I don’t pretend to understand what these families are going through, but this is just weird to me. Does “Flat Daddy” get to stick around after 3D Daddy is dead?
Maine National Guard members in Iraq and Afghanistan are never far from the thoughts of their loved ones.Click the link to the story to see an example of “Flat Daddy” in action.
But now, thanks to a popular family-support program, they're even closer.
Welcome to the ``Flat Daddy" and ``Flat Mommy" phenomenon, in which life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home.
The Flat Daddies ride in cars, sit at the dinner table, visit the dentist, and even are brought to confession, according to their significant others on the home front.
``I prop him up in a chair, or sometimes put him on the couch and cover him up with a blanket," said Kay Judkins of Caribou, whose husband, Jim, is a minesweeper mechanic in Afghanistan. ``The cat will curl up on the blanket, and it looks kind of weird. I've tricked several people by that. They think he's home again."
At the request of relatives, about 200 Flat Daddy and Flat Mommy photos have been enlarged and printed at the state National Guard headquarters in Augusta. The families cut out the photos, which show the Guard members from the waist up, and glue them to a $2 piece of foam board.
I thought this story was from The Onion when I first saw it. But no, once again, reality is stranger than fiction.
I would hope that if I went away, I wouldn’t be easily replaced with a piece of cardboard. On the other hand, I wonder if I could get away with having Flat Dave do the lawn and take out the trash even if I'm not gone.
1 comment:
I thought this was a joke, too. Perhaps the Guard should go with the Inflatables instead of the Flats, thus making them suitable for, well, you know... And, what if there's a baby or toddler in the home who, as he gets older, becomes so accustomed to the Flat, he rejects the real parent when he returns.
Post a Comment