Deployments are incredibly challenging – and whilst they might be ‘normal’ for military families, that doesn’t make them any easier.

Deployments mean 6 to 18 months away from families and can mean postings to unknown or unsafe location. For military children, deployments mean months without a parent around. For the entire family, it means adjusting to a new normal of single-parenting and an empty chair at the dinner table. And when the serving parents coms back, even that can take some adjustment and time to get settled in again.

Deployment is a tough time for both the service member and their family, which is why having a helping hand and even just a listening ear from friends can make all the difference.

Meet Daisy McDee. She is 10 years old and her dad’s a Royal Engineer – a soldier in the British Army.

That means he helps to build and fix things for the army.

He’s been deployed – that’s when a member of the armed forces is sent abroad to work.

This leads to changes at home for Daisy.

He’ll be away for four months and fifteen days.

Some of the kids at school don’t understand what it’s like when a parent goes away.

It might be even harder for military children because their parent might not be able to tell their family where they are or what they’re doing – that might be top secret!

When there are less hands to help out at home, that can mean that children like Daisy are expected to help out a little bit more.