Military relationships are exciting as well as challenging. There’s the constant uncertainty of where their next orders will take you as well as the possibility of extended time spent apart from your girlfriend or boyfriend. Whether it is because of long deployments, training exercises, or secret missions, long-distance during military life is inevitable at some point in your relationship.
But don’t despair! Military relationships provide the perfect opportunity to learn and grow as a couple to form a healthy relationship. Our team at Lovebox has put together a guide to help you lay the foundation for a loving, successful, and solid military relationship!
Can Long-Distance Military Relationships Be Successful?
Absolutely!
In fact, most couples in long-distance military relationships develop a stronger bond and feel closer to their partner than couples who live nearby! Why? The most common reason for a greater sense of intimacy is that people in a long-distance relationship communicate more and deeper emotionally.
Deployment may make clear communication, particularly face-to-face communication, nearly impossible at times. However, that makes time spent together sweeter and more intimate for long-distance couples, even if it happens the hard way. Military relationships will always have their challenges, just like every other relationship, but can still be successful with a bit of creativity and effort when it comes to emotional matters.
Our 6 Favorite Tips for Military Relationships
Let’s break down our top tips for military relationships to thrive, not just survive!
1.Use Modern Communication to Your Advantage
Modern technology has provided us with fantastic communication right at our fingertips! From email to texting to FaceTime, you can communicate and find intentional moments to chat throughout your day to ease loneliness and frustration. Open and honest communication is the cornerstone to a successful relationship.
Another form of modern communication used to your advantage in one of our favorite tips for military relationships: social media. Sending each other memes and tagging each other in articles the other person would enjoy is one of the most simple yet beneficial ways to keep your relationship strong because you get to see more of their humor and what they are currently enjoying despite geographic separation.
For example, if you both are fans of the same T.V. show or movie, keeping each other up to date through social media spoilers and trailers helps you continue to enjoy a joint hobby while you are apart for long periods of time. Plus, who doesn’t like getting a fun meme or TikTok video to brighten up your day in a unique way?
2.Appreciate the Differences
It’s essential to understand that a military relationship has its own unique set of challenges and blessings. One of our best tips for military relationships is appreciating the differences compared to a non-civilian relationship. For example, you’ll always have a thankful heart for the small details and little moments in life that we so often overlook, such as family dinners or having everyone home for the holidays, because of the limited time spent together.
Furthermore, military bases and communities are usually incredibly supportive. Even though you may be alone at certain times, indeed, you will never truly be alone in the military community. There is also a plethora of support groups worldwide for military couples and families.
3.Discuss Staying in Touch Before Deployment
Being honest concerning both of your communication needs is best when there’s a period of long-distance. An important tip for military relationships is to discuss each other’s expectations for staying in touch during long deployment cycles or separations.
Set expectations early on regarding how you will communicate so one or both of you doesn’t get disappointed or feel neglected if issues should arise. Of course, it takes precious time and effort to maintain a relationship through a physical separation due to military duties. Still, if both of you have an idea of what to expect from each other, then you will both feel secure in spite of the lack of time together.
A few questions to ask each before your period of long-distance begins:
- How will you stay in touch? Text, letters, video chats, social media, email, phone calls?
- How often will you or can you text or call? A couple of times a day, daily, weekly?
- What time works best for both of you to call or video chat? Be sure to factor in different time zones and other daily commitments that may interfere with your scheduled time to chat.
- Always expect the unexpected during your new normal. For example, the WiFi may be unreliable, letters may take weeks or months to arrive, care packages may arrive late, or security may be too tight to communicate much. Have a conversation beforehand about how you will overcome any communication challenges or disruption along the way.
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Stay positive about the small things. It can be discouraging not hearing from your partner for an extended period. But just think of how sweet and intimate your reunion will be when you finally get to listen to each other’s voices and hear them talk about their day.
However you decide to stay connected, you and your partner can keep your military relationship more robust than ever with a bit of planning and commitment in your daily lives!
4. Learn the Art of the Military Care Package
Being away from home for an extended deployment can get lonely, but a thoughtful military care package is just what your soldier needs to brighten their day!
Our next tip for military relationships and long-distance love is learning the art of a military care package to show your service member how much they are loved and missed. There are many options and resources for putting together a military care package, depending on what your loved one prefers. A great place to start when planning your military care package is to ask them what they miss the most from home and go from there!
The options are endless, but some popular items to include in your military care package include:
- Reminders from home, such as your famous chocolate chip cookies or their favorite local jam or BBQ sauce.
- Products they need but don’t have access to include lip balm, lotion, hand sanitizer, cough drops, floss, and pain-relieving cream.
- Fun downtime activities include playing cards, board games, books, art supplies, video games, and a harmonica or other small playing instruments.
- Clothing for reminders from home such as favorite sports teams or places from home. Socks or slippers, and beanies.
- Nonperishable snacks always are needed, such as beef jerky, peanut butter, protein bars, nuts, seeds, and popcorn.
Suppose you want to make your care package extra special. Design a theme for your package depending on the season or holiday. For example, you could decorate a Christmas care package with each item individually wrapped so it’ll feel more like the holidays. Perhaps it’s the Fourth of July you could include some red, white, and blue confetti.
Suffice it to say, it’s always a good idea to double-check if there are any special regulations or guidelines regarding what you can and cannot send your long-distance soldier. Sometimes strict policies depend on their location and mission, so it never hurts. Whatever you send your soldier is sure to love since it’s from you!
6. Make Homecomings Super Special
Finally! After weeks or months of a long deployment in foreign countries, your soldier is coming home! Treat their homecoming like a holiday with gestures like their favorite food, a new outfit, and signs and balloons. Have your close friends and family members take plenty of pictures and videos to remember their special day! And don’t forget to have fun! You both deserve it!
7.Change Up Your Methods of Communication
If you start noticing your standard forms of communication becoming monotonous, it may be time to change things up. Our Lovebox for Lovers is the sweetest gift for your military soulmate! The Lovebox for Lovers goes beyond traditional texting and emails to send your loved one unique and cute pictures, colored messages, customized stickers, and even postcards!
Simply create your personalized love message and send it to their Lovebox with our free app. You can even schedule your message if you’re worried you won’t get it sent in the right amount of time! Then the heart will spin when they receive the message during their military service. After they read the message, they can spin the heart back, and a waterfall of hearts will shower over your screen. Our sweet messaging system is perfect for long-distance couples expressing love with more than text messages and emails!
Summary
Making military relationships thrive, not just survive, is entirely possible! Thanks to our modern forms of communication and social media, you can stay connected with significant others through many different forms of communication in spite of military challenges like basic training.
However, discussing how and when you will communicate while apart will ensure no hurt feelings should issues arise. Learning the art of sending military care packages and making their homecomings memorable will also help keep your military relationship strong. However, when your communication is getting monotonous, the Lovebox for Lovers will make it possible to feel connected more than ever!
Sources:
9 Themes to Make Your Military Care Package Outstanding - VeteranAid
13 Pieces Of Long-Distance Relationship Advice From Military Spouses | HuffPost Life
Long-distance relationships are more successful than you think | NYPost
