Considering Military Reserves but I'm a parent and husband

midinphx, BSN · Dec 21, 2013

I don't understand why being 32 would stop you from coming active. I came in at 42.

Being in the military does effect the whole family, so valid consideration. Ask her what she thinks, not us :)

jeckrn, BSN, RN · Dec 21, 2013

I am both a parent and a spouse while I was in the reserves. It is true that it is harder on the family then the service member while deployed. Presently I am active duty and I now have more time with since the Army is my full time job and not having to do drill weekends. In the reserves there are times that you will miss family functions since they are scheduled on drill weekends. Overall I have enjoyed my time in the military.

nurse2033, MSN, RN · Dec 21, 2013

It has been awesome for me. You need a solid parenting plan, but being married that shouldn't be a problem. You will need the full and ongoing support of your spouse though. You would be able to join now with a RN license and your HSA degree. The Air Force has the shortest deployments, and I believe the Army the longest. Once you join you don't get to pick your schedule but I've found the Reserve pretty good about scheduling schools and such when possible. Deployments are on a regular schedule. I believe it is beneficial for my kids to see there is something bigger out there, and I make sure they know that I believe they are doing their part to support our troops by supporting me.

nursedaddy122 · Jan 2, 2014

Thank you all for the responses. They are very helpful. To nurse2033, if I join the military now with an RN license and my HSA degree, would I be able to work as a nurse or something else? What branch of the military are/were you in? I've had family in the Navy but I really am open to any branch: Air Force, Navy, and Army. Thanks!

Dranger · Jan 3, 2014

Thank you all for the responses. They are very helpful. To nurse2033, if I join the military now with an RN license and my HSA degree, would I be able to work as a nurse or something else? What branch of the military are/were you in? I've had family in the Navy but I really am open to any branch: Air Force, Navy, and Army. Thanks!

You would have to be an RN. In order to do something else you would need to do OCS or ROTC to qualify for other Army branches like aviation, logistics, infantry etc. Direct Commission only works for medical/law/religious professionals..

At 32 you are too old for ROTC or OCS

nurse2033, MSN, RN · Jan 3, 2014

I'm a flight nurse in the Air Guard. I entered by applying through my unit. In other words, I interviewed for the flight nursing job directly. I believe you would be able to work as a nurse. But as I may have read here, the army will only take BSNs (see member Luna). I entered on an ASN (RN) and Bachelor in a non nursing field. The Bachelor degree enabled me to be an officer, and the RN as a nurse. All nurses are officers so you need a Bachelor in something plus the RN. As far as I know, that's still the case for the Air Force. You could be a general officer based on your HSN degree I believe, but I don't know the age limit. For medical it is 48 but it is probably much lower for other officers. Dranger seems to know more about nonnursing.

coconutzz · Jan 3, 2014

Rain-man,

While I have not left for training yet (I leave for COT in a little over a week!) I have been married to a service member while working as a civilian nurse and we have 2 kids. I cannot speak for the experience of being the service member during a deployment, but as the family left behind it can be very difficult. If your spouse stays at home, things like child care will be much easier. I worked and went to school during the 3 deployments my spouse has been on. I found that my instructors at school were more understanding (as much as they could be in nursing school) but it is often difficult for my work to understand that as the sole parent, I am the only one here for every sick day/doctor's appointment/early dismissal/inservice day. I had to find a lot of additional childcare, which required a lot more money allocated for that. Sometimes I had family/friends to help, but they cannot stop what they are doing for months at a time to accommodate all our needs. I had many back up plans. BONUS: I have more refined planning and organization skills:) Also, my spouse never received more than 3 weeks notice for a deployment. We keep back up plans in place even when a deployment is not imminent because it seems like his come out of no where for us. I also found there was a significant amount of stress when we moved about finding a job. Because I am a nurse, I had to pay for licensure and sometimes found it difficult to find openings in the area of nursing I have experience in. Finding a place to live and lining that up with the kind of school we want our kids to attend has also been another challenge. Sometimes the distance is too great between our current location and our next assignment to allow for a house hunting visit. This can make moving a bit intimidating!

I am not saying all these negatives to dissuade you from service, but there are a lot of difficulties that come with this lifestyle and planning ahead and acknowledging the challenges can make you better prepared. We enjoy what we have and want to keep this going, else I wouldn't have applied to go in myself:) As other people have stated, you are nowhere near the age cutoff for active duty. But I think sometimes it helps to hear just how much planning and accommodating is required.