Parents leave there child behind for Afghanistan

According to CNN, Seth Rice is a 2–year-old boy filled with energy. Watching him play with his toys, you’ll never notice any of the emotional tolls of having a parent deployed, much less having both.

But Seth’s parents chose to deploy to Afghanistan together instead of one of them staying home with home with their son.

The decision of leaving their son alone nearly seven months wasn’t an easy one.

“It was very difficult,” Marine Staff Sgt. Jeff Rice said in an interview from Camp Leatherneck, where he and his wife, Navy Petty Officer 1^st Class Chat Rice, are based.

Though the decision was difficult, they say it was easier given Seth’s age.

“We were thinking that a 2-year-old wouldn’t remember too much of us being gone than if we had to do it when he was 7, when he’d remember the whole thing,” Jeff said.

Despite their reasoning, the day they left was hard for them.

“I don’t think a mother could ever describe that feeling, leaving your son,” Chat said.

The idea came to them during previous deployment. Chat would come back from the war zone and a few weeks later, Jeff would leave.

“She deployed to Iraq in 2004 and then as soon as she came back I deployed to Iraq in 2005 shortly after," Jeff said. "It was about two weeks that we got to hand out together. It was very hard, because you try to catch up in those two weeks.”

So when new orders came, they decided they needed more time as a couple.

But the difficult decision of leaving their 2-year-old son was made much easier by Jeff’s parents.

“They asked us if we would be willing to keep Seth and of course that was a no-brainer, we said yes,” said Jaime Rice, Seth’s grandfather.

Seth and his parents live in South Carolina and most of his relatives on his father’s side live in Ohio. So for the past seven months, Seth has gotten to know his father's side of the family.

But perhaps the true life savior for Jeff and Chat is a software application that wasn’t even around when the war started in Afghanistan, the video chatting program Skype.

But since he’s just 2, Chat and Jeff say instead of talking to them on the computer, he plays with his toys.

Jeff said these video chats are important to helping them cope.

“It’s huge, because no matter how rough your day goes, you get to see our little son…takes all the worries and everything away,” Jeff said. “It really boosts your morale ... being able to see him grow day by day, and hearing the new words he learned to say and showing you everything he learned.”