Does knowledge of potentially stressful situations at home increase the stress on a service member who is deployed? Does withholding information of those situations at home create an environment of distrust in a military marriage?
Can you rely on your spouse for support during a deployment, despite the distance and vast differences in your everyday lives? Is it healthier to rely on support from other spouses and to encourage our service members to rely on support from fellow comrades who understand what they are going through?
Does deployment communication have a direct effect on how we re-integrate during homecoming? Is constant communication helpful or hindering to the process?
Are there ways to balance our use of communication during a deployment? Can we have our cake and eat it too?
All of these questions will have many different answers, depending on which side of the aisle the person answering them may fall on. It is my opinion that more communication during deployment has more negatives than positives, and the trend toward more frequent access and a “tell-all” mentality has me concerned. I worry about what the extra stress of knowing everything could be doing… both to our troops and to those of us who remain at home. But I also realize that my view could be influenced a bit by the way my marriage works and my experience with limited technology early on in my military spouse adventure.
Which side of the aisle are you on? Do you fall somewhere in between? How would you answer these questions?
I hope you will join in this discussion with me. I hope we can have an open, honest conversation about this topic… because I do think it is an important one to have.
So… how do you answer the question, “Do We Communicate TOO Much During Deployment”?
