Hi everyone, looking for answers from experience. Simple question.
Would anyone currently or previously in the trade ever look back and trade it all in for a different career? Not because of the wife/girlfriend... she's fine with it, but because of their children? Missing them grow up, missing sports, miss helping with homework, Misout on teaching life lessons and Raising them into adults? I'm ready for the travel and time away as well I know it's different for everybody, but I have 2 boys. One almost 2 yrs. and the other is 3 months. I couldn't stand going through with this just to make myself happy and risk jeopardizing my relationship with my kids. I grew up in military family but never got the brunt of it, parents divorced, father stayed on the coast in the navy, step dad only posted once and was hardly away besides one tour in Afghanistan. I know other trades are worse just don't know how bad.
So again, would anyone ever take back choosing combat engineer? Regretting it for their kids?
I realize this was posted two years ago, and I myself am not a CAF member but a family member. My father-in-law is Infantry, so not exactly Combat Engineer, but he was deployed on tour overseas throughout a lot of my partner's childhood. My partner doesn't resent it at all; I can tell you that he has the utmost respect for his father and is following in his footsteps, only pursuing the Combat Engineer trade instead.
His father, when not on deployment, had two weeks (maybe more? I'm not certain on that) off at Christmas, three weeks off in the summer, was home by dinner time and always there for hockey games and functions. He did miss his eldest son's graduation, and it broke his heart - but his son understood.
Obviously, it's important to factor in the potential of being deployed, sent on course etc. But when posted to your base (okay, I realize that my terminology is probably all over the place - please forgive me as I'm still learning the lingo) you can expect a pretty average schedule, and an ample amount of quality time to be spent with your family.
When my partner first expressed interest in joining, I was terrified. We don't have any children yet, but it scared me. But now seeing the life for what it really is, and knowing his motivation and desire to serve and protect our country - I couldn't be more excited. Of course, I hope that he never has to see an overseas battlefield, but that's the risk.
I'm not sure if you're still active on the site, but I'm curious to know what you ended up doing, and how things have progressed.