So this week one discussion I found particularly interesting is why is it that most family research is done in America?
We talked about it in class and had some very interesting thoughts. My main thought was that since there are so many people in America from so many different places, we don't have a set tradition or culture like most countries. My class mates also brought up the fact that it could be that other cultures are happy with their culture, their definition of family and marriage and such and Americans keep wanting to change things. A few more ideas were that they just don't have the resources, our culture changes so rapidly and so much that we don't stick to one thing, America tends to be individually and freedom driven instead of culturally and community driven like many other cultures, and there are now many different definitions and variety's of families in America.
All of them make since. What do you guys think?

Speaking of variety's of families it seems like we have so many different definitions of family that family could really be anything. People associate the word family with people who care and love them weather they are related or not. So friends, teachers, friends families, gangs, pets, anyone. Sometimes people don't even see their family as family because they don't feel loved or like they are getting enough attention. Could this be because of the human craving for intimate and meaningful relationships? very possibly. They are necessary for the growth and development of a healthy human and many feel like they don't get that kind of relationship at home, even if they do. Many teenagers tend to even push family away making it difficult to get the attention they desire from home. A girl in my class said something very wise in my opinion. She said (and im paraphrasing) that family comes in a structure. A father, mother and children structure where love is the glue that holds it all together. We love our friends but they are not family because there isn't that necessary structure.

In the world there are a number of family trends and each is connected to the other. The trends we discussed were
*Divorce rates on the rise
*cohabitation on the rise
*people are getting married later in life
* more mothers are employed (many with children 6 years old and younger)
*more people are living alone
*Birth rates are dropping
*house hold sizes are getting smaller
*both parents are working
*people are having children later in life.

Each of these in my opinion are very significant and can be harmful to families potentially.
With divorces I understand in most circumstances especially if you have tried everything. But if its like "ive been married 20 years and I'm just bored" or "we've been married 2 months and its harder then I thought" suck it up and work it out. I feel like people in America have the I want it now complex and if things are "broken" we throw them away instead of trying to fix them. Not always but sometimes.
Cohabitation is said to cause more divorces then just getting married and trying to figure things  out. Now some people cant help getting married later in life and that is perfectly fine. it just makes having kids and a family more difficult.
I also understand some mothers have to work and I respect those mothers who work to take care of their family but I also think it is extremely important for mothers to be home with there children, especially if there children are in the ages under 6. These ages are crucial to the development of relationships between mothers and their children. These are the learning ages. I also feel like when the children get into their teen years it is crucial a parent be home when the children get home from school. I have seen way to many good kids get into so much trouble because they have been left home alone while both parents are working which pretty much covers both parents working as well. Someone should be home with those kids. Teenagers or not!
these are all connected too. Cohabitation leads to people getting married later in life, leads to lower birth rates and smaller house hold sizes, leads to divorce, leads to more people living alone and so on  and so forth. You can put these into a million combinations

and just so y'all know, the population explosion in the baby boomer years actually was not due to "people breeding like rabbits, it was that people stopped dying out like flies". The population explosion, among other things like the women's independence movement, sexual revolution  birth control, and the fear of running out of recourses had people afraid to or "feeling selfish" if they had to many children.
Guys I'm going to go a little preachy here and if you don't agree that's fine, feel free to comment, just be nice . . Resources are not going to ever run out on earth. Science has actually said that fossil fuels are regenerating themselves because they don't come from fossils at all, they actually generate from the earths core or something. Also I believe in a loving God who put us here and gave us there recourses. We need to respect what we have been given and use it sparingly and as long as we can take care of them Heavenly Father will not let us run out.

and one more thing I liked that a classmate said "it takes humans to create recourses. If there are no humans, there are no resources"

Enjoy, comment, sorry it was so long. Have a great day!!!1

Here we go!

Hey Y'all I'm Ellie.

I'm from California and I'm now in my first semester of college. yay :)
This blog is for one of my classes. Let me just say its a fantastic class and I love it. I will be posting at least once a week and hopefully what I say makes sense! (my class is really early in the morning). I don't really know what I'm doing but I'm going to do the best I can because . . . well its a grade and that's how I try and live my life.

Since its only the first week and I don't have a ton to say ill give a little background. I am attending BYU Idaho, majoring in Child development. I am a little crazy, I randomly change accents and I am a want to be cowgirl. even though I've never lived in the country for some reason when I get serious or sentimental I will often fall into a slight southern drawl.  This blog is for my Family Relations class. I come from a family of 3 kids (including myself) and the two most wonderful loving parents in the world. My dad is a hard worker and has taught me to be the same. My Mother is the sweetest woman in the world and my best friend.

I should probably explain the picture. . . I've always loved butterflies. They represent change and there for they remind me that change is a good and necessary thing in life. so for my birthday my mom got me a butterfly balloon and before I left for school she had me take a picture with it to help me remember.

So ya! I hope the things I post are interesting and of use and I hope y'all will check in every week to see what I got!