On military spousehood

Being a military wife can seriously suck. Conor hasn't even deployed yet and it can still suck. But I married into it. Deliberately. There are no "Air Force Wife, Hardest Job in the Military" stickers on my car. I will throw in the obligatory YES, I support the troops. That should be obvious. But I am continually sickened by the self-congratulatory attitude of service members and their wives. It is a service. We volunteered. Please stop falling all over yourselves for your own choices. I feel like it's the same sort of bandwagon the sports junkies jump on. Everyone wants to be part of a superior group. They want to belong. I don't think that our military shouldn't be recognized for their achievements by the people they serve to protect. I think they should be recognized like any other group, like police officers or firefighters. But the key words are "the people they serve." Not themselves. It's the "tooting your own horn" that I object to. Some families truly face adversity in the military. They face the uncertainty of a loved one going off to war. I recognize them for their sacrifice. I'm not going to ask anyone to recognize me for sending my husband off to sit at a bank of computers for 12 hours. There is a big difference. An incomparable difference. And trying to jump on that bandwagon lessens the enormity of the sacrifices some families make.