Tag: Army

  • I Saved My Daughter From Bullies But I Paid The Price

    I Saved My Daughter From Bullies But I Paid The Price.

    My daughter Amelia is a shy quiet girl with a heart of gold, she is kind and sweet.

    We have moved a lot in her short 11 years, my husband is in the army and every two to three years we have to move for his job.

    This has been a fantastic experience but has meant Amelia loses friends and has to start again.

    When Amelia was due to start secondary school we decided to settle back home in Cambridge.

    Amelia started at the local school and she didn’t seem to settle well, maybe just nerves I thought, small fish in a big pond type of thing.

    After the first few weeks she began coming home without her bag or shoes, saying she had lost them and then I noticed marks on her, scratches, bruises and even a chunk of hair was missing.

    I confronted Amelia and she denied she was being bullied, she said it was from playing hockey, or got her hair stuck in her locker.

    I knew something was going on, one day At the beginning of October I decided to wait round the corner from the school to see if I could see anything.

    I followed her across a field, six girls aged 14-15 jumped my little girl, they were pounding blows on her tiny frame, kicking her, pug her beautiful blonde locks and taking her stuff and trowing it.

    An anger rose in me, I ran at them screaming for them to get off of her.

    I was greeted with a cackle of laughter and verbal abuse.

    They picked Amelia off of the floor, held her arms behind her back and said “let’s put on a show” they hit my quiet, sweet, kind girl in her tiny stomach, winding her, my daughter looked at me with pleading eyes.

    I couldn’t stand by and watch my child be beaten, I hit one of the girls and dragged another off of my daughter throwing her to the floor.

    I took my daughter by the hand and we ran home.

    My daughter was visibly shaken and scared, I bathed my girl the first time in years I had helped her bathe.

    That night we sat cuddled up watching movies and eating snacks, I was determined that my daughter wouldn’t be returning to that school.

    Half way through the movie there was a load knock on the door and two police officers were there.

    I was spoken to in my house about the assault , not the one on my child though, the one on them.

    I was told I had to hand myself in, in the morning.

    The next day I arrived at the police station, confused and scared.

    I had my fingerprints taken, mug shot, and read my rights, I was interviewed for several hours and placed in a cell.

    I was finally called back into the interview room and told I was being cautioned on assault of a minor.

    I thought that would be the end of it, but rumours began spreading that I had beaten a child, that I was a danger to children.

    People threw rocks through our windows, my tyres were slashed, but for me the worst was hearing the whispers behind my back, the looks I was given.

    It got so bad I was scared to leave the house, and for what the fact I hit a teenager my own height for beating my daughter who was tiny.

    After six months of living in fear, we gave in and moved, we are now living in Leeds and things are starting to look up.

    I still don’t know what else I was supposed to do when I saw my daughter being attacked, I can’t think of any other way to have dealt with it.

     

  • Life as an Army Wife

    Army wife

    I met my husband in 2011 working in a pet shop in Wales. I had recently just come out of a 4 year controlling and abusing relationship so any attention given to me felt amazing, after a month of working there my husband asked me out on a date which I accepted, things were going great.

    One day he sat me down and told me he was joining the army, my jaw dropped and everything just went though my mind, him going away? When would I ever see him? Him going to fight? I was really upset but with him growing up as a military child ( his dad, brothers, uncles, cousins and grandads were all in the army and navy) I knew that it was he wanted so I had to support him.

    He told me stories of his travels and where he has lived and it made me feel better about it knowing if we stayed together I could experience all that with him. A couple of months later  he started his training and completed it beginning of 2013. It was hard not seeing him for 3-4 months at a go and we argued a lot but we still pulled through it.

    In June 2013 he came home for a weekend and that night he got on one knee and proposed to me. I was in total shock and so happy! We still worked through him being away and planning a wedding while he was away, a date was set and everything was booked and sorted and in December that year we had a big fairytale wedding, it was one of the best days of my life.

    In February 2014 just two months after being married,

    Phil came home and told me he was getting a posting to Germany, my heart sank, I had just been promoted to assistant manager and loved my job, I would have to leave my family, friends, my job to move to Germany with him. Saying goodbye to all that crushed me but the day I said I do I knew what my life would be like married to a soldier.

    We moved to Germany together, saying goodbye was so hard but a new adventure awaited. 

    We are currently still living in Germany, we have explored and made wonderful friends, we have our ups and downs but we work through it, and we have two beautiful boys. There are so many things that are hard living away and living in this lifestyle, close friends come and go, but you always make new ones and stay in touch with others. Not having family around to help is hard, and the children not knowing any family members is so upsetting. The hardest part about being an army wife is when your husband has to go away on exercise or deployment and the timescale they are away could vary from 1 month to 9 months and not being able to talk to them apart from the rare occasion while they are away.

    My youngest doesn’t understand daddy going away but my eldest cries for days until he just gets used to daddy not being around, as a mum it breaks you, by the time my eldest was 1 years old my husband had seen him for only 4 months and missed him crawling, walking, sitting up. All the things we were meant to experience together he missed. It is hard living the life as an army wife, you have to be strong and deal with everything yourself and be a single parent most of the time which is very hard especially with no family around to help in those days that you need a break, but the support from the army and other family’s and wives is amazing and there are a lot of groups you can attend to keep you busy which makes the time they are away go faster. I wouldn’t change any of it for anything, even with the ups and downs and being alone but It’s made me a stronger and independent person and my family are only a phone call or video call away if I need anything. I can’t wait to travel and explore the world and make more memories with my amazing family.