Military Mom Talk Radio hosted by Sandra Beck and Robin Boyd welcomes Debbie Nichols of Deployed: Grandparents Being Parents, August 29
August 29, 2011
By Military Mom Talk Radio, Motherhood Incorporated
Military Mom Talk Radio hosted by Sandra Beck and Robin Boyd welcomes Debbie Nichols of Deployed: Grandparents Being Parents.
How would you like to wake up one morning and have your entire lifestyle change?
Debbie Nichols tells her story.
“That is what happened to me. My husband and I were empty nesters having the time of our life; kids were grown, doing what we wanted to do. Then our United States Air Force single parent daughter deployed to Afghanistan and we became the guardians to her two school age daughters.”
“We had to adjust to a completely different lifestyle and being a parent again, along with worrying about our daughter’s safety.”
“My story begins when I pick up my granddaughters in Arizona and move them to our home in California. We enroll them in school; learn how to be a parent in today’s society. I share how to adjust to sudden lifestyle change, military deployment, mixed emotions of missing my old life style, challenges of reuniting the family back to prior deployment, and my struggles of transforming back to being a grandmother again.”
“This was the biggest challenge in my life but the most rewarding”.
“When my daughter returned from her tour of duty I felt a need to reach out to military families facing deployment. The military prepares the spouses for deployment, but not the civilian guardians. Presently there is no information for guardians and I wanted to share my experiences and ways to make the deployment experience a positive one.”
“According to the 2008 US Census there over 4.5 million grandparents raising their grandchildren and the number is rising. There were two million military children that experienced their parents deployment and 250,000 military children went to a guardian to live.”
“Recently, I have had several friends become permanent guardians to their grandchildren, having to readjust their entire life style. Having that experience of sudden change and changing my empty nester lifestyle I felt I could help. Transitioning and adjusting to their new life can be very difficult. You didn’t sign up for this job, but your love drives you to take this huge responsibility. It is the most challenging, yet rewarding time of your life.”
Join Sandra and Robin this Monday to hear Debbie’s heartfelt story. Doris Rivas-Brekke, roving reporter, will be back with News You Can Use.
Military Mom Talk Radio on airs on Mondays at 2pm Pacific Standard Time on Toginet Radio and can be downloaded directly from itunes and MilitaryMomTalkRadio.com.
Military Mom Talk Radio is co-hosted by Sandra Beck and Robin Boyd, creative director Doris Rivas-Brekke, hosted by Toginet Radio and powered by Motherhood Incorporated. Military Mom Talk Radio supports and helps bring information to the families of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard and is dedicated to serving our friends and family at the following Army bases: Fort Sill, Fort Bragg, Fort Carson, Fort Jackson, Fort Sam Houston, Fort Dix, Fort Campbell, Fort Belvoir, Eglin AFB, Shaw AFB, Fort Hood, Fort Eustis, Fort Leonard Wood, Redstone Arsenal and Fort Bliss. We would also like to honor our friends and family at the following over seas installations: Bahrain Administrative Support Unit, NATO Support Activity Belgium, Bad Kreuznach, Rhein-Main Air Base, Stuttgart/Robinson Barracks, Naval Forces Guam, Kadena Air Base, Torii Station, Aviano Air Base. We would like to thank the Department of Defense for supplying guest and topics.
