Welcome to “Talk Back” with The Military Wife, a forum of sorts to ask questions and get answers on all topics. I have been a military wife for the past few years and have been the force behind The Military Wife Facebook page for the Military Press Newspaper Group for six months. I grew up in the military with both my parents serving this great nation. God Bless our Troops. ~ A

Dear “Talk Back”
My husband is going on his third deployment, but our first as a family. We have two young daughters. The oldest, who is four, doesn’t understand that daddy is leaving for a long time. I am worried she will have difficulty coping. What can we do to help her deal with daddy being gone? The baby will be a month old when he leaves and almost nine months when he comes home, so him I am not worried about him. He will still be young enough.
— From Navy Wife in San Diego

Dear Spouse:
And we thought deployments were tough on us! Deployments are even harder on the kiddos who don’t understand why the parent they love is gone for upwards of a year! With the new technology communication is better than ever. Yes its still a deployment and you wont be able to talk all the time, but with Skye; talking and actually seeing one another is now possible!!

Doing special crafts with her for daddy will help ease the pain of daddy not being there. Making count down rings where every day that goes by she gets to cut a ring off. Making videos for daddy to send in his care packages. Keeping her busy with activities will help also; maybe try a dance class or gymnastics

They have tons of deployment books for kids that I also recommend you look into. Amazon.com has lists of books to help kids with the deployment of their parents And this AMAZING website, www.daddydolls.com where you can make a doll for her so daddy will always be there, and you can even record a message for the doll to play.

For the little man, what I did when my husband was deployed our daughter was still a newborn, I let her beat on the keyboard in an email for her ‘letter’ to daddy, then I mock spoke for her describing what we did that day. It helps everyone feel connected

Best of luck with the deployment!

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