Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Talking Tuesday

The news this morning featured a story of a mom who refused to deploy, since she was unable to provide care for her 10-month old son. Read the entie article HERE.

Should the rules of deployment be different for single parents?

Your turn........

5 comments:

MRMacrum said...

According to the article the rules are already different. Thsi seems to me to be a situation that managed to screw up the rules in place. The PFC was told at the last minute her infant had no one to take care of her. She made a decision. Tough one for all sides to figure out.

I will be interested to see how this one works out.

Bag Blog said...

This is a tough one. I have lots of thoughts - lots of questions. Most of my thoughts are a bit controversial - women who want both a career and be mothers think they can balance the two, but chances are the two will not balance.

Wonderful World of Weiners said...

Different? Maybe not. But exceptions must be made on a case by case basis. To put her child in foster care seems outrageous. You can't tell me there isnt some other job they can have her do in order to keep her home with her kiddo until another arrangement can be made.

There will ALWAYS be single parents with this issue in the military. The military and parenthood are NOT mutual exclusive.

And this doesn't JUST happen to moms Bag Blog. I've read about single dads in the military having the same issues.

Sounds like she HAD a plan in place that fell through. Seems reasonable to give her a solid chunk of time to come up with an alternate plan.

Doesn't sound like she was trying to avoid serving her country when asked. Sounds like she was trying NOT to make her child a ward of the state.

Hallie

Sarge Charlie said...

This is one that question the changes that were made to make military service available for all. In my day she would not have been qualified for service as a single mother. Maybe we have gone too far with the PC crap in the military.

Coffeypot said...

That is a tough one for real.

First of all, she is a cook, not a normal combat occupation, and there are many cooks that would be glad to go in her place.

Maybe she could work out a swap of duty stations to stay on a base in the US or Germany or somewhere tat would allow her to keep her child with her.

This was a timing thing. I think it could be worked out to everyone’s satisfaction if the Army will get off it's ego.