WOW!
We are all ready to handle our new roles, then our daughter deployment orders were cancelled. Why?We were not sure.
Relief, happiness, and joy was my first reactions. Then second reaction hit, what’s next?
A few days later our daughter received orders for a one year assignment to Korea, this fall.
This is will be a longer assignment. We all know we will have to make that adjustment, later this year.
For now we are enjoying our time together!
I was a grandma MOM four years ago and will resume the role again,when my daughter deploys very soon.
I have mixed emotions taking on this role again. Letting go of my grandma role, being a mom is a big responsibility role. As a grandma mom, my concerns come back, again- my daughter’s safety, the well being of my granddaughters,challenges with my granddaughters experiencing the separation from their mother. The new chapter in this deployment will be- helping our new son in law adapt to being a single parent to my granddaughters. He was my daughter’s boyfriend in her last deployment, but this will be new role for him.
My granddaughters have begun to call me more recently, I know they are beginning to feel the strain of this upcoming separation from their mother. I am planning to get very involved with my granddaughter’s day to day routines, meeting their friends and their parents and their teachers.
Another challenge I face is how I am going balance my personal life. I know I will have very little time for myself, at least that’s what I experienced in the last deployment. I do plan on figuring out, how to maintain some type of daily exercise. Right now I walk every morning for 45 minutes along with riding my bicycle twice a week. You have to exercise and work on getting rid for the stress deployment brings.Maybe I will join a health club near my granddaughters home.
As for my career, I am blessed I can access today’s technology, allowing me to have a mobile office. I am planning on writing a bi-weekly blog of the new experiences with this deployment.
I am pretty sure I am going to be maintaining two households, my home and my granddaughters. I plan on working on setting up a plan for meals, chores, shopping, etc. I am a person which likes to be organized and have a plan. I think this will be the ultimate challenge of organization!
I know I must not be the only Grandma Mom, are you?
According to the US Census reports there are 4.5 million grandparents raising their grandchildren.
Our daughter’s upcoming deployment is just around the corner. Last month was challenging for me. Our daughter had to go through training and had no time to talk to my husband and I. At first I felt like my daughter was already deployed. I remembered that feeling of loss. It’s so strange how you have this feeling, even though you know they are alive and well. The feeling of loss is knowing your loved one will not be with you,day to day.
I began to feel so sad. Knowing my daughter will miss her children activities, birthdays and holidays. I cried, I guess I just had to let it out. Then I began to think, this is temporary and my daughter will return. I picked myself up and said, “What am I going to do to make this situation a positive experience for my family?”
I know what to do, focus on what I can do for my family.
My granddaughters and I have begun to talk about when I will be coming to help out. My husband, Alan and I are still working, so I will be planning on staying for lengths of time with my granddaughters in Arizona. Since my daughter remarried, her husband will now face challenges of being a single parent to my granddaughters. So I will have another person to help support.
One thing I do know, this deployment will be different, but we have each other to get us through it.
