Customer Reviews

I'm Already Home: Keeping Your Family Close When You're on TDY

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I bought this book, I was misled into thinking it was a book for military families. The author has never been in a military family and is not a military wife. She often compares deployment to her son going away to college. The ideas she gives are unoriginal and some downright idiotic (i.e. buy a sticker supporting your military branch for your car, then you'll feel close to your service member). I was extremely disappointed and angered that this was a book penned to military families when there are very little ideas addressing deployments specifically, rather just separations like business trips.

After reading your book it became obvious to me that several of my men's wives must have used your tips while we were deployed in Afghanistan. These guys always had a smile on their face and were the envy of the base. Thanks for making our stay overseas that much more bearable!

A great book for families, a great resource for Armed Forces Family Readiness Groups! This book provides realistic ideas and numerous activities to do before, during, and after deployment. It can be used by any branch of service and every circumstance that a deployed service member is affected. I personally did many of the activites suggested, and feel more connected to my deployed husband because of them! What a great asset for spouses and children of our service members.

I have been a military wife for 19 years and have endured many separations, all with hesitation and sadness. I was never given any tools to deal with this lifestyle. My only regret is that I didn't have this book from the beginning. This author is an advocate of military families and has stepped up to the plate to fill a void, which is offering help with a lifestyle most people never really understand. Even though she is not a military wife herself she has done her part by taking the time to listen to and get to know the hearts of the military wives and families across our country who have a unique set of challenges. When my husband served in Afghanistan for eight months I still did not have this book. Next deployment will be a different experience thanks to this author's gathering of ideas from the wives and families of our brave soldiers who live with fear and separation from a loved one on a regular basis. Awesome tool!!

I agree with other reviews who have suggested that the author treats deployment like business trips. Several of the ideas to keep close during separations would work only if the separation were short term, like two months or shorter. I've never been through a two month deployment, and I'm willing to bet that when compared to six month and year long deployments, military families have little problems dealing with such a short separation period.
In addition, I found this book to be extremely geared towards children. I do not have children and I doubt that my husband would want to recieve silly art projects from me while overseas. So if you do have children, I would imagine this would be a great resource for creative art projects to show Mom or Dad how much they are missed.
In all I found this book to be incredibly disappointing and I would not recommend it to families who are looking for suggestions on how to stay close during normal military deployments or separations.

This book is a wealth of ideas for the spouse who is not immersed in, or just not able to be involved in service community because of where home is located etc-so serves to lighten the burden of being a service spouse who does not have a lot of peer support. I found it interesting even as the parent of a serviceman--very good job on this one!

i love to read any thing about a military family, just to see how we all deal with it was not like this till hubby went to iraq. Now this was one of the 1st i read and well it was ok then now i have read so many I can tell you this is ok there are better out there