Tuesday, August 12, 2008

My eye opening night

There are few things in the world harder than dealing with your childrens fears. Last night as I put Megan to bed we had the following conversation ...

Megan: Is daddy coming home tomorrow?

Me: No daddy isn't coming home for a while still.

Megan: Do I even have a daddy anymore?

I wanted to cry but instead I hugged her.

Me: OFCOURSE you still have a daddy - he's always going to be your daddy, but he has to help the good guys right now.

I wasnt prepared for the words that came out of her mouth next and I dont think any mother is.

Megan: Cause he has to help kill the bad guys?

These are words that I have never said in my house, I've never told my children that daddy is going kill anyone. I know my older children understand things alot better than I really want them to they know that daddy took a gun with him to Iraq and that guns kill. I know that my children spend time with other military kids whose parent share more information that I choose to share with my kids and that those kids tell other kids what they think they know. What I cant understand is why anyone would tell my 4 year that her daddy has to kill bad guys? If we werent a military family she would never have to think about things like this, but we are and she does and sometimes I just wish my kids could be kids without the worries that goes along with being a military family.

2 comments:

Sonya said...

This is my first time dealing with 'deployment' (although he is stationed in Bahrain, so it's technically not deployment), but I am lucky that Tres is still so young he doesn't understand. I don't know what I will say when he is older and daddy leaves!

That post makes me sad though! We all miss the daddy's!

Hugs!
Sonya

Damama T said...

Ouch. I hope you were able to help her understand it. You are right, if you weren't where you are, their lives would be way different. But is that really a bad thing? Your children will grow up strong in ways that most kids can't even begin to think about. And they have you for their mom, so they win all the way around.