MAUUGGAGE. its what BWINGS us TOGEDDA today.

      So if anybody can tell me what that movie reference is in my tittle for the post gets 12 Premont Points.
alright, now that is out of the way. This week we talked about relationships and love and marriage. aww so sweet right. yes, that is the answer. I have never experienced marriage, so I have no authority over this topic, but I will talk about it anyway.

      I would consider myself very traditional when it comes to marriage and dating and things of that sort. In class we completed something called the marriage contract. We answered questions about marriage such as technical things like, will the wife take husbands last name? Will we have kids? Who will take out the trash?Will both parents work? etc. These are all important topics to discuss while couples are in the stages of courtship and even engagement. These differences are big factors in a relationship, some may even be deal breakers. While dating we should be getting to know each other more deeply. Relationships should flow naturally, have no forced feelings, and each person should be able to be themselves completely.Couples should address frustrations easily and be able to solve problems with each other.Here is a cool blog that I found that touches on marriage and other such subjects.click here .

Now where was I? oh yea marriage. Its what brings us together. The end.

WOW, they're Cute!

Attraction, the number one thing that leads to a relationship. Any type of relationship that is, friends, romantic, parental, etc. What causes people to be attracted to one another? Is it similarities? differences? interest? social status? All these factors play into what makes a person attracted to another. The first thing that draws a person to someone is their appearance.  It is a fact, eventually a person needs to be physically attracted to their partner in order to keep on a relationship. I believe that the appearance aspect does not necessarily need to be the first aspect that attracts a person, but eventually it needs to be there. Lots of people meet their spouse and start to like them for other reasons, such as personality and then as they get to know that person they become more and more attractive.

 I see people forming romantic relationships all the time. Why is it happening? I guess love is in the air or cupid is shooting arrows left and right because couples are everywhere. This is a good thing! I love seeing other people happy. These types of relationships are formed by first propinquity. This word means to be in close distance or nearness. We have to be around a person in order to form a relationship. It is just essential. The second is similarities, we have to have things in common to talk, connect and bond with or else we are just mush sitting there staring at each other in awkward silence. Third is physical attractiveness and well this is self explanatory.

  Emotion linked to Gender
        

          Gender plays a big role in all of our lives. Am I right? I think so. Without Gender how would we know who we really are? What is acceptable by society to like and dislike? How we should act around other people? All these things are influenced by Gender. Now there are some aspects of genders that are natural. Women are more tender, delicate, and dainty while men are said to be "macho" and "manly" . These are the stereotypes we place on gender roles. Girls play with dolls and boys play with trucks. Girls are relationship oriented and communicate emotionally and verbally as men are spatially oriented and communicate through their actions. The way Men and Women express emotion are very different. It is not that They feel different emotions it is that it is not socially acceptable for men to express how they feel the same way women do. How often do men express emotion through anger? I say pretty often. Why? Because it is not acceptable for men to say they are feeling vulnerable and lost. For example. Take a man who has a wife and kids who just lost his job. He must go home and tell his wife the news. In this time he may be feeling deeper emotions such as disappointment in himself, regret, loss of the sense of "provide, preside, and protect". When he gets home he kicks the dog out of the way, gets upset with his children for not cleaning up their mess and makes rude remarks about the dinner that was prepared. He is funneling his emotions as anger when really he is over whelmed with what happened in the work day.We as people let these "societal gender roles" dictate who we are. A man who just lost his job should just be able to express to his wife how he is feeling straight up, not having to leave hints of how he is actually feeling in aggressive actions.
       I am not saying that  all men should start crying over everything because that is how we feel or that all women should be more manly and show less emotion, there needs to be a Gender barrier, but what I am saying is that we cannot let Stereotypes of who we are supposed to be decide who we actually are, weather it be based on our our appearance, financial situation, race, or gender. We need to stray away from the world in this sense and live our lives how we believe we should be.

Are all Cultures Valid?

This was a question posed by my teacher this week and that got me thinking. Are all cultures really valid? The word valid to me means effective or correct. So during class when we were discussing this it was brought to my attention that no, not all cultures are valid. Every culture believes they are correct and others are repulsive. To Americans the middle eastern culture is controlling. The way women are perceived and treated by men is not acceptable in American culture. In other cultures women get married off young. These are extreme cases. In the context of the family not all cultures are effective in creating the ideal family life. Some cultures accomplish the family way better than others can and do. The american culture has made divorce socially acceptable while in Latin countries they are solely focused on their families and divorce is not an option. The Latin culture wins at this part of "the family" Some cultures are effective in the way they govern and run their families. For example, in Holland everyone gets the same salary. If your a trash man you get the same amount of money as a doctor. The people in Holland seem happy because there is no competition over money or status. This is their culture. Everyone is deemed equal. Holland may be more effective in the wellness of their people then maybe those Asian cultures who are told when and what to do everyday. The Asian race in general does not seem as happy as other cultures. this may be because their key ideals is to be honored and hard working. They are always serious. CBS news released a study done that declared Latin Americans as the happiest people. Why? what in their lives makes them so happy. The article can be read here.  My answer to the posed question is No. No not all cultures are equally valid. May cultures have different traditions and practices that seem strange to others, but it doesn't matter how "weird" it is. what matters is the reason, and meaning behind it.

Hello fellow classmates and any other viewers who were lucky enough to click on this blog,
This week in Family Relations I personally found our class discussions fascinating. We spoke about Family Systems Theory. There are four different theories. The first one is systems theory. This theory is my personal favorite because it is viewed as a whole. Each family member has a specific role and there are rules. The second theory is the exchange theory- doing something for someone else expecting a favor in return. This is a give and take situation. This theory has several flaws in the way people can react and communicate to impact the family negatively. Symbolic Interaction is when every action means something to someone else. This become analytic and every behavior suggest a meaning. As people we create and assume meaning from all interactions. these interactions are easy to misunderstand. the last theory is the Conflict theory. This is when power maybe overt or subtle, but all families find ways to resolve their conflicts. I would put my family in the systems theory because I feel we each have definite roles in our family. Maybe that is why I favor that theory, but in our family it works.I have definitely seen these other theories take place in other families and they work for some, but not for all families.

Hello fellow classmates and other public who may be reading this! This week we discussed some interesting facts and trends in class. I would like to talk about the trends that as a population we are seeing now of days compared to the mid 1900's. Within Americans the age we now settle down and begin families has increased. The age we as Americans are getting married has raised to 26 years old for women and 28 years old for men. In an LDS population the age for women to get married is 22 and the age of men is 24. Going to school at BYU-Idaho I have friends my very own age who are already married. That is crazy to me, but I guess I may be adapting a little bit of the worlds view on that. However, in my experience I have met more men who are on the so called "older" end of the spectrum who have yet to get married. (24-27) and meeting younger girls who are 18-21 years of age here at BYU-Idaho. The worlds trends on marriage age is in a small way becoming the LDS "norm" as well. This shocks me  in the way men and women are holding off marriage now and instead of tying the knot, they are simply moving in together and cohabiting. Premarital sex has increased, cohabitation has increased, and young single mothers have increased. These are all results of our population not wanting or seeing the need to be married. 40% of kids born are born to single mothers. Think of the effect that has on the child and mother as well as the effect it will have on society. Without marriage there are no commitments to anyone. This has become appealing to most people. Another effect from marriage decreases is that birth rates have decreased. This bring us into the Demographic Winter documentary. This documentary focused on the fact that population is not increasing exponentially it is actually decreasing, the opposite of what many people think. There are several factors that go into the reason for this Demographic winter, but what will happen to the earths population if these trends keep up? Our older  people are living longer and less babies are being born. In several years the elderly population will start to die off and we will have less kids then ever before. How can we change this? Is it important to change this? and What will happen if it is not changed? Some questions to think about.

Hello all!
As this blog was designed and created for my lovely Family Relations class, I will be discussing my insights, thoughts, and what I have learned this semester. This past week during class the question came up about dating. "Why don't we date as much as our parents did?" now there are several answers to this question. I personally think that while our parents were in their prime dating years there was more of a social acceptability to formal dates. When I say formal dates I think of being asked out, going out and doing an activity in which each couple (maybe several) are paired off. Now of days dating is just "hanging out" only will you ever see steady dating on a very serious level. I also think another reason for the dating change is that young adult's morals have gone down hill. Our overall morals are not as high as they should be. Other colleges have much more vulgar and serious sexual sins, as well as word of wisdom sins that lead to loose terms concerning dating. One last reason I believe that young adults of 2013 do not date as much as our parents generation is because the reasons for dating have slightly changed. Our parents generation dated to marry, now people date to date and to have fun. Marriage may be more of a outside thought. So there you have it. Feel free to comment or post your own opinions! until next time.