Lyla’s journey
Army life can be tough at the best of times, but how do you cope as a family if your child is sick with a serious illness? Soldier Paul O’Donovan and his wife Kirsty are doing just that with their five-year-old...
Jewels on the move
Army wife Fiona Dowling believes you can make jewellery anywhere as long as you have the tools and materials. In fact, she started her business, Jewellery Moves, in Cyprus by running workshops on the beach. She...
The F-word
If you had to pick one word to describe your soldier’s job, it probably wouldn’t be “flexible”. Families fit around an unpredictable schedule with early starts and late nights, lost weekends and long spells of ...
Striking a balance
When Regimental Medical Officer Maj Mike Claydon heard about the Flexible Duties Trial, he felt it would be an ideal solution to ease the pressure of Army life on his young family. The trial is the forerunner t...
Next stop: Civvy street
YOUR soldier’s final day in uniform is life-changing for the whole family. With a deadline to find a new job, home and school on civvy street, it pays not to leave your planning until the last minute, writes Ji...
Toddlers on their travels
Being posted overseas with young children can be a great adventure, but it can also have its drawbacks. Childcare provision and facilities for under-fives varies from location-to-location, so the key thing is t...
Mind the gap
While it can be challenging for partners of Service personnel to return to work after a career gap, we meet the women proving that breaks in employment are not necessarily a bad thing…
Emma Horseman
Na...
Pre-school page turner
After working with children as an early years educator for more than 15 years, Stacey Turner (pictured above) was inspired to create a book to help settle her eldest daughter into nursery during a difficult tra...
Big support for little people
Living an unpredictable Army life can make keeping a regular and continuous support structure in place for your child tricky. If you add Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) into the mix, it becomes ...
‘I joined the Military Wives Choir – and I haven’t looked back!’
THE unpredictable nature of Army life puts lots of pressure on families and the feeling of isolation can be common. There’s lots of research to say that singing in groups helps to alleviate stress and improve m...