Said It Here

Why do I still act like I'm in the military at home?

Unconscious military habits like rushing family outings and using rigid communication styles bleed over into civilian life. These automatic behaviors prevent veterans from relaxing into a normal household rhythm and inadvertently cause children to mimic service-oriented quirks.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Consciously checking oneself to avoid acting like a drill instructor
  2. 2
    Buying wheeled backpacks for kids to avoid carrying items
  3. 3
    Laughing off the habits or acknowledging them with self-deprecating humor

In their words

Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.

“I don’t go full drill instructor or anything, but there are wmannerisms from the military do that I do without knowing.”source ↗

“One example is hurry up and wait. I try to get everyone dressed and ready to go as fast as possible to make sure we are early.”source ↗

FrigginMasshole · r/Parenting · 15 upvotes

“My toddler daughter knife hands instead of pointing.”source ↗

sleepingthom · r/Parenting · 1 upvotes

“If my kids complain that they are tired or have aches and pains the first thing I ask them is "How much water have you had?"”source ↗

tommicoop · r/Parenting · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

r/Parentingparenting

People with this problem also raised