Jeff is great with them and as long as they’re loved and looked after, they’ll be fine.I think the other army wives probably found it strange having a man in their midst, but now they invite Jeff round for coffee I don’t worry about infidelity. I write letters and I ring home three times a week when I’m posted away, but I know I’m missing out on their childhood I’m still a career woman. I thought: what am I doing in Bosnia, freezing cold, sleeping in a Portakabin, when I should be with my kids? I wanted to get on the next plane home.I wish I could say I feel the job is more important, but, as a mother, I can’t. She left Andrew, 2, and Alexandra, 1, at an army base in Germany with her husband Jeff, 41, who is retired from the army.When I left the children, I felt very sad and guilty, especially as I was going to miss Alex’s first birthday and Christmas. And I have ploughed on ever since.Lisa’s mother Vera Sterck says:I didn’t work, but I don’t disapprove of Lisa doing so. She works very hard and I don’t think she’d know what to do with herself if she didn’t I don’t think the children suffered at all Poppy and Edward are such confident, sophisticated children.

I can’t see how they’ve been affected negatively.I do get ratty when Lisa’s always late. I’ll never forget the time I had a phone-call from the kid’s headmaster to say no-one had picked them up. Lisa had been so busy she’d forgotten to book a taxi to collect them. I was horrified – but the children were fine about it.The Soldier:Captain Milli Jeffery, 40, has just returned from a six-month posting in Bosnia as administrative officer with The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. It put pressure on our relationship.If I had my time again, I think I’d prefer to stay at home But this time around I didn’t have a choice. When I had Poppy, I already had a whole chain of shops and I couldn’t drop them just like that So I got two months off, got a nanny and ploughed on.

When they were little, it was harder because I couldn’t communicate with them It’s not so bad now I can talk to them on the phone. When I go away, I speak to them every night.I don’t think my children have suffered, but my relationship with my husband has We separated a few months ago. We both had the same work commitments, although I looked after the children, but he felt his work was more important than mine. They’ll phone me and plead with me to come home.I feel guilty when I’m not there to help them with their schoolwork.

And when I arrive home exhausted, all I want to do is put my feet up and have a glass of wine, so I’m not as disciplined with them as I honestly think I should be.If I thought I was damaging them by working away so much, I wouldn’t do it. But the children are happy and get good marks at school, and I have a close relationship with them. I used to have nannies, but now the kids are at school and my mother is living with us, childcare isn’t a problem.I do miss my children. The Businesswoman

Lisa Stirling, 39, began the Manchester-based Lisa Stirling fashion business 20 years ago. She’s away on buying trips lasting up to five days for more than half the year. She leaves Poppy,1, and Edward, 10, with her mother, 76.
The kids are always saying ” Don’t go away again, Mummy”. They tend to catch me at a vulnerable moment when I’m missing them.