Military Parenting Resources

Helpful books for military parents

Breastfeeding in Combat Boots

A Survival Guide to Successful Breastfeeding While Serving in the

Military

Author: Robyn Roche-Paull

While breastfeeding and employment are covered in many books and websites, none cover the unique circumstances and demands that accompany breastfeeding while on active duty. The award-winning book, Breastfeeding in Combat Boots: A Survival Guide to Breastfeeding Successfully While Serving in the Military, and the website www.breastfeedingincombatboots.com will fill that void and provide you with insight into both the rewarding and wonderful aspects of breastfeeding on active duty, but also give you a realistic look at the challenges that lay ahead for you. The book and website have been created to offer a practical and field-tested guide that will help military mothers from all branches of the armed forces find the information and support to successfully breastfeed with confidence. Is it possible to work full time on active duty and still be there to nurture and nurse your baby? YES! Except for some very unusual circumstances, with a little preparation, a “can do” attitude and some creativity, it is possible to breastfeed on while serving in the military and give the benefits of breastfeeding to yourself and your baby.

Dads at a Distance

An Activities Handbook for Strengthening Long Distance Relationships

The National Institute for Building Long Distance Relationships

This book contains 330 activities to help business travelers, non-custodial fathers, military men, airline pilots, truckers, etc. strengthen and enjoy their relationships with their children while they are away.

Moms over Miles

An Activities Handbook for Strengthening Long Distance Relationships

The National Institute for Building Long Distance Relationships

This book contains 330 activities to help business travelers, non-custodial mothers, military women, airline pilots, flight attendants, etc. strengthen and enjoy their relationships with their children while they are away.

Surviving Military Separation

A 365-day Activity Guide for the Families of deployed Personnel

Author: Marc CB Maxwell, Copyright @ 2008

Family members know that today, military separation is common and that long deployments are the norm. Coping with everyday problems and hardships by themselves is very difficult, and often leads to loneliness and depression. In his day-to-day counseling of military family members, Marc CB Maxwell, a Department of Defense Guidance Counselor and former Army Airborne Ranger, discovered that many members of his military community were unprepared for these separations. Surviving Military Separation: A 365-Day Activity Guide for the Families of Deployed Personnel is the helping hand they need to get through their family member's deployment.

Marc's daily counseling quickly made it clear that his members required something fun, easy to understand, and enjoyable to pass the time. Surviving Military Separation is the first book on the market to provide everyday steps and activities to help guide family members through these particularly trying separations.

Lavishly illustrated with more than 140 pieces of original art by Val Laolagi, Surviving Military Separation is an activity guidebook created especially for family members of deployed personnel. This unique presentation offers 365 days of activities for the entire family. The book's setup allows readers to break down the lengthy deployment into weeklong chunks, which passes the deployment much more quickly by taking it one fun and creative step at a time.

Surviving Military Separation also includes: A section for journal entries for readers to record their thoughts and feelings for a deployed loved one to read at a later time; a calendar section to help family members remember important dates; stationery to write their deployed personnel; and a world map to assist family members in locating their deployed loved one.

Coming on the heels of the military's recent announcement of longer deployments, Surviving Military Separation is both timely and long overdue. Every family experiencing a military separation will find this book indispensable.

The Military Father

A Hands-on Guide for Deployed Dads

by Armin A. Brott, former U.S. Marine

Author: Armin A. Brott, Copyright @ 2009

www.mrdad.com/store/military

A much-needed resource for the long-distance dads and dads-to-be, who are seeking information and advice on how to be involved with their family before, during, and after their deployment.

Written by the country's leading authority on fathers and families, The Military Father helps fathers and their families face the challenges of deployment and stay connected with their loved ones back home. Special topics covered include:

Unique issues that affect civilian contractors and nonmilitary government employees.

Challenges facing Reservists and National Guardsmen when they leave--and then return to--their civilian life.

What to do if your wife is going to have your baby while you're deployed.

How to stay involved as a single parent.

What happens when Mom is deployed.

Detailed, easy-to-use predeployment checklists.

An in-depth overview of child development, from pregnancy through age eighteen.

101 Ways to be a Long-Distance Super Dad...or Mom, Too!

Author: George Newman, Copyright @ 2006

101 Ways To Be A Long-Distance Super-Dad…or Mom, Too! offers helpful, practical tips for parents who live or work in one place, and whose children live in another. While divorce can geographically separate a mom or dad from a child, so can military service or a job requiring travel. This book can help parents remain an important part of their children’s lives.

Now in its 14th printing, the book is a must for parents who want to keep in close contact with their children, but find it difficult to overcome the barriers posed by distance. Award-winning journalist George Newman draws on his experience as a divorced father, sharing valuable tips for enriching the parent-child relationship, even during physical separation.

____________________________________________________________________

Other military parenting resources

CD for deployed fathers

Double Duty: Staying Connected with your kids when you're a deployed dad

www.militaryonesource.com

CD, 60 minutes

Doing double duty as a father and a deployed service member requires focus and commitment. But the effort you put into remaining a vital presence in your child's life will strengthen your relationship and give both of you greater peace of mind.

In this CD, fatherhood expert and former Marine Armin Brott talks about ways to stay close with your child from before you deploy to after you return. You'll learn:

How your child might react during each phase of your deployment

How to make your departure easier on your family

Ways to reach out to your child while you're deployed

What your spouse can do to make your absence easier on your child

What to expect when you return

How to handle specific circumstances such as becoming a father while you're deployed, staying in touch with your child when you're divorced or single, how to keep up with your child's education, and what to do if you may be feeling combat stress

You'll also hear service members from all branches with children of all ages share their experiences as deployed dads.

CD for deployed mothers

Over There: Stories and insights from mothers who have deployed

www.militaryonesource.com

CD, 58 minutes

Being “over there” when the rest of your family is back home can be hard for any military parent, but mothers may find it especially challenging. Women who have been through this experience find the best way to prepare is to learn from others who have already been there.

In this CD, Dr. Heidi Squier Kraft, a former Navy psychologist whose twins were babies when she headed a combat-stress platoon in Iraq, discusses the unique challenges that mothers face when they deploy. She’s joined by mothers from each service branch who deployed when their children ranged in age from toddlers to teenagers. You’ll hear:

How they managed goodbyes

Ways they made sure their children were in good hands while they were gone

What they did to stay close to their children while they were gone

How they stayed focused on their mission

What it was like to return home and be a “mom” again

How their experiences made them better service members and mothers

Military parenting resources - Military OneSource

www.militaryonesource.com

Military OneSource (MOS) supplements existing family programs by providing a website and a worldwide, 24 hour, seven-day-a-week information and referral telephone service to ALL active, Guard and Reserve Soldiers, deployed civilians and their families. MOS services are provided at no-cost.This site is designed to help military families deal with life's issues.

Military parenting resources - National Fatherhood Initiative (Military Programming)

www.fatherhood.org/Military

Our military programming is designed to address the specific challenges that military families face. These innovative resources prepare fathers - and their families - for the difficulties of deployment and reunion. By helping fathers be strong and ready, we help families stay healthy and connected while successfully navigating the stresses of military life.

Our military programming offers:

Quality resources

Professional technical assistance

Trainings and workshops

A trusted partner

Military parenting resources - Parents as Teachers Heroes at Home Program

Parenting support and child development for young military families

www.parentsasteachers.org

Military families are increasingly impacted by repeat deployment, demands at home and the stress of being away. This program brings professional parenting support and child development information right to the homes of these young families.

Site includes a downloadable Helping Children Cope with War and Trauma booklet.

Military parenting resources - Parent to Parent Workshops (Military Child Education

Coalition)

www.militarychild.org/military-parent/parent-to-parent-parent-workshops/

The Parent to Parent program provides informative and interactive workshops to groups or organizations in the local community. The length of workshops are usually between twenty minutes and an hour. They can be tailored to meet the group's needs. Participants receive high quality resources and materials that will assist them in their role as their child's best advocate. Workshops are available for different levels including the following: parents of young children; parents with elementary school age children; parents of middle and high school students; middle and high school students; and parents of any age child.

Parent to Parent teams are located in the areas of a number of military installations. The team members have personal expertise, backed by research. They share practical ideas, proven techniques, and solid resources to support the military parents/guardians of transitioning school-age children.

Military parenting resources - Welcome Back Parenting

www.welcomebackparenting.org

For soldiers serving on active duty and the families who wait for them at home, there is no day more greatly anticipated than homecoming day.

The reunion is wonderful, and it’s great to have the family together! As life settles back to “normal,” there may be moments when everything doesn’t live up to the high expectations soldiers and their families have about life after deployment. While the soldier was away, life has changed. Tempers may flare and patience runs thin as both children and adults readjust to “togetherness”.

To help every member of the family learn how to live and thrive within that different, post-deployment “normal,” this Welcome Back Parenting guide has been developed by Welcome Back Veterans, a national public awareness initiative to help America’s returning war veterans and their families. This guide is geared for families with one parent who has recently returned from a military deployment. It is designed to help you address some of the fundamental issues faced by families like yours, and includes information about partner relationships, parenting, and the different stages of child and family development from pregnancy through raising teenagers.

The guide also includes a resource section filled with recommended books and websites that you may find helpful, and a referral section containing community referrals you and your family may wish to access along the way. Save this guide. You may not need to read it cover-to-cover right away, but it could become a valued resource for you in the days to come. The information is here for you when you need it.

___________________________________________________________________________

Other family life resources - Enhancing Your Marriage and Family Ministries

www.eymministries.org

Welcome to Enhancing Your Marriage and Family Ministries, a ministry designed for women who want to follow God in their marriages and in their parenting. He won't disappoint you, because as the Author of marriage and family...

God wants to be a major player in yours

Whether your marriage and family are solid or sickly, He wants to share His input with you

He wants to deepen your walk with Him and enhance your role as wife and mom in the process

As the Creator of life ~ specifically yours and your husband's ~ He knows how you two should fit together and how to make your children a part of that fit.

And He knows that when wives and moms follow Him, the entire family dynamic benefits

Judy Rossi, author and founder of this ministry is the wife of a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army.

Other family life resources - Focus on the Family

A wealth of Christian family resources, articles, etc.

www.focusonthefamily.com

This website has a wealth of information, articles and resources relating to family life, parenting, marriages and much more.

Other family life resources - Thriving Family

www.thrivingfamily.com

Thriving Family—both the bimonthly magazine and the website you’re now viewing—is a ministry of Focus on the Family. Thriving Family helps families thrive in Christ, offering reliable and time-tested solutions, practical advice and sensible marriage and parenting guidance. Whether in print or online, Thriving Family encourages, teaches and celebrates God’s design for the family and inspires people to be better parents and spouses.

The primary audience for Thriving Family is married parents with children (ages 0–18) at home. We also have content for single parents, blended families and extended families. In the future we will address military, adoptive and special-needs families as well as other unique family situations.

Military children and teens

Resource books for parents, other resources