The Husbands' Club > Care Packages
[Note: This post has been copied from the "Introductions" thread. -Ed]
I went to my wife for help on this one, and I'm glad I did, because I apparently am not a great care package-sender.
She says yes to snail mail. Often. Like every week. There's nothing worse than not getting anything during mail call, so send at least a funny card on a very regular basis. Getting a physical piece of mail is completely different from email and video chat.
Also, depending on where your girlfriend is headed (will she be on a ship or on the ground?), she had some other ideas for care packages. Individually packaged snacks are great. She probably can't get them where she is. And she can share them. Also, individually wrapped hand wipes, especially if she's going to be in Iraq or Afghanistan. They come in very handy at meal times.
Other little things you can send are simple things like pens, stickers, cheap handheld games and other such trinkets that can just change the mood for a short while ("silly things," my wife says, "like from the dollar store"). And yes to the romance novels. She also said they always liked getting gossip magazines like Us Weekly, because they don't usually hear about that kind of pop culture fun.
Great topic. Might move this one to its own thread.
Thomas Litchford
Ditto on the snail mail. There is something more special about a physical card or a written letter. Wife's dad sent her a postcard every day she was at the academy - and we tote around a binder with every one except for the two that were lost in the mail. There's nothing earth shattering about those cards (it's stuff like the weather, the errands he was running that day or maybe a tidbit about her sisters). Just a little update on normal life - and it's clear they meant a lot and she still treasures them. She has another box with most every card/postcard/letter I've given her over the years. Again usually something I just quickly wrote up in a few spare minutes at the office. It doesn't have to be onerous.
Other than that the general guidelines I've been given are "updates from home, funny stuff, things we can't get where we're at, and stuff that makes me feel like a normal girl."
Andrew
[Note: This post has been copied from the "Introductions" thread. -Ed]
Hi, I've been dating a girl for about 4 months who is in the military. She recently found out that she is to be deployed to a combat zone for 6 months in the near future.
I was in the military many years ago, so I understand how important care packages from home are to morale. But that was long before the days of email. Any advice on what a modern military girl appreciates in her care packages?
1) I remember I was all about the food and letters back then, but I'm not sure that's the kind of things she'd like.
2) She mentioned that a snailmail letter now and then would be nice (in addition to regular email) as well as a cards. But in this day of email and Google Talk, how often do you write actual paper letters and send cards?
3) Back in the day, when my father was in the Vietnam, my mother use to send him Playboys. I assume so he could satisfy any urge he might have without looking around at the local girls. My gf likes NC-17 romance novels, which I assume would be the equivalent of my mom sending my dad a playboy. Is that kind of thing appreciated? What kind of things can you do to keep up intimacy even though you can physically be together?
4) Any other ideas on how to keep a girl's morale up while she's deployed?
-Brad