You Are Not Alone: A Guide to Helping Your Children through Deployment

While deployment can be a traumatic time for most families, the experiences and challenges of deployment for the families of our National Guard and other Reservists often go misunderstood.   One reason for this is that these families often live in civilian communities where there is limited awareness and understanding of what it means to be part of military life, and especially, of what it means to have a parent or primary caregiver go off to war.  Thus, many of these children often do not receive the attention, care, and support that they require during deployment and reunion.    While there is no right way to provide all of the attention and support that these children need, I am hopeful that this article will provide valuable information to help you understand and support children during and after deployment.  Because a child’s age plays such a crucial role in his or her experiences and needs during and after deployment, we will look at how to recognize and respond to children’s needs based on their developmental stage.

Click here to read the entire article by Erin (PDF)