How do Military and Motherhood Intersect

For 2017, I am doing a weekly series on why the military actually prepares you for motherhood. You probably didn’t realize the military and motherhood intersect. I will use military terms and relate them to motherhood. I will also draw on my past experiences as a military member. Some of the words seem rather odd, like Improvised Explosive Device commonly known as IEDs. IEDs are a feared device by many military members. Especially if your job is running convoys and you know each time you head out the potential to hit one on your way could happen. And although our children’s temperament is not deadly, it can certainly cause harm (at least emotional) during different life situations. Other words like family, learning, or training will be easier to relate to even if you don’t have a military background.

Either way, military or civilian, I hope this series will be fun and interesting. Hopefully, I can share some of my insights and provide some encouragement along the way.

Military and Motherhood

Motherhood didn’t look anything like I thought it would. I guess when I think about the military, it also wasn’t exactly what I imagined either. But with the military, I was told to expect it to be new and to find someone to help guide me. I’m not sure why I never got that advice for motherhood. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have listened anyway.

military and motherhood intersect

I went into motherhood seeing it as an obstacle that needed to be tackled. Everyone made it look easy and fun. I also was pretty certain they were exaggerating on the lack of sleep they were getting. Who can function on no sleep? And still stand upright and do all these crazy things I see moms doing. I now know that lack of sleep is a part of life and you make it work. Somehow you get through these crazy years with little sleep and no clue on what you are doing and if you are doing it well and then when they are older you look back and wonder why it was so hard to take care of a little baby.

Early Years

These early years with little ones are so hard. But they provide a lot of fun memories along the way. For example this year at Christmas, my oldest actually got the Christmas thing. He actually wanted to see if Santa came when he woke up Christmas morning. When he went into the living room he was so funny because he looked at the tree and didn’t see any new presents and was disappointed. He thought Santa didn’t come. We had him turn around. Then he was so excited to see his stocking full of gifts. His little brother, who is just barely one, had no interest in presents until my sister’s gift for him was open, which was a box of tissue paper that he absolutely loved.

Fun memories that make you smile, but a tired mom and dad from the crazy travel and lack of sleep over the weekend. It is nice to finally be home and getting back to normal.

I’m looking forward to this adventure of looking at how military and motherhood combine. I can’t wait to see what we discover. As we learn how amazing both our military service members are for their countless sacrifices and how amazing moms are as well. Their endless sacrifice often goes unnoticed.

Check out all the whole series here or head to the next post in the series here.

9 comments on “How do Military and Motherhood Intersect

  1. So true! ? So glad Luke enjoyed Christmas! That is the best because so much of age 3 is so challenging!!

    My one word is LEAD. I want to lead my family in walking with Jesus, better health decisions, and lead the women at my church into worship and encourage them in a closer walk with the Lord. So, I need to stay plugged into the source myself to allow this to happen!!

    • I love your word. It is so perfect for you and I know you will do some great things this year. Looking forward to hearing what God LEADs you to this year.
      It is hard, but a lot of fun. Mostly I have to deal with him hitting, tackling or hugging to fiercely with his brother. 🙂

  2. I’m so excited for this series! Even as a military spouse, I am not familiar with many terms so I’m sure I’ll be learning a lot 🙂 Thanks for intersecting these topics!

  3. What a great idea for a series! I love how you pointed out that you were told to expect the military to be new and to find someone to help guide you… and yet were not told that in regards to Motherhood! Oh how we need each other!

    • We truly do. I don’t know why we don’t tell each other about how much we struggle. It seems like we try to only focus on the good parts and forget to say there are hard parts too. Society tells us being a mom isn’t important so I feel like when we feel like we are struggling we feel like we are failing so it is hard to open up.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.