Marine Mom Handbook: Part II

Marine Mom Bill of Rights

These are the things that as a Recruit Mom, or Marine Mom, you are entitled to do. It's OK. We all do it too, so you'll fit right in.

You have the right to:

1. Have heart-wrenching sob fits yet be able to "suck it up" and sound normal to answer the phone when the caller ID shows it is your son or daughter.
2. Pull over to side of the road to cry hard enough to fog up the windows when "American Soldier" or "Letters From Home" comes on the radio.
3. Visit the recruiters because you "happen" to be in the neighborhood so you can stare at their uniforms and ask them stupid questions. (It's OK, they're used to it).
4. Ask any young man you see with a "high and tight" if he is a Marine and if so give him a hug. You can hug him if he's a Soldier, Sailor, or Airman too, you might just have to actually ask first.
5. Make the biggest, most glittery "welcome home" sign you can possibly make when your Marine comes home from a deployment, no matter how "un-Marinelike" the sign is.
6. To point and scream "That's my baby!!!" when you first catch sight of your Marine at bootcamp graduation or homecoming. Well, actually you can do this pretty much any old time.
7. To talk about your Marine to anyone at anytime, especially if they are wearing Marine t-shirts or any military clothing item whatsoever. I actually went up to 2 Sailors I saw in uniform at the grocery store one day to tell them about my boys. I'm sure they thought I was nuts. You also have the right to show pictures of your Marines. I keep mine on my key chain, so they are handy to show at any moment.
8. To plaster "My Son/Daughter is a Marine" and "Proud Parent of a U.S. Marine" bumper stickers all over the back of your car and your husband's car.
9. To cry and hug another Marine Mom on first meeting her and feel like you've found a long lost sister.
10. To keep one of the shirts that he left behind unwashed, so you can smell it when you are feeling particularly sad.
11. To decorate your house in red, white and blue even planting red, white and blue flowers in your flower beds.
12. To take goofy pictures (his bed, the Taco Bell sign, Dad making coffee in the morning) to send your Marine when he is at bootcamp or deployed. A hilarious example of this is TXMarineMom1987 taking a picture of her son's car in front of Hooters (with the Hooters girls sitting on top of the car) while he was at bootcamp.
13. To keep on hand plastic yellow ribbons so you can tie a new ribbon on the tree out front every day he/she is deployed. ( I can tell ya where to get the ribbon)
14. To sleep on his bed the first night or two after he leaves for bootcamp or deployment.

Next: Marine Mom Guide to Bootcamp