Monday, July 25, 2011

Military Wife Rant

So I'm probably going to get some shit (excuse my french) for saying this, especially from those involved in the military community, but you know what I really don't care. Here it goes...
I'm rather tired of reading facebook status' saying; "Civilian girls have no clue what it's like to miss their husband, try walking a mile in a military wife's shoes" or "What is 3 weeks compared to 6 months" or "Don't complain about missing him until he's deployed for x amount of time" or the whole poor, poor military, "We moved and these passes won't transfer from park to park". But here is what I have to say about all of it.

First and foremost, when you love someone and they aren't there with you, whether it's a few days for a business trip or a few weeks for an underway, or a few months for a deployment. You miss them. It doesn't matter if they are at work for 12 hours a day, they aren't with you, and you miss them. It's just a fact of life. Everyone misses their loved one, and every one is entitled to miss their loved one. Civilian or military. Your husband signed up to deploy. End of freakin' story. My future husband signed up to deploy. Does that make us miss them any less, no it doesn't. Does it make us miss them so much it hurts? Yes. But here is the kicker. We knew this would happen, we expected it, we go through it because we love them. Now by no means am I saying that no one has the right to miss them, I'm not saying that at all. What I am saying is, don't be mad when you hear your friend saying that they miss their own husband when he has to go on a business trip for a week. Don't. She loves her husband as much as you love yours. So you can't be mad at her for missing him. Does she miss him for as long as you are going to miss your husband, no. But that's just life. Life isn't equally fair, but that's what is beautiful about it. I'm so sick and tired of people telling people that they aren't justified to miss their loved ones. Everyone is justified to their own feelings, opinions, thoughts, and emotions. When you tell someone they can't miss someone or they don't have a right to feel the way they feel, you turn into a bully.

Secondly, I read an article about a military wife, emailing Six Flag's because she was upset her parking pass that she paid for wouldn't transfer to another Six Flag's park when they PCS (move to another duty station). Okay firstly, let me just state this. Most of the time, I'll say 9 times out of 10 you have a pretty good idea of when you are going to move, and you know where you're going to move at least 3-9 months before you do. So common sense pretty much prevails with this one, who the hell purchases a parking pass for a whole year at a park that they know they won't be coming back to over and over again for the whole year. On top of that. Companies have policies in place for a reason. It's not to belittle military families, nor to punish them. But it's to create a fair and equal environment. To stop discrimination from occurring. To prevent people from being charged different rates, to allow everyone to participate. So just because a company won't allow you to use a parking pass you purchased in let's say Chicago, in San Diego it's because there is a policy against it. They're might be a universal parking pass you can purchase to use at ALL parks, but if it's purchased in Chicago to use at Chicago, then of course you can't use it in San Diego. They're are policies in place that prevents this, more than likely to save you money. If they made everyone buy a parking pass to use at every park than I can assure you it would cost a ton of money, so why not just have a parking pass to use at one park. There are policies there to benefit you, the customer, and to prevent discrimination on the companies behalf as well as to protect the company. That's all, it's not because your a military family, it's not because they want to screw you over, it's for the benefit of everyone. Simple as that.

It gets so frustrating when I see and hear people pulling the "woe is me, poor poor us suffering because we are military family" when it really isn't the case at all. Everyone has it hard, everyone has their struggles. Some have more struggles than others, some struggle differently than others, and some complain about those struggles more than others do. It just chaps my ass sometimes when there are families who have to have the breadwinner working 4 hours away to make money for their family, and then there is a military wife saying "Well at least it's only 4 hours away, mine is 6,000 miles away!". In fact it pisses me off. Maybe it's because I can see it now, where I'm not dealing with a deployment, but have the knowledge of two under my belt. But it's wrong. It's so very wrong. That's being a bully, telling one wife she can't miss her husband just because he isn't being shot at, or isn't floating on a ship working 17 hour shifts. Like I said, our husbands (fiance's or boyfriends) choose this life, they enlisted, no one made them. Does it suck at times, hell yes. Are there rewards? You bet.

But in the end, it is wrong to tell another woman she is not entitled to miss her husband because they aren't in the same situation that military wives are in. Military wives claim that we are held to a higher level than others, that we are supposed to be role models, that we are supposed to support and help one another out. But in reality, that couldn't be further from the truth! In reality, most (not all) military wives sit on Facebook, telling other people how to act, what to do, and bullying others around. Instead of supporting one another, they are too busy playing the rank game, creating drama, and calling each other names. It's pathetic, and couldn't feel more like high school. I've never understood why women feel the need to belittle others, and create drama when there are more important things to be concerned about and frankly I never will. Nothing is all sunshine and daisies like the show Army Wives portrays. In fact, it couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, it's more like a 'Real Housewives' show on Bravo.

Women need to grow up, and mature. Realize what is important, and what is not. They also need to stop being bully's. Stop with the freaking facebook, stop with the 'woe is me', stop telling others they aren't entitled to feel the way they feel. Stop putting yourself on a pedestal and realize, your just like everyone else. Civilians don't care about rank, instead they base their friends on morals, on who is going to be there when they are having a bad day, who can step in when an emergency occurs. Maybe military wives can take a note from their book, realize there is more to life than the military, than pulling the rank card, pulling the branch card, pulling whatever card is going to 'one up' another person.

That's the end of my rant for the day. Happy Monday.

4 comments:

  1. Amen a thousand times Amen. If people give you crap for this they are just butts lol.

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  2. "Military wives claim that we are held to a higher level than others, that we are supposed to be role models, that we are supposed to support and help one another out. But in reality, that couldn't be further from the truth! In reality, most (not all) military wives sit on Facebook, telling other people how to act, what to do, and bullying others around. Instead of supporting one another, they are too busy playing the rank game, creating drama, and calling each other names. It's pathetic, and couldn't feel more like high school."

    AMEN. Its super funny, because in VA, the few people I did meet that were military were really nice and we rarely talked about the military. We talked about our husbands, but we didn't make that our main focus. Now that I live on a base, it really is high school (or even junior high in some cases) all over again.

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  3. I 75% agree with you lol.

    At one point you say "Stop bitching at Civilian Women for bitching"

    and then you say "Ya'll need to stop bitching". I am confused ;)

    Really, we all complain. I complain a ton. Usually, the first day after the husband gives me news I'd rather not have. Then, I suck it up and move on and deal. But hoo boy, that first say, I'm on the war path. Now, I think there's a way to complain, and even if you don't intend on stopping, at least realise when you are being irrational about your expectations. It *is* a tough life, because it's so uncertain and tense, so as long as women are fulfilling their responsibilities, nurturing their kids and/or marriage, and not being overly disrespectful, ahhhh let us complain :D LoL

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    1. I think this 'life' is what you make of it - perception is key. If you think completely that the military life is so tough, then yes it's going to feel that way. But if you approach it with an attitude of spontinanity, and luck that you get paid to move to different area's every 2-5 years, and that you don't have to pay what others have to pay for medical coverage it becomes a completely different view.
      I get it - truly, my dad was gone for a lot of my life - while I didn't understand then, I do now. Sure it sucks having to fill all parental roles for a short while - be thankful you aren't a single parent.
      Life is tough - but it's worth it. The military life is only as tense and tough as you make it out to be.

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