Did you know that this was a thing in the United States?
Now It’s no secret that the American public love and appreciate their Armed Forces and show it a lot more than we (the British Public) do.
The Americans love their forces so much that even the husbands and wives of serving members have a national day...
It’s called the Military Spouse Appreciation Day or Military Spouse Day!
The day was created by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 because he wanted to raise awareness of how much the commitment of a spouse helps serving military personnel get through their worst times!
Since that date every single US president has celebrated on the day and have encouraged the world to do the same.
Here is Donald Trump showing his support…
Senator Ted Cruz also tweeted about the day...
It’s not only presidents and Senators who get behind the day though, celebrities as big as Mark Wahlberg also mark the day…
When is it?
The first one was celebrated on May 23rd 1984 and since then has been held every year on the Friday before Mothering Sunday
How is it celebrated?
The day is marked in many different ways, here's just a few...
Retail Outlets across the country provide discounts if you’re a military spouse, now as much as I do love a good discount, I couldn’t help but notice that most of these outlets were aimed at females… Hmm
There are lots of flowers and presents given out
People offering to go around and mow the lawn or clean the family car etc
Donations are made to organisations dedicated to helping military spouses
So to summarise Military Spouse Appreciation Day is a day celebrated in America to thank the dedication, commitment and sacrifice of a spouse and to show that the nation care…
It’s all very nice isn’t it! HOWEVER, the men and women who are married to members of the British Armed Forces are exactly the same right?
They have the same commitment, same dedication and they make the same sacrifices, sometimes the ultimate sacrifice!
WHY isn’t there a ‘Military Spouse Appreciation Day’ in the UK?
I personally don’t think there needs to be a specific day to show a spouse appreciation BUT because America have one, I now want one too!
Now there's already a day to show how much we appreciate our amazing armed forces (Armed Forces Day) so I propose that the UK follows in Americas footsteps and has a day dedicated to the military Spouses as well…
The Date I’m proposing is the first Saturday in July, this is one week after Armed Forces Day which is held on the last Saturday of June every year – Spouses, who’s with me?