Exams just got over for the little ones and the excitement of  a new class and new books is palpable already. Don’t you remember pulling out your English reader and reading it from cover to cover before any covering and labeling of books began, I did that every single time, every year .. and in the middle of the excitement an inane question from my eight year old caught me off-guard ..got me thinking .. and this is what i want to share with my friends over a cuppa.

He quietly said ..Mamma its been two years here, where are we going now? What language do those people speak(at the new place)? But my friend’s birthday is in august how will I attend that?
This tugged at all my heartstrings, it broke just a little bit,…. but then I am MAMMA.. the panacea for everything that could ever go wrong so I have to put it all into an exiting perspective and put it across to him in a way that is readily acceptable. We are an army family, mobility is our way of life, every two years we move anywhere unexpected thorough out the length and breadth of the country, we leave behind our little worlds, and make new ones from scratch.
 How do I explain to this little child that he may actually not be there for his friends birthday party, but there will surely be other friends that he’ll make and there will still be kiddie birthday parties. And then there is Facebook now and Whats-app  and e-mails, he can forever have his friends, just like I do, he may not grow up with them but he will mature with many, he will still be able to laugh at the little jokes that he shared with his friends and have an unbreakable bond with them. Connectivity is the blessing of his generation and he must make the best use of it.
I guess I’ve got to be there with him through all these transitions, give him the security he so needs and also be his one continuous friend … and that he will still have a new class, new books and maybe a new school and a new place too…and thus…Life goes on …

This story has been shared by Smita Ranjan Keron, an army wife and a mother of two. A heartfelt narration of what her kids endure with the multiple moves that an army life comprises of.