May 15th, 2008
50 Best Relationship Resources and Sites for Military Couples
Besides traditional issues with love, sex, parenting, long distance relationships and break-ups, military couples have their own unique struggles to face each day. Long deployments, readjustment problems, life abroad and on base, lonely pregnancies and complicated divorces can make even routine communication seem like hard work. To give you and your partner some much needed support, we’ve generated this list of 50 relationships resources and websites. Turn to these sites whenever you need a boost or some real-life advice.
Relocating and Base Life
For tips on adjusting to a major move or dealing with deployment, check out these websites and articles.
- Moving: Moving to a new country or city can be a strain on couples, especially if one of the spouses has to be relocated because of military service. Turn to this guide for advice and support.
- Making a Move: Get more tips for preparing for a PCS from this page.
- How to Inform Your Spouse that you do not Want to Attend a Military Heart Link Class: If you’re not enthusiastic about attending a military heart link class for couples counseling and advice, use this guide to address the subject.
- Should You Stay or Go?: Deciding whether or not to follow your spouse to a new country can mean evaluating your entire relationship. This articles walks you through the process.
- Managing Deployment: Learn about the experiences of other military families preparing to say goodbye to their loved ones in this guide.
- Deployment and Marriage — Impact and Coping Tips: This site has tips for maintaining a long distance marriage, coping with separation during multiple deployments and more.
- Military Wives’ 21 Best Tips for Dealing with a Spouse’s Deployment: Tips like "keep busy," "call on your friends," "remember your promise," and "keep your routine" will help you through the separation.
Family Support
New parents and pregnant wives and girlfriends can get support online anytime thanks to these resources.
- New Parent Support: This guide has resources for military couples who are also new parents.
- Family Support: Find emotional and practical support for everything from stressed out kids to keeping a positive attitude to understanding your benefits.
- VAJoe Exclusive Military Spouse and Family Section: Comment on forums like "Military Marriage and Relationships" and "Military Marital & Relationship Difficulties" to find support whenever you need it.
- Ideas for Deployment Pregnancies: This guide has tips for moms and dads who want to stay close during a pregnancy, even during a deployment.
Dating and Getting Married
What’s it really like to date a soldier or serviceman or woman? These sites provide lots of tips for starting a relationship with someone in the military and deciding whether or not to marry a soldier.
- Getting Married: This article questions if getting married is the thing to do "before or after joining the military."
- Military Dating and Finding Your True Love in Uniform: This article discusses military dating sites that connect you to servicemen in the Marines, Navy, Air Force, Army and Coast Guard.
- Military Weddings and Honeymoons: Questions about getting married on base, military formal weddings, time off and more in this article.
- Married to the Military: 20 Ways to Make it Work: If you’re unsure about taking your relationship with a military serviceman or women to the next level, read this article for tips on making a military marriage last.
- Should I Marry a Soldier?: Marrying a soldier comes with a lot of sacrifice and stress. Learn about the real-life issues you can expect to confront if you marry into the military.
- Valentine’s Day Love for Soldiers, Veterans and Other Warriors: Celebrating Valentine’s Day when your other half is on duty can be tough. Here are some ways to make the holiday special anyway.
Dual Military Couples
Relationships in which both members are in the military need constant nurturing and support. Get help for finding time to communicate and spend time with each other here.
- Married Military Couples: Read first-hand accounts of real-life military couples to see how they cope with their schedules and anxieties.
- Married to the Military: Get advice on dealing with long separations, learning from each other and raising a family.
- For Better or Worse: How a Dual-Military Couple Manages Their Personal and Professional Life: Learn how this dual military couple keeps it together despite separation, grueling training and schedules, and other obstacles.
Life at Home
From readjustment counseling to life as a lonely army wife, these articles and resources focus on how to military couples and spouses deal with their relationships at home.
- Readjustment Counseling: This site is for soldiers who are returning home from combat and who want help readjusting to their civilian relationships and family life.
- My Married Yet Strangely Single Life as an Army Wife: In this article, an army wife discusses the six Fs that "keep [her] going:" faith, family, friends, future, funny bones and fitness.
- Domestic Abuse: This page on the Military Homefront website features a hotline for domestic abuse, as well as military-specific benefits for victims of domestic abuse.
- Strong Bonds and Better Relationships: This article follows the story of a real-life couple that encountered problems reuniting after a tour of duty in Iraq.
- Your Beloved Soldier is Coming Home - Now What?: After the excitement settles over expecting the return of your military spouse, you need to address issues like post-war trauma, guilt, depression, an older child and more.
- Homecoming Tips for Military Couples: Tips like "accept that your partner may be different" and "tone down your fantasies" are helpful tips for excited couples.
- Separated by War: This article tracks four couples and their struggles with separation during the Iraq war.
- Military Spouse Support: If you want some personalized advice for coping with separation or any other military relationship problem, e-mail the Hooah Wife and Friends blog here.
- Julie Anna Infantry Wife: Read about Julie Anna’s attempts to find meaning and energy in her home life while her husband is away in the Army.
Divorce, Abuse and Other Issues
Unfortunately, military couples sometimes experience abuse, divorce and infidelity. Discover ways to cope with these issues in this list.
- Military and Divorce: Refer to this site for help identifying triggers that can result in divorce in military couples and for resources for hiring an attorney, getting benefits and more.
- Family Advocacy: Learn how to prevent and deal with spousal and child abuse in your military family here.
- Divorce Tips for Military Couples: This guide helps military couples get through a divorce amicably and responsibly.
- Military Divorce and Separation Issues: This site provides links to military divorce prevention, divorce FAQs, divorce-related legal issues by state, and more.
- Adultery in the Military: This website decodes adultery in the military, including legal issues and specific cases.
- Military Spouses and Divorce: This article features "five tips for military spouses who may be thinking about divorce."
- When Love is a Battlefield: Military couples going through a divorce can turn to this guide for financial and familial advice.
Long Distance Relationships
Military couples know that their long distance relationships are a lot harder to maintain than traditional long distance loves. These articles and sites are full of advice, though, for your specific questions and situations.
- How to Get Close When You are Far Apart: Tips like not relying on e-mail and making plans together despite your distance can help ease the separation.
- Infidelity on the Homefront: Read the advice given to a young military wife having trouble staying loyal to her army husband.
- Long Distance Relationships and the Military: This author suggests setting up a regular schedule for communicating, making use of technology and keeping a journal to cope with a long distance military relationship.
- Military Wife Tips: Keeping Any Long Distance Relationship Alive: This detailed article is designed to give support to military couples who spend a lot of time apart.
- Long Distance Relationships: Check out this page of resources for couples in LDRs, or long distance relationships.
Miscellaneous Resources
From online radio stations to hotline information to tried and true relationship tips, this list features even more resources to help you along.
- Military OneSource: This support center has a 24/7 hotline and an entire section devoted to parenting and relationships advice for military couples.
- CincHouse.com: This "community of military wives and women in uniform" includes great articles for nurturing relationships and family life.
- Army Wife Talk Radio: This clever website and online radio includes family and relationship advice and tips.
- Military Couples Fight to Preserve Home Front: This news article also provides links and advice for military couples who have to deal with separation, uncertainty, infidelity, and financial issues.
- Military Spouse Talk Radio: Turn to this online radio show for stories, advice, and more support.
- Spouse Buzz: This site is "where military spouses connect" to talk about communication, marriage, deployment and more.
- Loving a Marine: This post includes poems and stories about Marine wives and their struggles.
- Goodbye Always Seems to be the Hardest Word: Get tips on saying goodbye to your other half when he or she leaves on a mission.
- Military Relationships: Keeping it Together: This how-to guide has plenty of "tips and ideas for keeping it together," including Internet rendezvous, surprise phone calls and more.
If you enjoyed this article, please bookmark it at del.icio.us »
September 4th, 2008 at 10:17 am
There is another great blog for military couples or couples in general. It offers great advice or you can just sign up for the free advice directly at marriagefitness1 You can find the blog on wordpress by searching for marriagefitnesswithmortfertel. Good luck!
September 4th, 2008 at 10:18 am
oops. thats http://www.marriagefitness1.com.