Life on the Move

Every two to four years, military children tend to grow up looking at a stack of cardboard boxes, getting ready to face yet another move. While on Active Duty orders, it is the average for military families to move every two to four years. While there are some exceptions, this is the reality that many military children experience beginning early in their childhood.

It is often said that military children are like dandelions – hence why the flower of military families is a dandelion. Dandelions plant roots in the ground just to be picked and blown to a new location and start the process all over again. Military children pick up, move to another duty station, plant roots, and then the whole process begins again.

It can be hard to frequently move so many times in their childhood, but through this process, military children gain resiliency that is vital to their success in their military dependent life. These children grow up knowing that it is normal to stay living in the same house for maybe four years, before making a new place home.

For many children, moving to a new school is one of the biggest struggles. Through my time interviewing military children on Grace of a Military Child and Life Podcast, I have come to learn a few things.

1.     Many children tend to attend over five schools throughout their education.

2.     A large majority of children move right before or during their senior year.

The first point is pretty self-explanatory. Children have 18 years of living at home. If they move every two to four years, that is on average five to nine schools they attend. Some children attend even more than that.

The second point may be a little more questionable. I do not necessarily have professional statistics to prove this is true, but after interviewing over 75 military children, I find this to be common among many children. This is not something that them, their family, or the military have control over, it just is something that happens that way. And this is not the case for every child, just a good majority of them.

Senior year is vital to any high school student – civilian or military related. When moving during that time period in life, many military children say it is quite a struggle to make new friends in their new school and new neighborhood. It can happen, but it is pretty rare that military children end up at the same duty station as a friend of theirs – you don’t get to always pick where you go ;)

For some children, they look forward to the opportunity of the thrill to move to another country! For others, this is also a major challenge. While it is fun having the opportunity to live in another country, it also can be a struggle to adapt to a new culture for such a short period of time. I did not have the opportunity to live in another country, but from those I have interviewed, here are some common pros and cons:

-Pro: Getting to see another area of the world.

-Con: Missing some of the convenience and comfort of the United States.

-Pro: Experiencing a new culture

-Con: Experiencing a new culture.

-Pro: Getting to try new food.

-Con: Missing some of the common fast food chains the U.S. has (Chick-fil-a is a major one!)

That is just to name a few. As you can see, there are some positives and negatives to moving to new countries and exploring new areas of the world.

Did you move around frequently? What was your experience with it? Let us know!