They come home from work, you are super excited about the upcoming weekend. You can’t wait for some family time, a break from the kids, and time with your spouse.
Only…when they get home, they let you know, they have CQ this next weekend.
Crap, now you will be spending a lot of the weekend without them, and they will be stuck at the CQ desk for 24 hours.
CQ is a thing some service members have to do and it isn’t very fun. CQ stands for “Change of Quarters” and is 24-hour duty, where they will have to sit at a desk, to monitor the barracks. They might have to clean, or do other duties, but they have to stay there the whole time.
And while you would think 24 hours away would be a piece of cake for those of us who have gone through a long deployment, CQ never seems to be at the right time. And thus, becomes an annoying part of living this military life.
When you first hear the news that your spouse has CQ, you might be pretty chill about it. It’s just CQ after all. But then you remember your 5-month-old isn’t sleeping well right now and you could use the extra support during the night.
You decide you are going to bring him lunch because, well you want to be nice like that. So you grab your kids, head to the car, only to realize you left his lunch on the counter.
The day goes on, and you almost forget he isn’t coming home tonight. But you remember when the clock hits 6 pm and he still isn’t home. It’s been a long day and you are ready to relax.
But you soon accept they won’t be around for the night and try to think about all the fun you and your kids will have. You ordered pizza, you have a fun movie for the kids, and oh, will have to do bedtime all by yourself. Yikes.
You soon accept that fact too and get through it because you are quite the milspouse boss and you can conquer bedtime all by yourself. You have done it 100 other times, and CQ shouldn’t be any harder than any other time they have been gone overnight.
So you put the kids to bed and you then realize the beauty of CQ, you get the remote all to yourself. You can watch the Bachelor and Real Housewives, without any commentary. And then you roll your eyes when the housewives complain that they can’t go anywhere without their husbands. You don’t know that life!
You put yourself to bed, knowing that you have almost conquered CQ. And you are so thankful that THIS CQ is better than the last time he had it, over New Year’s. And you had to celebrate with a whole bottle of sparkling grape juice all by yourself.
And then you get yourself in bed, hope and pray your baby doesn’t wake
Do you have any special things you do when your spouse is working CQ?
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