Family Relations

       In society the man of the household is looked at as the breadwinner of the family and that is usually all that they are good for. However, it is often overlooked that a father figure is just as important in the life of a child just as much as the mother is. Just take one look at the tv shows that play today and how they portray father figures in the structure of the family. Usually the father is aloof as what is happening in the lives of his children and when he is finally confronted and forced to deal with the problems within the family he is awkward and clueless. In these shows, they make the role of a father in a family seem obsolete apart from the fact that they bring financial stability to them. But their active presence in the family plays an integral part in how the children grow up to be. Fathers can offer their family a great eal of insight and guidance to his children just as much as the mother can. Some might think it’s a dumb stereotype that girls ...

  If you were to go up to any couple and ask “what is key to a successful relationship?” more often than not they will answer with communication. Like Brother Williams said in class this week, when a couple would come to him for counseling their problems a lot of the time came down to their communication skills. The process that communication goes through originates with our own thoughts and feelings then we encode the message through the means of media. Then the receiver has to decode the message and form their own thoughts on what they meant and they’re reaction. The media in which we communicate through words 14%, our tone 35%, and non-verbal 51%. These numbers strike a chord with me personally seeing as I have a personality that is more sarcastic and context is everything. In this day and age, texting is all the rage and we just rely on our words so these numbers might be a little different in more recent years. And as for me I absolutely hate texting, because the actual mes...

  When faced with the challenge of forming a new relationship with a significant other or starting a family of your own there in turn will follow many restless nights overpowered by stress. Like everything else in life, all things in moderation. Stress is a power emotion that can help push us to accomplish our goals, but too much stress can wreck a person’s mental stability. When it is good stress it is described as eustress, but when it turns into bad stress you are in distress. An example of eustress in my life is when I am doing my school work for the week. The pressure of that I will not have enough time to finish all my assignments by the end of the week for me to be able to have fun with my friends is eustress. It pushes me into a positive direction that helps me in my life while I am also relieved of this stress so after I did everything I needed to do. I do not remain in a state of being stressed out after my assignments are done. An example of distress that remains in th...

  This week’s topic in family relations was how to create a sexually healthy and happy marriage. Now, this is a difficult topic to discuss because usually there is such a taboo on talking about anything of the sexual matter in the church especially in a church environment. When we talk about this matter it most likely sticks to the lines of “sexual acts are sacred and should only happen in the bonds of marriage”. All these statements are ones I would agree with, but because we so strongly believe in abstinence before marriage it has in turn made us not even address the subject and how we should act when it comes time for us to be sexually active. To begin with a healthy sexual relationship with your spouse is not just about how pleasurable the experience is, although still very important, but also about deepening your interpersonal connection with them. Sexual acts have the ability to bond two people together like no other act and that is why we should treat it with the utmost re...

          Now that you have officially beaten the dating game and have moved onto the engagement part of your relationship there are some things you still need to work on with your fiance. It is imperative that as a couple you use this time as an engaged couple to clarify your expectations of each other. Some clarifications that need to be made are those of what you expect the other to contribute to the relationship as a married couple. The wife might expect the husband to be the breadwinner while she becomes a stay at home mom. Or the husband might expect that they spend these set holidays with his family and the rest of them with the wife’s family. Now, I am not saying that these rules I just used as examples are bad, every relationship is different and if it works for them it works. However, what I am saying is that it is important to draw these lines now and to see if there are differences in beliefs before you commit to marriage. Things like where they...

     I don’t know about you but when I hear the word dating it creates a feeling of dread inside of me. In our culture of being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, there is this atmosphere surrounding the idea of dating. Because there is a rule that our church has set saying that you should not date until you are sixteen years of age, many of the youth can not wait for their sixteenth birthday. But if this week’s class has taught me anything, it has taught me that we are approaching the dating game all wrong. There are said to be four distinct stages or steps to a relationship 1. Dating 2. Courtship 3. Engagement 4. Marriage. However, over time these steps have become more and more vague creating more a slide than distinct steps to progress from. Now, you may think that this slight change does not really make a difference, but because of this change it has made everything so much more confusing for everyone involved. Nowadays you see people hangi...

       A very hot topic in the world today is how men and women are the same and the idea of genders are invalid and should be irrelevant in this day and age. However, contrary to popular belief there is much scientific research backing the statement that boys and girls are different further than the surface physical differences, but on a biological level. During this week’s discussion one of the preparation readings was a video titled “Men, Women and the Sex Difference” with Jon Stossel. Those who are saying that men and women are the same believe that women are more emotional and men are more aggressive because of the sexist world we grow up in. If the world was unbiased and was not filled with these gender stereotypes then men and women who are completely interchangeable apart from the obvious physical attributes that we are endowed with. I had a hard time with this part of the video where they blamed sexist parenting on the so called “sexist” world we live in. Cr...

  When you hear the word culture, it is usually associated with the definition of the social behavior and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups. Which is thought of to be used on the more large scales like how to define this nation, that religious grouping, or good old stereotypes like perhaps country folk. However, while all these examples are true many people do not realize that cultures are also still very relevant on the small scale as well. This week we learned in class that families and their culture can vary a lot more than you would think even with families that fall under the same bigger culture. One of the examples my professor gave to demonstrate this idea is actually from his experience growing up in his own family. Professor William admitted that his family is one that is not very affectionate and does not say I love you to one another. However, one night he ...

  In class this week we discussed the topic of theories and how specific theories are applied to family relations. The world that we live in is defined by laws set, revealed truths, and compiled theories. Laws are rules set and formally recognized as a binding or enforced by a controlling authority. The truth is defined as in the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 93:24 as the “knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come.” A theory is described as an idea or ideas that is intended to explain facts or events.       There is the exchange theory that talks about the balance of give and take. We have relationships because they are equally beneficial for both parties, but when it becomes parasitic we cut ties with that person. The conflict theory takes place when there are scarce resources that cause a societal struggle. This theory believes that society remains in order when there are those who are in power. Next we discussed the sy...

  For my first week of my 160 Family Relations class, we discussed the different topics we are going to examine and how using research to do so is the most beneficial. However, when it comes to family science research most of the studies that are done are only done within the western hemisphere and the research it concludes are sometimes less than scientific. The studies of family science research are predominantly done within the United States which poses a few problems. If one is trying to further investigate a question they have about the family there is plentiful research, whether true or false, regarding the United States. However, information as to what other cultures believe are scarce and hard to come by when that’s not even considering the fact of if they hold any merit or not.       A very controversial topic concerning the family where family science research plays a big role is whether children raised in a homosexual household face disadvantages op...