Scheduling in Pencil

An interesting question was posed to military families recently..."What is the #1 thing civilians should know about military families?"

My short answer (which is good advice for military families too): I schedule everything in pencil because it's bound to change.

My long answer: I schedule everything in pencil because it's bound to change. Luckily not all of the following have happened to me personally, but they have happened to friends of mine.

Deployment dates - when they leave, when they're coming home for 2 weeks in the middle, and when they're coming home. (Yes, employer, I would love to give you exact dates, but I don't know myself!)
PCSing (AKA, moving) - You have orders to go (insert post here). Just kidding, you have orders to go (insert post across the country here).
Training dates - Soldiers will be doing this training from x -x. FRAGO, it's from y - y. FRAGO, it's from z-z. FRAGO, it's back to x-x. This can go on and on, eventually it gets to the point where you believe it when they're actually gone.
Wedding dates - For MONTHS, a friend had been planning to get married in June. Deployment orders came up and he was going to deploy in March, obviously missing the June date. They got married at a courthouse in November...only to find out the deployment got pushed back to July, meaning they could have had the June wedding. (I have a few friends with slight variations to this scenario.)
RSVPing - I know I told you that there would be 2 of us attending, but it's just me.

These are just a few examples. Once I learned how permanently flexible the Army dates are, the better I was able to cope. Coping doesn't mean I like it, or will always handle it with grace, but I'm now more likely to generate backup plans.