Teachers missed their pay. Soldiers had to figure out who would babysit their kids.

Although active duty troops received paychecks, the government shutdown took a heavy toll on military bases around the world, as military families faced financial insecurity, children missed extracurricular activities and services personnel relied upon shut down.

Congress is gearing up on Nov. 12 for a final vote on a funding package to reopen federal coffers and end the shutdown. For families of servicemembers at hundreds of bases, it will bring an end to six weeks of stress and uncertainty.

No pay for teachers during shutdown

While military schools remained in session for the duration of the shutdown, the more than 14,000 people who work at military schools around the world were among those forced to work without a paycheck, according to the Defense Department's educational arm.

One sports coach at a military high school overseas, who is among the DoD employees who aren't being paid, told USA TODAY that newly arrived teachers at military schools were under the most extreme stress. He spoke anonymously to avoid retaliation.

After-school activities and sports games were initially canceled, but the Defense Department allowed them to continue as "excepted activities" after the first week of the shutdown, according to the department's educational division.

The coach said some students held their own practices off base after they were barred from using official facilities. Some student athletes shelled out their own money or fundraised to cover the costs of sports tournaments and competitions, he said.

Families lose childcare services

The shutdown has also impacted daycare, and some on-base childcare centers have closed. Krystyna Cechulski, a veteran who runs a social society for mothers near Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, said many military moms stopped attending regular social groups since the shutdown.

"A lot of parents are really struggling," she said. "They can't pay a babysitter to watch the kids."

John Hashem, a retired major general and executive director of the Reserve Organization of America, told reporters at a briefing on Nov. 10, "If both spouses are working, now one has to stop working because they can't pay for childcare."

"A lot of the family services that we do are contracted out. When the family needs them the most, they're not there," he said.

On-base supermarkets at risk of closure

Meanwhile, individual military bases around the country announced in recent weeks that shoppers at commissary stores – on-base supermarkets – should bring their own bags because plastic and paper bags were in short supply.

Hundreds of commissary stores would have had to close in the weeks ahead if the shutdown continued. The military "will continue full operation of all 235 commissaries for as long as possible, or until available funding is exhausted," the Pentagon said in a statement.

National Guard loses training sessions

For the National Guard, the government shutdown meant drill sessions were canceled. Guardsmen are mandated to attend regular drill sessions and military training, for one weekend a month and two full weeks during the summer.

"Each missed drill creates compound effects and erodes the readiness of our nation's war-fighting reserve," Maj. Gen. Francis McGinn, President of the National Guard Association of the United States, said at the Nov. 10 briefing.

Although active duty troops received their last three paychecks since the shutdown, the National Guard's dual status technicians, who worked full-time jobs in military uniform throughout the shutdown, won't be paid until it ends.

Military health care snafus

Military families stationed abroad also reported problems with TRICARE, the military's health care system.

The National Military Family Association said in an update that military spouses told them some overseas claims were being processed but couldn't be reimbursed until the shutdown ended.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Teachers unpaid, childcare gone. How the government shutdown hit military bases.

Reporting by Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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