Chicken Soup for PEC and Flat Daddy's

Try a Flat-Daddy, Flat-Mommy, or Flat-Family as one way to keep your family close and continue sharing memories and interacting no matter how many miles separate you! Folks first reactions to these cardboard substitutes vary from bewilderment to disgust. Then you hear a testimony like those in an article in the NYTimes, 30Sep06, “When Soldiers Go to War, Flat Daddies Hold Their Place at Home” or from the Boston Globe, 30Aug06, “Guard families cope in two dimensions `Flat Daddy' cutouts ease longing” or from ImAlreadyHome where the paper people idea first popped up.

"I took Flat Daddy to my Vacation Bible School party," said pretty Ana, of PEC's Strength Maintenance Training Center Family. “I prop him up in a chair, or sometimes put him on the couch and cover him up with a blanket,” said Kay Judkins of Caribou, whose husband, Jim, is a minesweeper mechanic in Afghanistan. “The cat will curl up on the blanket, and it looks kind of weird. I’ve tricked several people by that. They think he’s home again.”

Ms. Sorenson said it helped Sarah, now 4, recognize her father when he came home on leave. “She saw him on the jetway and said, ‘Daddy, Daddy,’ ” Ms. Sorenson said. “There was no anxiety.”

Mrs. Newton from PEC said, “Flat-Jon goes everywhere and everyone wants to take a picture with him!” and “My daughter-in-law’s scrapbook was real-Jon's priceless birthday gift!” One American told me that she was humbled by everyone's patriotism that was inspired when they saw the back-side of flat-daddy that was covered with yellow ribbons and hand-written well-wishes, and folks went out of their way to be helpful and wish the young family "Godspeed".

Another tool, the Flat-Family, also helps families keep strong bonds during deployments. “The trick is to take a wallet sized picture of the family, place in the soldier's wallet," and they can take pictures if deployment duty allows to show the family their dinning hall, bunk, and the stars they look at,” said a family who's knowledge was passed down from a veteran spouse, Mrs. John’s, PEC Deployed Spouse Liaison. And one young lady surprised her daddy at his going away party with a Flat-Family picture and the below letter because, "Family is F*O*R*E*V*E*R,” she said.

Learn where to get a FREE Flat Daddy and how-to make: http://www.imalreadyhome.com/flatdaddy.htm

Example letter:

Dear Daddy,

Please take us with you, your “flat-family” because, the President of the United States won’t let us come with you on your deployment, in support of the war against terrorism and the President will let your “flat family” go. This will remind you of how much we love you and will miss you. And if you can, please take pictures of where we get to go and what we get to see and do because we care.

Love you,

Alexandrea

Youth

Separation Handbooks

Deployment Survival
3-5 year olds
6 -8 year olds
9 -12 year olds
13-15 year olds
Youth Web

Military One Source

(Confidential help for life’s problems)

Phone: 1-800-342-9647

http://www.pec.ngb.army.mil/ (The National Guard Professional Education Center); www.NGPEC-Family.org (The National Guard Professional Education Center Family Readiness Group)

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