Much ado was made of the Army Family Covenant when it was signed earlier this year. It would improve our facilities, our healthcare, our childcare, blah blah blah. And I think when it was signed -- and of course, splashed all over the headlines -- I thought it was a little too good to be true.
And for us, it is.
Not even two weeks after our husbands deployed, our Child and Youth Services decided to discontinue several much-desired and well-utilized childcare programs. Never mind that it promised that it wouldn't cut anything in all of the briefings before the guys left. Never mind that they signed the Covenant and told us that wouldn't allow them to cut programs. They did it anyway. And are actually using the Covenant to justify these cuts, saying that it's the only way they can provide the free childcare hours they promised. Worse, because of that, it appears that there may be no recourse.
It's times like these I'm so fucking proud to be an American.
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5 comments:
As a non-parent, I sometimes feel like nearly all the money and effort the military puts into supporting and providing services for spouses goes into child care services. And given the number of children military people tend to have, I can see why.
But they're not even doing that? What the hell are they doing?
Are they having a staffing problem? We ran into that issue in Korea. If so, get the word out to spouses looking to work.
As a responsible parent of 2 (yes, just 2!) grown children, I don't understand why military people tend to have so many children. I've wondered about this for a while now. Maybe instead of so much (apparently not) being spent on children, they need to spend some on child prevention!
Just my opinion.
oh... and we are surprised?? naaah. it's SOP, right? I wish I could help.. can anyone?
LAW
Anon - as the parent of 1 child, wondered too. but that is THEIR choice. Childcare for 1 or 2 or however many is a huge expense and for a deployed family, it means that the at home spouse is IT, all alone. Yes, I know there are lots of moms raising kids alone, but if there is a way to help the military spouses who are going through the mind games of deployment, help them for just a couple of hours of "me" time, and also have some trained people interacting with 1, or even "only 2" kids, to make sure they are handling the deployment... I say it is money well spent.
LAW
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