Quick Tips for Strengthening Family During Deployment

Here are some ways to help your family stay connected with you while you're deployed:

Surprise your children with lunchbox notes. Send home a batch of short "I love you" notes for your spouse to tuck into your children's lunchboxes or under their pillows.
Send individual e-mails to your children. For a young child, you can create a Word document with big letters that can be printed.
Ask your family members to read your letters aloud at the dinner table. Even when there is no letter, ask them to bring you into their dinnertime conversation.
Share what you know. Have a regular "show-and-tell" where you teach your children something new in an e-mail, letter, or on the telephone. And your children can tell you about something new they learned in school, or discovered from a book or a friend.
Write a running letter. Start it in the morning and add to it in the evening, if you can. If you do this for several days before you mail the letter, your family will have a better idea of what your life is like. Ask your family members to do the same.
Share a letter. Write the first paragraph of a letter or story, then send it to your family to add another paragraph. Continue adding to the letter throughout your deployment.
Have an ongoing trivia contest. Through e-mail or letters, ask your spouse or children trivia questions and have them do the same for you.
Think of each other at a regular time each day. Set up a time each day, adjusting for the time difference, when you will stop what you're doing for a moment and think about each other.

Your Family Support Center can give you information and support on many issues that affect service members and their families. And Military OneSource, a free 24/7 service from DoD, available to all active-duty, Guard, and Reserve members and their families, provides information and referrals plus face-to-face counseling. Call 1-800-342-9647 or access www.MilitaryOneSource.com.

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