By: Sarah Pittman
When military members have husbands/wives and/or children, it can mean that the spouse and children serve as well. April has been designated as the Month of the Military Child since 1986! Military children may have one or both parents in the military which means dealing with with the parent’s long working hours, grueling and dangerous work or deployment for extended periods of time. The least we can do is celebrate their dedication to our country one month of the year!
Statistics:
- Current number of active service members: 1,282,900 members (Enwikipeidaorg)
- There are 1.2 million military children of active duty parents worldwide
- Military families move 3 times more often than civilian families on average
- Since 2001, more than 2 million children have had 1 parent deployed at least once
- 33% show signs of psychological behaviors including anxiousness, worrying more than normal and crying more often than civilian children (Month of the Military Child – SheerID)
Friday, April 21st is “Purple Up! For Military Kids,” where people are encouraged to wear purple in honor of the military child. Purple symbolizes every branch of the military including Army, Coast Guard, Air Force, Marines, and Navy.
Do you work with military children? How do you connect with the children? What suggestions do you have for working with military children?
References:
Military Active-Duty Personnel, Civilians by State. Governingcom. 2018. Accessed April 2, 2018.
MOMC Toolkit | Military Child Education Coalition. Militarychildorg. 2018. Accessed April 2, 2018.
Month of the Military Child – SheerID. SheerID. 2018. Accessed April 2, 2018.
United States Armed Forces. Wikipedia. 2018. Accessed April 2, 2018.
Month of the Military Child. Accessed April 2, 2018.
This blog was posted by Robin Allen, a member of OneOp (MFLN) Nutrition and Wellness team that aims to support the development of professionals working with military families. Find out more about the OneOp Nutrition and Wellness concentration on our website on Facebook, on Twitter, and LinkedIn.
