Thriving Families

The topic I would like to discuss in my blog this week is a topic that has resonated in my mind for quite some time. Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of being a mom. I always knew that education was important, and I knew that I would work to obtain a degree in some field that was fascinating to me, but I also have always hoped and dreamed of becoming a mother. That led me to do a lot of pondering on the question, well, what is the purpose of parenting ? If becoming a parent is something I would like to do so badly, then what is it about parenting that is so important? I believe that there is more than one purpose to parenting. I think that parenting helps us to become better people and make better decisions, and I also think that it protects and prepares a child to survive and thrive in the world they will live in. Raising children is no easy task, and it requires a lot of time and effort. All children have needs, and it’s the parents’ responsibility to help to meet those need...

 This week, I was reading an article from the National Council on Family Relations, titled: Fatherhood and Social Change, and I would like to highlight 5 key points that I found the most important. First, the article highlighted the difference between the culture of fatherhood, and the conduct of fatherhood. The author mentioned that the culture of fatherhood is the “shared norms, values, and belief’s surrounding men’s parenting”, and the conduct of fatherhood is “what father’s do; their parental behaviors”. Rotundo said that “A good father is an active participant in the details of day-to-day child care. He involves himself in a more expressive and intimate way with his children, and he plays a larger part in the socialization process that his male forebears had long since abandoned to their wives.” The author goes on to say that Rotundo is describing what people would like fathers to begin doing, not necessarily what they are currently doing. The second highlight I found in...

Having strong communication is not natural in any given relationship. It is getting harder and harder to communicate and understand communication. Only 14% of communication comes from words, 35% of communication comes from tone, and 51% of communication comes from body language. Now that technology, texting, and social media has become a normal part of society, the communication has decreased a lot from back before these things were available. Healthy communication takes a lot of effort, and even puts people out of their comfort zone at times. In my blog today, I would like to list what I have found to be the most effective ways of communication. Everything I am basing my blog from today comes from Dr. Burn’s “Feeling Good Podcasts”, specifically his “The Five Secrets” podcasts. In Dr. Burn’s podcasts, he lists five secrets to effective communication. When these techniques are applied in our marriage, courtship, or other people we associate with, those relationships will greatly be s...

This week, something was brought up that really grabbed my attention. I wanted to focus on it in my blog today, because it meant a lot to me, and I believe it will make a difference for you too. Every one of us experiences stress or adversity in our lives. We can expect that at some point in our lives, if something super stressful hasn’t already occurred, it most definitely will. Growing up, one of the things I often struggled with was having low self-esteem. I was consistently worried about what other people thought about me. As a result, I would have self-accusing thoughts such as, “I’m not beautiful enough”, or “nobody wants to hang around me”, or even “everybody is judging me”. Though I have increased in confidence over the years, I am still not perfect at it. I think everybody, at one point or another, struggles with confidence or worrying about what others think about them. What I have learned from this week that I would like to focus on in my blog today is that “we’re not just t...