week 3

This week we've talked about homeostasis. What we do in our own families to maintain a certain healthy balance.

In my family we call each other regularly, or chat in some form. It helps us stay balanced by knowing what is going on in someone else's life. We know when to support, listen, or listen less to each other by knowing whats going on.

Without modern technology I would definitely be lost. It is the only way I can communicate with my family daily. Whether it's through Facebook, Cell phone calls, or texting, o

r even blogs I am always able to know what is going on in someone's life.

Another way that we maintain normalcy or homeostasis is by keeping traditions alive. In my family I don't ever remember ever reading scriptures together or having Family Home Evening, but I do always remember looking forward to traditions and knowing that they were a time that we could share our love for one another without having to outright say it. Going to Hershey Park Pennsylvania, or waking up to green t

reats on st. patricks day were all things that I looked forward to when I was growing up and they are things that I cherish the most as become an adult.

Week 2

On the last day of class this week, we mainly talked about Boundaries. We talked about the differences between good boundaries and bad boundaries.

It really helped me to draw a picture of my family and see who's relationships or boundaries are stronger than others. I have always considered myself to be close to all of my sisters, but when i started to think about their relationships with each other it became a lot more difficult because i could perceive it to be different than how it really is.

Another interesting subject that came up during class was whether the youngest child has a different way of being raised than the oldest children did. I definitely think that by the time I came along my parents were really tired, and I got away with a lot more than my older sisters did. However, when they talk about the things that my parents used to do with them when they were little it makes me think that we were raised by different people!

I recently found a book of poems and stories that my dad has written through the years, and many of them were about my oldest sister Tricia and how excited he was to learn he was going to be a dad, and how much fun they had together and all the places that they went together and the stories that he'd tell her. I felt so jipped! I love my parents and i'm very grateful for them and for the way they raised me, but I really do think it's true that with time my parents got tired. So for my oldest sisters they might have had more rules, but they also had more family time.

Family rules are interesting things ..the ones that are explicit in my family are things like "Listen to mom's safe-driving speech every time you leave the house" or "if you refuse to eat what we're eating for dinner than you cannot make anymore dishes with whatever you're going to make." Implicit rules are a little more tricky, because they are things you have to learn by experience. For example, in our family if i am angry about something and I know that i'm going to cry, then I vent to my mom about it. It has never been said, but it seems like the second you start crying during an argument with my dad you suddenly lose all your power. I think it's especially interesting to hear how different everyone else's families are from my own. That might be my favorite part of the class so far.

Week 1

I just barely added this class, so when I came in today I wasn't really sure what to expect. But I actually LOVED the discussion! It was so interesting to hear different viewpoints on why people get married, and to hear my peers talk about what is wrong with dating and what is right with dating.

I really enjoy the diversity between the married students comments and the single students comments. I personally believe that people get married for many reasons but one of which that we didn't spend too much time talking about, is because of the stability it provides. Not just monetarily but also emotionally and mentally.

I believe that a reason that pregnancy in teenagers is a growing trent because in some ways we glorify it with shows like Teen Mom and Sixteen and Pregnant. Don't get me wrong -- i love those shows just as much as the next person, but MTV has a way of showing its viewers reality without really showing them reality...if that makes sense. For example, while it shows these young moms going through difficult times trying to go high school and college while raising a child by themselves, but at the same time these girls are getting paid hundreds of dollars by all of the magazine companies that they are on the covers of.

Raising a child with MTV is a lot different than raising a child on your own but I think many young girls get those mixed up which leads them to believe it will be easier than their parents say.

The basics.

This is me! And I could've chose any picture I have of myself from the Winter and snow...cause living in Rexburg, we all have plenty of those, but I thought a picture of the summer describes me better! I stayed here during the 7 week break and pretty much lived at the Sandbar. I'm almost a junior and studying Psychology with hopes of eventually working in an eating disorder clinic or a self-harm unit in a psychiatric hospital. This is my blog to keep track of my thoughts and opinions in my Family Relations class.