A walled-off marketplace of event tickets features everything from sports to movies to concerts and other live events, often at discounts from the local box office, and even some events exclusive to the platform.
And Military Connect has created a portal to it for all military members, veterans, and their families because military life is hard work that often keeps service members from their families for months or even years on end.
Also Read: What it means when a Marine Corps officer hands over a sidearm during a war
To everyone reading this who wears or wore the uniform: When the chance comes to spend quality time at home, it’s important to make it special. And events can make your shared time more enjoyable, improve your relationships, and even promote better cognitive development for your kids.
And, not for nothing, shared experiences help you make memories with the loved ones that you maybe haven’t gotten enough memories with during your military career.
Military Connect’s partnership with Ticket Rewards lets you into the special marketplace, and their checkout code gets you an additional $20 off your purchase.
Make Shared Time More Enjoyable
It’s obvious to say, but movies (like “Spider-Man: Brand New Day”), live sports events, and theater are all fun experiences.
Streaming at home is great to decompress right after you get your boots off or before you go to bed. But very few homes (and probably none on a military base) can properly match the experience of the big screen, the full theater sound system, and the fresh popcorn.
You can watch sports with your kids on your cell phone, but you can’t teach them how to join the wave as it passes through the stadium stands, help them practice social skills as they engage with other fans, or sing the National Anthem with 10,000 other spectators from home.
And date night cooking at home with Pandora or Spotify playing in the background can be fun, but no one is showing off their partner in a half-cleaned kitchen or in a dining room with the kids’ toys stacked in the corner.
Get dressed up and go see “Waitress” or “Operation Mincemeat” (based on a true World War II story) live. Any senior NCOs who need a nostalgic laugh to take their minds off their aching joints might be interested to know Jeff Foxworthy is touring again.
Improve Relationships
Shared experiences bring us closer together. That’s not something that the military crowd needs explained. We’ve all gotten back from deployment with lots of shared jokes between the members of our shop, squad, whatever, then walked into a home or family event where everyone else had shared jokes we didn’t understand.
We all too often shared our experiences with our unit instead of our own families and friends. Going to something like a theme park together lets us create new experiences to improve those relationships.
And as those relationships improve, it even allows for “shared realities,” where close relationships share enough memories, beliefs, and values to the point that it brings everyone in the group more in line with each other.
Going down that road with people close to us is good for our mental health and long-term growth. And, sure, you can start down that path by changing a flat tire together or falling off a bike, but you can also do it at a concert. So maybe include some fun alongside the home maintenance or first aid.
Promote Cognitive Development
This obviously applies mostly to people with kids, unless you also have a lot of friends who would benefit from some cognitive development.
But live music promotes cognitive development, and so does theater.
The expected benefits include things like improved empathy, social skills, and problem-solving skills. Perhaps most exciting for anyone raising a kid in the world of TikTok and YouTube shorts: full-length theater performances can improve focus in kids. Theater advocates also say that live performances can improve listening skills.
But the writers of the linked articles and studies above don’t address whether theater can help in all those domains with junior service members, so you’re on your own, active-duty NCOs.
Getting the little ones a leg up at school and life is easily worth the price of admission.
Unfortunately, they’re less likely to enjoy Gary Allan than they are “Wicked,” and maybe save “Jersey Boys” for a date night.
Make Long-Term Memories to Celebrate Big Events
Most folks remember their first time marching into green ramp or landing at the pier after a long deployment or exercise. Those memories are events in themselves.
But the time from that first homecoming to the next big mission can turn into a grey blur. The day-to-day rhythm of life takes over between the training and deployment cycles. So military members have less than half the time of most civilians to make memories, and that time is usually filled with running the kids to school or practice.
That’s a good thing, for the most part. Kids and spouses and the rest of the family need to know that their loved one wants to be there and support them for the boring stuff, the everyday stuff.
There’s also room, though, for big memories that will stick out, something that they can hold onto when you have to go away again.
And for those memories, whether you prefer to make them at Six Flags or a NASCAR race, you might as well save the money by getting a reduced rate and a coupon code.
Explore Military Connect Tickets: tickets.militaryconnect.com
Join Military Connect®: MilitaryConnect.com/join
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