Family Relations

The simple word "marriage" can bring forth many different emotions in people. For some, the thought of marriage may bring feelings of joy, for others it may be panic or hesitation. Why are our responses to marriage so different? How does one even start to find a partner? How do you know if they are "the one?" Many of the questions above are typical for people to ask. We also see many people trying to find a partner. In our day and age we have lost the idea of "going on dates" and adopted the idea of "casual dating." As time has gone by, we have lost the definition of a date. A date is supposed to be a time where individuals get to know each other with the intention of finding a mate. Currently, we see individuals asking to "hang out." This has resulted in a generation of casual dating. We can even go further to see a link between this and the common theme of cohabitation rather than marriage. Casual dates do not allow individuals to t...

Have you ever heard someone tell you that, "your actions affect others?" While you may think of your mother criticizing you when you hear this, it is a true statement. For the purpose of this blog post, we are going to focus on how the decisions made within a family system affect the entire family. More specifically: the rules, actions, and decisions made between two parent figures have the greatest affect on a family. Family structure and gender issues have a huge impact on a family system.  We can see examples of this in a family consisting of two mothers, or two fathers. When the decision is made to live a LGBT lifestyle, the future children will be affected. In the past, it was unheard of to have two father figures, or two mother figures. However in our modern day this is becoming more common. So why does this have such a large impact? In our class thus far, we have learned that with each parent figure, we see different roles assigned. These roles have nothing to do ...

Hello everyone! This week our class was looking at traditions, customs, and cultures of families. This topic is so unique because every family has a different approach to these things. They may have customs passed on from ancestors, or they may have made them on their own.   Within a family system we see cultures that are either being developed or being followed. What is a culture exactly? There are so many ways in which you can define a culture but the way in which culture is defined within families is the, "attitudes, ideals, beliefs, traditions, and environment in which a family develops or follows." What kind of culture does your family have? As I have reflected on this topic I have seen the vast variety of culture in different families. As I have grown up in my own family, I have seen that the culture that we follow varies greatly from that of other families. But is one culture better than another? Each family is going to be unique and needs to find what works for them...

Hello everyone. This week I have been reflecting a lot upon the family system as a whole and how every family is unique. During class this week we had multiple discussions that were extremely eye opening for me. We discussed things such as family systems, typical family trends, and the needs of individual family members. Have you ever had the opportunity to talk with your friends and family members about how they were individually raised and the rules that their families established? This past week I got to do exactly this- and I was so surprised by what other people said. Growing up I had an "assumption" that every family was kind of like mine (because that's all I've ever known). However, while talking with my friends I realized that there is such a big difference in how they were each individually raised. Each family is unique and has a story to bring to the table. This is in fact why "solving family issues" is so difficult. You cannot have one answer to ...