up from the time I was born until I turned 19 as an Air Force Brat. The only reason that changed when I turned 19 is because I joined myself and did 23 years on active duty. I also have 12 year old twins. I can speak to both sides of this coin. But first...

He said the other branches don't do that, and you usually don't end up with the job you wanted.

Completely untrue...if he sticks to his guns ask him to accompany you to the Air Force recruiting office and have him tell the USAF recruiter why he's flat out lying to potential recruits. All services offer guaranteed jobs for qualifying ASVAB scores. Every branch of the service works for the DoD...they don't get to cowboy their own rules. Tell the recruiter that, and tell him you are under the advisement of someone who knows this game...then tell him to deal the cards or watch you play the game with someone else.

Another thing that sold me on the reserves is, they are the only ones accepting single parents...

Also completely untrue. The only service that can and does discriminate against single parents is the Marine Corps, and they have a special dispensation from congress to do it....even then, I don't think it would survive a court challenge if someone pressed it, but I digress. Though I'm retired from active duty, I still work for the Air Force for the next 30 days or so (until they cut my job), and I can assure you we have more single Moms in the USAF than Carter has Little Liver Pills...

Ok, now that I have that out of my system. Growing up as a military brat was great for me. I'm outgoing, make friends easily, and get bored being in the same place for long...that's why it worked for me. My brother on the other hand, is completely the opposite, and he hated being a brat. The best day of his life was when my father retired and they settled down in one place. By that time I was already in the USAF myself and out seeing the world.

Looking at it from the perspective of a father, I see things a little different. My twins were born in 2000, and as you recall, the whole military, and me especially (due to my career field) got real busy about that time. Busy for more than 10 years, in fact. I missed slightly more than half my kid's life times from the ages of 2 till 7. That's time I can never get back.

Now that my kids are old enough to articulate what it was like during my absence, I understand that the separation was probably harder on me than it was on them, but still, any separation is a stressor and who knows what long term effects it will have...hopefully none, but we don't know that whole story yet.

Like anything in life, there are pro and cons to joining...especially when you have kids. But, I would never warn you off of it because for me, it was a wonderful way of life and has provided for everything I have. Given the choice, I would do it all over again.