Military parents, how do you think the "military lifestyle" has affected your children?

It actually put my son ahead of some of his fellow students, FM's and TM's helped out in some of his classes.

My wife and I were married for 7 years and I had been in for total of 5 prior to that before we had our child. She was 12 when we retired. I think it made her the person she is today. She has a wealth of experience that other kids don't have like growing up in a small town your whole life without ever going anywhere except the beach on vacation. She knows how to make lasting friends and she understands core values. She can also stand on her own two feet. I believe most military kids are more well rounded than your average kid and are extremely resilient. However, it also means that a military parent takes care and teaches them as well. My wife did that. when she was born my wife stayed at home until she went to school, then she got a job a that school until we PCS'd then stayed at home with her until we retired. Then she got a job. Overall, I think the military experience is good for kids.

For the first 9 years of my Son's life, he was raised in the military. I will admit, that I was stationed with some outstanding units at the time. I was also deployed, or stationed in Korea, or in the field quite a bit, not to mention the year I spent in EOD school. But, I know for a fact, my Son loved the experience. He spent a lot of time hanging around the folks in the unit, mostly MP's and EOD Techs. One unit I was with (EOD), tended to have slow days between running VIP support, where we would show up for PT, then take the rest of the day, trying to find something to get into if all of our office duties were caught up. Numerous times I would be cleaning up from PT and the Commander would ask If I had anything planned for the day, if I didn't, he would tell me to get my Son and bring him back to the unit. The boy grew up surrounded by EOD nutcases, inert munitions and EOD tools. At 8, he could tell you how to set up a Rocket Wrench, a Mechanical Impact Wrench, a .50 De-armor and operate a training m-18 Claymore. There used to be some outstanding units, I can't speak for them today, but I would imagine there are still some out there.

What is a late start? My lady and I married at the age of 19, and our first child came along at our age of 35. Next (and last) one came along at our age of 38.

Our young children loved moving, meeting new friends, and seeing new places. Young children see most PCS moves and school changes as an adventure. Yeah, deployments are a bump in the road, but if your Missus is a strong person, and used to doing for herself, it's no problem. I retired before the children started forming school and friend cliques, or romantic attractions. Thank goodness!

The hardest decision we had to make before we started to work on becoming parents was how the children were going to be raised... either by a SAH Mom, or by the various babysitters, day care, etc. Knowing whether you're willing to give up an extra paycheck and do without "stuff" to raise your (collectively) children is a big decision.

I guess that the proof is in the pudding. Our Daughter married a Marine, and our Son became a Marine. They have given us four Grands between them, and they seem very happy with their lives.

I don't have kids but SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" and CPT (Join to see) probably have some good insights.

Produced a cop, an insurance salesman, a combat vet and a three time cancer surviving long haired patriotic heavy metal sales clerk. Pretty well balanced bunch of kids.

I had 3 while I was in. They make life interesting especially for a 3 year old who was curious about switches. Dad(me) got distracted by something and all the power to amplifiers got suddenly cut off.

My husband was a "military brat" and did grow up very resilient, but he missed the stability of life-long friends. His siblings all reacted differently. When we had a chance, we left active duty. The children both excelled in superior private schools and have maintained lifelong friendships with school and neighborhood friends. Either one of them would have done well moving, but for them, I think we chose the best.

That's a great question. So far, my children have done quite well with it. It's definitely presented challenges, but I think they will be stronger, more adaptable and more resilient.

The most important thing is for the parents to maintain their own relationship with each other, while being consistent in parenting the kids. Our three kids learned flexibility, independence, and a little bit of wanderlust. They are now all in their 40's and doing well.