Small Town Girl in a Big World

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...

Society is changing the definitions of male and female and making certain things okay for female but not okay for male. We constantly are doing this even though we may not realize it. What do you do if you see a little boy playing with a doll? What do you do if a little girl is playing with a toy truck?  Normally, we would push for the little boy to play with something other than a doll because that makes him girly but when we see a little girl playing with a toy truck we encourage her to keep playing. Yes, we should want each to play with certain toys that way it fits best with their gender but we should never criticize or label children by what toy they play with.   Gender is a huge controversial topic in the world right now and as I write this post I truly hope that what I say doesn't offend anyone because it is not meant to offend. Gender in today's world has changed drastically from just a few years ago. Gender is now something that can be changed or modified depen...

So many families have these great traditions and rituals each at different times of the year and different seasons. Each of these traditions are unique to each family unit which helps create our own family culture. Have you ever thought about what your family culture is? What makes your family so unique? I know I have never thought about it or considered the little things that made my family the way we were. Each family is unique in doing things a certain way or creating traditions that are special to that family. The traditions that each family does influence how that family operates. The traditions at Christmas time, the ones for Easter, what we do over the weekend, how we celebrate birthdays, etc. But what makes our families culture? It doesn't necessarily have anything with how we celebrate different times of the year but one thing that does have an impact on our families culture can be our socioeconomic status and class. Our socioeconomic status is influenced on appearance,...

In each and every one of our family, there are such different theories that can create different situations. These can happen even if we are single, married, with our parents still or whatever your situation may be. There are four different theories that can influence the way that our situations run and operate. These theories are conflict theory, symbolic theory, exchange theory, and systems theory. These theories offer stability and structure to the family. In my own family, we have certain ways that we operate and function as a family. This is just how we have been and how we always will be most likely. Here are two of the theories; The first theory is Conflict Theory which can be seen in any family situation. This theory can easily be explained as someone searching for power over another in a family. For example, a sibling trying to over-power a parent can result in some conflict. This can be triggered by wanting to be in control of a certain situation that they just aren't ...

In the world today there are many trends that are occurring in the family. These trends are causing many traditions to disappear which is changing the way the whole world views family. These trends have begun to tear apart families or even cause families not to form in the traditional way they used to. These trends seem to be things that have always been around throughout the years but as of lately they are making a huge appearance. Each of the trends are very important to know because they could be happening to you but you don't even realize it so here they are.  1) Pre-marital Sex 2) Birth's to unmarried women 3) Living alone 4) Cohabitation  5) Delayed Marriage 6) Extended families not living together 7) Fewer children 8) Household sizes 9) Divorce 10) Employed mothers of children younger than 6 Now, in my own opinion, each of these trends are different in their own way. Lets say someone has pre-marital sex but is living alone, this can lead to co...

I have begun a new semester at BYU-Idaho this last week and I am so excited to learn so many new things! I am a part of a family relations class and my professor has asked us to create an online journal/blog so here I am creating a new blog :) The last time I had a blog was to keep my mission emails on so creating this one has been bringing back old memories. The semester is in session until December 15, 2017 and although I love being in school, I am not excited for winter to come back. Don't get me wrong I love the snow but walking to class in the snow is not my favorite. It also means that another year is getting close to finishing! It is crazy how fast time really goes. This semester I am taking 5 credits which isn't a lot but I am a poor college student and at the moment that is all I can afford :( but the two classes that I am taking this semester are Preparation for Marriage and Family Relations. I love both my classes so far and am excited to keep learning new things t...