Family Relations

 Hello and happy weekend! I hope you had a great week! Well to preface, this post is going to be about marital intimacy... yes, I know this tends to be a taboo topic and can be a very awkward one. And while I want to make it very clear, I have no experience with this at all, there were some good things I learned this week and hope will be enlightening in some way.  To start off I want to talk about the importance and sacredness of sexual relations and intimacy in marriage. While many consider it a taboo topic to avoid at all costs, this is a topic that should be considered SACRED not SECRET. Sexual relations and intimacy are a part of life, but it is important that it be treated with sacredness and is done within the bonds of matrimony. While this is a topic that most people avoid at all costs and find discomfort with, it is a very important conversation during the engagement period and also a talk that parents should be having with the children, at an appropriate age. I know ...

This week is about dating! This is a topic I have been very passionate about because there has been such a huge shift in the way dating used to be and how people used to actual go on dates. I have had a lot of conversations with parents, church leaders, and friends about the dating culture in our time. It seems like there is not any importance of dating and it is now replaced with just "hanging out." I want you to think, when was the last time you went on a date or asked someone on a date? I won't give my specific answer, but for me, it's been a while!  If you take a look at young adults and college campuses, you will find that the amount of dating that goes on has diminished significantly over the years. Girls are not being asked on dates and people spend most time now hanging out in group settings and considering that to be "dating." But in actuality, that is not dating. According to President Dallin H. Oaks, a date includes 3 p's: planned ahead , paid...

 Welcome! This week is all about preparing for marriage, changes that come about during this stage, the engagement period, and preparations needed during this time of life and of the relationship.  When a couple get engaged, it is a very exciting time for them and it is so exciting to get to think about their wedding day and starting a life together. But the engagement period is actually a very important time for the couple to be preparing for a life together. Many are only planning for a wedding and not for marriage and there is a BIG difference between the two. One of them is planning for a single day and the other is planning for the rest of their lives.  There are many things that couples should be discussing during this time and in preparation for their marriage and future family. Some of this includes:  Where will we live?  How will we deal with finances?  What are the plans for continuing education or career paths?  Discussions on boundaries wit...

Hello and welcome back to another post! This week's topic is going to be all about gender differences and the roles they play in regard to family.  Men and women have gender typical characteristics that are unique and so important. Both are equally important and bring valuable attributes to the table. I would like to point out some of these and talk about them and the roles they play.  Some female-typical characteristics can include:  nurturing  cooperative  communicative  sensitive emotional  relative orientation detail orientation I think something that a lot of people know and see is how women tend to be very nurturing. It seems to be so natural for us. This is because of the roles we play as mothers and natural caregivers. Ever since I was little, I have always wanted to be a little mommy. Another characteristic we see is that women tend to be more cooperative and involved in cooperative play as children, working side by side with others. We also a...

Hello, I hope you had a great week! This week we discussed cultural differences in relation to the family. There were a lot of eye-opening insights and things I hope will be meaningful to share.  When we first hear the word "culture" most of us think of things such as art, literature, music, clothing, traditions, achievements etc. But I want to focus on the definition that describes it as attitudes and behavioral characteristics of a certain social group. I think this is quite interesting to be able to look at different areas or groups of people and see how culture affects the way they view family and the traditions of families. Family cultures look different across the world and from all different backgrounds.  A point I would specifically like to talk about that stood out to me and that I found to be very interesting was that under stress, we will always revert to what is familiar. The base of the word familiar itself is FAMILY. I don't know why I had never recogniz...

Hello and happy weekend! I am excited to get to talk today about some things that we discussed in class this week including the roles we all play within our families and also healthy boundaries. My hope is that in reading this, you can think of some ways to improve your own family relations and set healthy boundaries in your relationships.  To start off, I want to discuss roles within the family. In  The Family Proclamation , we are taught about these roles. " The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and who...

 Hello! To start off the first official post regarding family relations, I would like to share some thoughts and discussion points from class this week that I really loved: In today's day and age, the importance of family is diminishing. Whether it is people deciding to not have children, shifting values, delayed marriage, or a shift in purpose and focus in life, it has become very apparent that the importance of family is becoming less common. There are many different reasons behind this, and I want to discuss some of the common fears or ideologies that are presented in the world today:  - Many people have different ideas and definitions of what it means to be successful, but there are many who choose to measure it by wealth, independence, or having a successful and meaningful career. I personally think that while those are not always bad things necessarily, that is not as fulfilling of a life as some like to think it is. I have heard stories and experiences where people focu...