Joining the army aged 27 with a wife and 3 kids (aged 3, 2 and 6 months). Lifelong dream but is it doable? Thank you!

Hi, i'd say the most important thing is the support of your family. There are loads of people that join later who have a family. The hardest part will be during basic training as it's fully residential although you do get some weekends when you get to go home. You will miss your wife and kids and they will miss you. You can get to facetime etc though but it's still a 14 week slog away. Your wife might feel overwhelmed at times without your support and then chuck the kids at you when you come back on your weekends 'off' so you'll end up being more knackered than some of the younger ones who go home and sleep!! BUT light at the end of the tunnel is, the army is a good life. There are job opportunities for wives as people move around every couple of years, there's a great army community for wives/families. My friend married a lad who joined the Royal Marines after they had a baby and she is loving military life. On the flip side, after a few moves some wives get fed up and want to settle down somewhere which is understandable, especially if they've been away from their own support network of family and friends but that's do-able as you could potentially look at jobs near 'home' (depending on capbadge and what's available). The primary schools that the kids end up going to are predominantly army families which also has it's perks as you've got your own support network. Kids, on the whole, are resilient moving and form friendships easier because of it. I have 3 kids and my eldest was born when i was a single parent and only been in the army a year (she's now almost 15). My thoughts are, it's far better to have given it a go, even if you only do your 4 years and decide it's not for you and your family, than not. Better to have no regrets. Good luck with whatever you decide, it'll be a tough slog at the beginning but the light at the end of the tunnel will be worth it!