by Sherri Benson

Created on: September 24, 2009   Last Updated: September 27, 2009

Should you sign for your child to join the military before they are Eighteen years old? This is a good question that plagues many parents especially when we are in times of war. You hear the news and hear of the lives lost in war. You see the very young faces that are fighting for our freedom and see the youth in their faces. Many think we sacrifice our young people to the war. It is a very hard decision to make when your young person tells you that they want to join the Marine Corp. or other branch of the service but needs you to sign for them because they are not of age yet.

This was the situation I was faced with. I had a seventeen year old book worm of a kid who came home one day and told us that this is what he wanted to do. We knew he had spent time at the recruiter's office looking into the benefits of becoming a United States Marine. We new they would point out all of the things that would excite him and make him want to sign up, after all that is their job. As concerned parents we wanted him to see the bad side too and tried to point it out, not so as to sway his decision but so he could make an informed decision. Then, one day, it happened. The Marine recruiters came to the house to talk with us about what our son wanted to do and see if we were willing to sign the papers. He was only seventeen at that time and in his senior year in high school. This was a very scary decision to make because it would greatly impact all of us. We listened as the recruiters told of all the benefits and all the testing to put him in the right job. They were young men themselves and had been through so much. One of the recruiters had done two tours in Iraq. After they were done speaking we brought up all of the bad we could find. They listened to us and helped to subside some of our fears. They explained how they could take a young person from boy to man in thirteen weeks and how much this would help our young son. We decided that really this was not our decision, it was his. This was going to be his life to live not ours. Our job is to help guide our kids and stand by them and their decisions. So, sitting at that table we signed for our young boy to become a United States Marine. We did not have to. We could have refused and made him wait another six months. That would have only told him that we did not support him and he would have joined anyhow when he became of age. This way, our son knew that he had our support in his very scary decision. He knew we would do what

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