Families Matter

My beautiful dysfunctional family This week I want to start off with a couple questions to ponder: Is parenting really necessary? What is the purpose of parenting? In class and through my studies I have discovered that parenting helps us learn to become more like God. With parenting comes responsibility and hard work, and without parenting comes a failed society. Wait, did you read that right? How on earth can parenting be so important that is has an influence of society? That's right. Families influence society, so I would say parenting plays a huge role in the way the community is run. Overall, the purpose of parenting all boils down to protect and prepare children to survive and thrive in the world they will live in. Parenting protects children from themselves, physical objects such as sharp things, illnesses, etc. It also prepares children to become adults because as children grow up they learn habits and lifestyles from watching their parents. Could you imagine goi

Communication is the key to any successful relationship. This includes spouses, friends, and familial relationships. The three main channels of communication are the use of words, tone, and non-verbal. The most important form of communication is using non-verbal cues. One type of communicating may come about because of a conflict or disagreement. Communicating in this case is often easier said than done, so a good practice to use is the EAR skills. This includes channeling your best E mpathy skills, A ssertive skills, and R espectful skills. The E mpathy skills are used to prevent fueling the fire of a heated argument. This includes the disarming technique. The disarming technique prevents defensiveness by finding and focusing on the kernel of truth - especially the ones that seem unreasonable. Even if you feel like the other person is in the wrong, there may be some truth in the opposing side. Then, it is important to actually express empathy through your response. Finally, the la

"Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten" -Lilo and Stitch When an individual goes through trouble they are usually the only one affected by the stressor. If a family is troubled, everyone in the family is affected. It is important to understand that having a crisis is not the end of the world just because family crisis mandates necessary change in the family system . A crisis is a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger. There are a few potential outcomes on the family after a crisis. They either: a.) don't recover b.) recover little by little with a few dents in the system c.) recover to their original state d.) recover and rise above their original state. The outcome of a family's crisis depends on the family and the stressor. A stressor is something that puts a strain in the marriage. For example, unemployment is a stressor. Sometimes in the midst of a crisis family members may try to assign blame, feel shame, find

http://clipart-library.com/marriage-proposal-cliparts.html So you've dated around, became exclusive with "the one," and now you're engaged. Engagement is the commitment to become one forever . Not just for the wedding day. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who tend to prepare more for the wedding than for the marriage, and that is only preparing those couples for a divorce. Being engaged is a golden time for couples because there are opportunities and challenges you can work through together to prepare yourselves for marriage. For example, one of the biggest challenges that engaged couples face is money. The average wedding costs around $30,000. Now, where does that money come from? Especially if you're still a college student? Well, you take what you can from mom and dad, use your savings, and use credit. Even that may not be enough, so where does that land you? Weddings are so expensive that people may decide to delay their wedding which leads to co

How do you feel about the word "dating?" Does is make you anxious, want to roll your eyes, or excited? In today's world, dating is becoming more of a burden than something fun to do to get to know someone. At some point the dating culture changed where all of a sudden asking someone out seems to be too forward or something. It's like we worry that if we ask someone out on a date they'll think we're in love with them which is nonsense. We need to stop and realize that it's just a date . Dates are great. They are an opportunity to do an activity with someone and get to know them better, and since it's just a date you can go out with as many boys or girls that you want to before narrowing down your options and becoming exclusive with a special someone. That's the beautiful thing about dating: you are allowed to date different people based on your attraction to them without the pressure of marriage. Of course attractiveness plays a part in wanting to d

Growing up I recognized who to turn to for honest advice: my parents. However, each parent has a different advice style. My mom is a very feelings oriented woman, so naturally I take after her. We often joke about how this is a curse because our tendencies to cry are common, but without this trait my family just wouldn't be the same. My dad on the other hand is a very logical man. He sees things as they are and only thinks about the task at hand. As a society we joke about how this is common in males; they focus only on one thing at a time because that's all they have the capacity to do. However, in a sense it's true, and it's not a bad thing! My mom and dad have always balanced each other out. When I need compassion for my emotions or just want to talk through my feelings I naturally go to my mom. However, when I need a subjective point of view and some logical sense I can turn to my dad. This is the important role of not only a mother and father, but also a man and

The behaviors and beliefs of a specific group are what makes up a culture . In most places, there are various cultures within the community. Communities also have obvious social classes. What factors separate the social economic system is a matter of where you live, how big your house is, what you do for a living, how much your income is, your possessions, dialect, appearances, etc. So, question of the day: are all of these different cultures equally effective at meeting the same purpose? In order to understand the question above, I watched many episodes from  People Like Us: Social Class in America  which is a film that looks at how class really works in America and examines how it affects our understanding of race and gender as well as how differences in class can shape daily life. Let's start with the lower class: The episode that portrays the lifestyle of lower class - and perhaps the lowest class - families includes a single mother raising her two sons in a trailer home a

There are multiple theories behind the various operations of the family. The idea that the family is a system is explained in the  systems theory . Systems operate when parts of something work together in a group to accomplish something. Families are a rule-governed system which means the way each member patterns his/her behavior is determined by rules. These rules are often times unspoken. So how do you know what is expected of you when the rules aren't even said out loud? The interaction of family members follows organized, established patterns based on the family structure which enables each person to learn what is expected of him/her. These rules can be descriptive or prescriptive. In other words, family members determine what can or can not occur between members based on observation and experience. Look back at your family. What unspoken rules can you think of? As I sat in my Family Relations class I noticed how many of my classmates did not notice their behaviors or roles w

At the start of the 1950s, the United States was undergoing a rapidly increasing birth rate that lasted for 18 years. This moment in time is known as the "Baby Boom." Annual births exceeded two percent of the world's population. A common belief among the world at this time was that continual population growth was inevitable. This belief easily escalated to frantic worry after Paul R. Ehrlich published his book, The Population Bomb where he predicted the world's environment would be destroyed because of the amount of babies we were reproducing.   This book predicted that the world would inevitably become overpopulated, and the world would soon run out of enough resources for everyone. Ehrlich predicted specific instances such as mass starvation by the 1970s, oil supply running out in the 1980s, and overwhelming amounts of pollution destroying the environment. The world went into a frenzy all because of this book which contained only opinions of a man. Image found o

Hello friends! My name is Annika, and I am studying Family and Consumer Sciences Education at Brigham Young University-Idaho. Please join me in the hot discussion topic of families as I post about the trends and studies found and discussed in my Family Relations class. You can also check out my awesome classmates' blogs! "If you want to change the world, go home and love your family." -Mother Teresa