joining the military as the mother of a young child?

Question

what in your opinion are the Pros and cons?

Answer 1

You will have to give custody to the father or another close relative ARE you ready to do that? If so then go talk to a recruiter. I have met and worked with many young mothers while in Iraq. Good Luck and make the right choice for you and your child.



Vet-USAF / Contractor in Iraq



@dded : Anyone that does not believe this needs to call a recruiter. She will have to give temporary custody to someone else and Then have a Family Care Plan in place after basic > > This Apply's to all Branches



@dd 2 : I found this you might want to read

e been in the Navy for 4 years and have a 2 yr. From what I've seen and also know, the mom has to relinguish her rights as a parent until the completion of boot camp, also if she ever gets orders to a ship she would have to do the same thing or face with being discharged under paenthood. I also know that it can be anyone she chooses, which to me in the case is the sad part. If I was the father I would try for full custody and run with it. I'll be getting out of the Navy in a Month, in my opinion kids need a stable foundation and the military isn't going to provide that with the possibilty of moving ever 2-4 years. Good luck.



:

: When served with a Petition for Joint Residential Custody (they already have

: joint legal), the primary residential parent(Mom) has offered the Dad a

: "deal". She wants to join military and give him the kids while

: she is in basic training and then be able to take them with her wherever

: she gets stationed. Dad is totally opposed to this idea - he moved to be

: specifically near the kids and now she wants to take them away.

:

: In the Family Care Package that Mom would have to complete - does she have

: options for whom she "gives" custody too? She thinks that she

: can pick anyone but I highly doubt this. Is it true that she will not be

: able to join until she has all of her court battles over with?

:

: Thanks for any help.









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Answer 2

If you are a single mother, you could join the Army Reserves with a family care plan. You cannot join the Active Army as a single parent.



If you are happily married, you can join the Reserves or Active Army without a family care plan... so long as your spouse is not in the military.



The pros and cons will be based on your ability to deal with military life and family life. The job you choose may have a lot to do with how everything would work out. Many jobs in the Army have typical work hours... finance, admin, some medical jobs.... The job you have will have a lot to do with the pros and cons of raising a family in the military.

Answer 3

I once put in a woman who had the choice between using welfare to support her three kids or enlisting (the father couldn't enlist because he was a convicted felon, but that's another story). She chose to enlist because she felt it would make her a better person in the long run. The military isn't for everybody. It may not be for you if you feel that you can't bear to be away from your child during deployments or training. But fact of the matter is you have to pay the bills one way or another. Your child may miss you at first but in a few years they will understand. The Army decided that they will allow mothers of children enlist if they choose to do so and they are otherwise qualified (which you aren't due to not being married and having custody). When you're not training you go home every night anyway unless deployed.

Answer 4

You will have to give up temp-custody and have a family care plan in place but that doesn't mean you are giving your child away. The military is no different than any other civilian job. After training when your are settled at your perm. station you will be able to go get your child. Everyone situation is different. When i went in I had no children and all my friends did, I didn't see a difference between civilian child rearing or military rearing. Do whats best for you and then you will be able to do whats best for her/she. Pray about it.

Answer 5

You will NOT have to give custody to anyone. Do not listen to whoever said that. You may need to assign temporary guardianship to someone though.

Its a wonderful thing. For anyone. A mother or a father. The age of the child doesn't matter, but do realize that you will be separated from the child for long periods of time. In the Navy it could be 6 months up to 18 months. You never know. Depends on where they send you. You will be compensated well. You get your basic pay, BAH (which pretty much equals your paycheck) and more income for food. You get incredible insurance as well.

The only con is that you will be separated from this child for long periods of time. Its a very very very difficult thing to do.





Kudos to you on whatever you do. The two most noble things you can do is give life and serve your country. So....look how well you have done so far.



(recruiters cannot make you sign custody over to anyone. They are not allowed to do that anymore. Its a guardianship thing. Not custody. 2 very very different things)

Answer 6

I enjoyed it, got to see the world, got a free education, did not have to rely on a man, the only thign was in my last unit and not in any other unit, they worked weird hours, and there is no 24 hour daycare, I had to get my darcare provider up a couple of times at 0400 for a range, I had to go to IG or EO because they tried to put me on details when there was no daycare provider like after 6PM or on weekends (or just bring th ekids to work or a night shift, on on a 12 hour shift when I had ot pick my kids up early, or fight to pick my kids up when daycare closed if we worked past 1700. I held up my end of the deal and had someone to watch my kids when I deployed and a family care plan, they just wanted ot play hard ball when it came to ODD HOURS.

Answer 7

Sorry to say but you are going to have to give full custody to someone else. The military does not allow single mothers in.

So, basically it's your child or the military.

Answer 8

if you are a single parent it is a moot point.. you CANNOT enlist Active duty period.



single parents may NOT give u custody just to enlist and they may NOT get custody back for THE ENTIRE first term of enlistment.. that's 4-6 YEARS,

Answer 9

how young are we talking...

Answer 10

surely you are kidding....