Blogger Biography: “San Diego Military Wife” is a Navy wife and mother of two great kids. She writes about her life as a military wife and keeps families informed of deals and events for military families in the San Diego and Camp Pendleton area.
I recently read an article that had a list of 24 things you’ll do as a new parent. It got me thinking about all the things military spouses do while our husbands are deployed. Some women have never had to do some of the things we do without blinking an eye.
Here are 24 things you may find yourself doing as a military spouse (at least these are some of the things I’ve been through):
1. House hunt, pack up a house and move into a new house by yourself.
2. Plan out the landscaping for the back yard of the house that you just moved into, hire and then supervise a bunch of guys to work on your backyard.
3. Move furniture.
4. Be hospitalized with a life-threatening case of meningitis while your spouse is in the middle of the ocean with no way to come home.
5. Take the garbage to the curb every week.
6. Snake a toilet—gross!
7. Fix pipes.
8. Make all financial decisions.
9. Try to explain to a five-year-old why daddy is in another country helping other people even though we need help at home.
10. Paint walls.
11. Hang pictures.
12. Stay up until 2 a.m. so that you can email with your spouse since he is in a different time zone.
13. Prepare to move to another country and then find out two weeks before the move that you are actually staying where you have lived your whole life.
14. Have your phone within a few feet of you for the entire deployment just in case your service member calls.
15. Pick up dog poop.
16. Find out you are pregnant three days after your husband leaves for deployment and telling him through email.
17. Fly the red eye while pregnant and with a one-year-old to be with your sick father-in-law.
18. Deal with your spouse’s family.
19. Document every moment of your life, so that you can email him pictures (Yes, I have a video of my daughter’s first poopoo in the potty).
20. Fix a fence.
21. Mow the lawn.
22. Make sure your kids have fun while your husband is gone, but not too much fun that they will look back and realize that daddy wasn’t there.
23. Jumpstart a car.
24. Be the one who gets up in the middle of the night when you hear a noise.
The most important thing you will do as a military spouse is find out just how strong and capable you really are. We are some of the strongest women in America.
What are some of the crazy things you have had to do as a military spouse?
I love it! Here are 3 more I’ve experienced so far…
Say, “No” more to the kids.
Make a homeowner’s insurance claim and hire contractors to fix the problem.
Decide for yourself on major purchases and whether or not to get the warranty.
Love this and I would add: have one or both cars breakdown and have to negotiate with a mechanic for resonable repair cost.