Small Town Girl in a Big World

Dad's take on a lot of responsibility in providing for their family. With each family circumstance it is different but the majority of families have a father who works to provide for the family. Growing up that is what we were taught, the dad goes to work while the mom stays at home with the kids and cleans the house but what we are also taught is that in this world it is impossible to live off of one income and that to provide for a family, both parents need to work to help provide for their family.       At what point do you need to start having a double income to help provide for the family? In my family, my mom started working when I was in 7th grade due to my dad getting laid off from his job. Since then my family has adjusted to having both parents work and in a lot of family situations this is the case. When both parents are working it helps bring in that little bit of extra cash to pay for needs of the family. How has both parents affected your family si...

Quite often we view marriage as a happy, easy, and wonderful journey that we experience for the rest of our life. This view is very off or confused with how marriage actually is. Yes it is happy and yes it is wonderful but it isn't like that 24/7. There are hard times that come with marriage and some that are extremely difficult and put a lot of pressure on the couple. You have to make some hard decisions as a couple that could change the situation of your family, work can become over-bearing, and other situations that are out of the couples control. What do we normally do when something begins to grow out of our control? We try our very best to regain control of the situation so that it is back to the way it was before. Control is something that we all wish we had in some part of our life, but unfortunately things don't work out that way. Having control is something that some people focus completely on and if things aren't in their control then anxiety and stress take ov...

  What are kinds of things that can trigger stress in a family? Is your family under some circumstance that is putting stress into the relationship? There can be many things that influence and effect the family. With different stressors, different outcomes can come from the triggers. Some of these triggers could be Finances, Divorce, Re-marriage, Illness, Death, and it could be many others that affect families. How can we better handle these stressful times as a family? What does stress actually mean? Stress is defined by Google as a state of mental or emotional strain or tension. Stress is something that we put on ourselves by analyzing the situation that we are in. We can be going through our everyday activities and experience stress from work, school or peers. Stress can happen anywhere if we allow it too. It can occur in the same re-occurring events throughout a day or it could be a brand new experience that brings on that stress. It is important to remember that some ...

Have you ever wondered why someone would get jealous of their partner talking to someone of the opposite sex? It honestly has never bothered or concerned me until this week began. Whether that person is talking to them through face-to-face, text message, or Facebook message, it can create feelings of jealousy or betrayal. What do those feelings do to a relationship? I have noticed that once those feelings are apparent in the relationship, they are really hard to get rid of and have the relationship be where it was before. So what are appropriate boundaries that need to be set in a relationship? In this life, the different experiences that we have carry us upward like stairs. In this case, we will use dating and marriage for the stairs. So the first step up in the stairs is Dating. When you are dating, you get to know lots of people and you are talking to lots of people making friends. You have conversations with everybody because you are not tied down or committed to a single person. ...

Dating is such a fun time of life and is filled with brand new adventures! There are many different opportunities that come up through beginning a new relationship with someone. Relationships all vary on the couple, some relationships move fast and some move slow. There is no set limit to how long you should date before asking the big question. Once the question has been asked, the engagement is over and you are now married, there are a lot of new transitions that have never been experienced up to this point of life. I personally am not married so I have not experienced these transitions but for most people they can take a lot of time and adjusting. A few of the transitions that you go through after becoming married are sharing a bed, sharing your money, sharing a bathroom, sharing your living space, sharing chores and house duties, and sharing your food. For being a college or university student and living in your own apartment, you get the opportunity to experience living wi...

Have you ever noticed how 'hanging out' is becoming the norm rather than taking a person on a date? Sadly, dates are becoming fewer or being over-thought and over-committal than a date should be. Millennials are shifting away from going on dates and turning towards hanging out in order to get to know people more before deciding whether or not to date them. Why is it so hard to ask someone on a date and go have an enjoyable evening together? So starting from the basics, how do you find a person whom you are interesting in taking on a date? For many people it is hard to actually find a date and we may only have certain places that allow us the opportunity to meet new people we could consider dating. Whether this be in the workplace, at a university, in a study group, etc. There can be so many different opportunities to meet new people and take someone on a date. With social media, television, and other sources, we are being led to believe that going on a date is a huge commitmen...