My+Military+Life



If one or more of your family serves in a branch of the military, then you have a unique perspective that no one else has. Share your story and your pride:

Afghan War Enters 10th Year - Is there an End in Sight?
It is hard to believe that the United States has been at war for ten years. Over the past few years, particularly in conjunction with the Iraq War, the United States’ presence in Afghanistan has become more and more controversial and sometimes confusing: many people tend to inextricably link the Iraq and Afghanistan wars when, really, they are two utterly separate enterprises. But the fact is that a decade has passed and still our country is at war, families are separated, and many wonder if there is an end in site.

What actions do you think the country, the government, the people of the United States should take to bring our soldiers home?
[|Share your opinion]

Military Teens Want You To Know: We are proud of our parents, our family!
Teens have complicated emotions relating to their military parents’ and family's service. Sometimes, for example, they resent loved ones for missing important events, even while being proud of the work they are doing. Military teens overwhelmingly name their military parent as a positive role model.

Share your story about your loved one you are proud of. Share your frustrations, and what makes your military family the role model that they are?
[|Join the discussion]

"We think about war and we know what it means."
Teens from military families think about war and know what it means. Most of us only see war on the news and can separate it from our daily lives. Military youth can’t always do that. Their parents go to war. The news is real life for them. Deployed parents can be gone for more than a year at a time and serve multiple deployments.

What does this War mean to you and your family? Share your perspective.
[|Join the discussion]

[[image:kid_with_flag.jpg width="303" height="201" align="right"]]
Strength, perseverance, and sacrifice are words we associate with our troops. But we see these same traits in military teens. They send care packages to their deployed military parent. They take on new tasks when situations change in their families. They grow up with a sense of community and service to country. While they do it for their family, they’re sustaining their service member for America, too.

Celebrate your achievements and share your story!
[|Share your story]

Moving - A LOT!
Family and furniture are about the only things that stay the same in a military family’s life. By the time the kids grow into teenagers, they’ve attended several schools, have made numerous new friends, and memorized half a dozen new addresses. Military teens say they like meeting new people and traveling to new places, but they also say moving is one of the toughest things about military life.

How has moving effected you? What has been your traveling experiences and your struggles with saying goodbye?
[|Share your story]

=Military Kids Look to Extracurricular Activities to Cope With Parents' Deployment= Extracurricular activities help put military children into a regular routine and allow them to focus on something positive, rather than on their parent's deployment. Research also suggests that such activities also provide the children with a skill or talent to share with the parent once he or she returns home. more on this story
 * Researchers Say Sports, Art Provide Much-Needed Support**

What extracurricular activities to you participate in? Do you think it helps like the research says?
[|Join the discussion]

Resources from www.militaryfamily.org

Want to discuss a topic you don't see here? Let us know! Email alienlounge@kidthrive.org and we will see to it that the topic gets posted ASAP.

© 2010 OneSeventeen Media and KidThrive. Alien Lounge is the property of KidThrive.org