We went ahead and told the kids about Gary's deployment. Although he's never deployed they have seen some of their close friends' Dads deploy and come back, so I think this helped greatly. These kids don't even like Daddy not being here when they go to bed at night, so this is going to be one long deployment, but we will keep busy, and we'll make it through just fine.
Anastasia didn't react the way I expected, I can usually predict her reactions. But this was an odd one. She found the whole thing kind of amusing I think, then she said, "when I get big, I'm going to break my life" I asked her what that meant, and she replied, "when I'm big and married, I'm going to take my baby and go to another house away from the Daddy" Not sure why this discussion came up, maybe she thinks Daddy is leaving us kind of??? I assured her that was not the case, and that it's really not a good idea to "break your life", that Daddy and I are never going to leave each other, we will be together forever, as long as both of us are alive, and that I will never take my children away from him, it's wrong, it would hurt a lot of people, etc...
Aw, poor Anastasia . . . it breaks my heart when kids say stuff like that. You're probably right that she was thinking you two were splitting up . . . and you, of course, handled it the right way. Maybe have a calendar in her room marking the day Daddy comes home? But, I'm sure you know lots of other families who have ideas how to help the kids with Daddy's deployment . . .
ReplyDeleteBarb,
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing the things we just assume they will take for granted, but they don't. I'm pretty sure she won't trust that he is coming back until he really does.