Divorce

Every family has it's conflicts, but do blended families (one partner being divorced once and has kids) have more conflicts?  I don't know the answer for sure, but some conflicts they deal with that other couples might not are: culture/traditions, trust, old spouse, and building new relationships (parent - child).  Statistics show that it takes two years for everyone to feel that this new life is the norm.  The best way for parents and possibly even children to deal with this new change is to allow for time for adjustment.  It is also very important for parents and children to keep a good connection and a good line of communication.  It is very important for the spouse that has married into the family to not be strict on the kids and discipline for a while.  They need to spend time with the kids to bond with them.  The role of discipline should be placed upon the birth parent, for they have had the time to bond with the kids.

Parenting

In my class we have been talking about parenting.  There are many reasons to why we parent. Such things as raise our kids so they can survive in the world, teach, love, and so many more possible reasons.  We all have different reasons, but it should be because we want to and we want the best for our kids.  When we discussed behavior it was brought up that if the needs of a child are met bad behavior will decrease.  Our teacher told a story of a kids who kept chewing and sucking on his shirt.  His mom tried everything to get him out of this habit.  Finally it turned out the kids was suffering from a lack of potassium and sucking on his shirt helped fulfill that need in a way.  Other few thoughts that have come up in class that I liked was that we need to focus on where we want to go as a parent. We need to prepare and plan to be good parents.  Also parents who are confident are consistent with their parenting.

Work

Many couples today have to deal with many decisions that deal with work and the family.  Such things as where to work (should the family move), should the wife work, what type of work should the husband and/or wife have, and there could be many more questions to deal with.  How should a couple go about deciding what they should do? Why not counsel together like the Brethren of the church do?  This means we need to discuss together as husband and wife (kids can be involved too if they are old enough to know what's going on), pray and converse with the Lord individually and together and husband, wife and family. 

Family Counsels

In my class we discussed how the Brethren counsel.  It was so awesome to discuss they way they make decision.  They all gather together and don't come to a conclusion until everyone feels comfortable and all agree the same.   I really like this in families because we should always be on the same page.  We should always counsel together and not make decisions until we call can agree and feel that we have all had our say.  Some great talks we read were "Strength in Counsel" by M. Russell Ballard, and "Counseling with Our Councils" by M. Russell Ballard. We also watched a great video on YouTube "Elder Henry Eyering and Elder Cleon Skousen - Inspired Unity".  I really like how the Brethren are always on the same page as the Lord, as families we should strive for this also.

Family Crisis

We are taught that trials are a way to help strengthen us and help us to become better stronger people.  How often do we think of trials/crises in our family as a way to bring us together and strengthen us?  We have to option as a family to pull together and become closer when a crisis happens.  I like the saying that "The structure of a family will determine how a crisis will be handled, while a crisis will determine the structure of the family."  Just like how individuals handle trials differently families handle crises differently.  I think it is good that we try to make sure that we draw closer together when such things happen.  Maybe it's a good idea when small crises happen on the family to practice drawing closer together so when a larger, more potentially detrimental, crisis happens it will be easier as a family to draw closer together.  We need to keep in mind how important families are.

Sexual Education

It seems like lately sexual education has become a big deal in schools.  But are they really becoming better for our children?  In class we discussed how the sex education is going about it's ways of teaching.  I am scared out of my mind to have children and to have them deal with these things.  What is going to happen to our kids if they way they are taught is in a horrible (pornographic) way? What can we do as parents to prevent this from happening?  I sure I hope I knew this answer, but I plan to be as ready as I can when that times comes around.  I hope there are ways and I hope as parents we want to protect our kids from these horrible ways that sex is being taught to our children. 

Marriage/Children

It's so funny to see how people view marriage. They will make their wedding plans and the whole wedding day to be so stressful, but then they think that after that day everything will be great. What they don't know is all the adjustments that need to be made in the first little while of marriage.  The four R's of adjustments in the first month of marriage are:
-Routines
-Resources
-Rules
-Roles
We all need to be open to change and need to make sure that both you and your partner are happy with what has been decided.

Another big adjustment that needs to be made in marriage is when the first child comes along. Some stresses that come along with a child are such things as:
-feeling like they carry most of the load
-women think their husbands don't care about the baby
-the husband feels neglected or that there might be a loss of effection
I think a great way to avoid this is a good communication.  Communication is a great way to avoid many complications in a marriage. The wife should always express her love and affection to her husband. The husband should express his love and affection to both his wife and their new baby. The wife should let the husband know if she would like help with anything around the house, so then she wont feel like she's doing everything. Communication is key!