My husband came back from his third deployment three years ago and we've built this careful routine where we don't talk about what changed in him or what changed in me while he was gone, but our teenage daughter is starting to ask harder questions about why daddy gets quiet sometimes and I don't know how to navigate this together. We both want to protect her but we're protecting her from different things and I think we need to actually say that out loud.
More people experience this than they realize.
You've created separate narratives about shared trauma to avoid confronting how war changed your family system.
“Where Are You with Veterans & Military Families?”
If this sounds familiar, the Library can help you find the bigger picture.