Stress and the Family

This lesson was really interesting. We learned about the different ways to cope with stress. We also learned about positive and negative ways of dealing with stress.

Something that really stood out to me is when the class was talking about how some them or family members had coped with stress. The one thing that I remember was that whenever the family was involved in a positive way the kids were able to cope in better.

I know someone that doesn't know how to cope with stress very well. They won't go to their parents and so they have chosen to go to friends that aren't the best and alcohol.

Sexual Intimacy

This is a topic that most people shy away from especially within the church. We are taught, ingrained with the   idea that sex is bad. Yes it is bad when it is out of the bonds of marriage. I think we need to better at teaching children that within marriage sex is a wonderful, bonding, and fun experience.

We need to take the time and be responsible and teach our children about sex. This can be really uncomfortable but wouldn't it be better to have them hear about sex from you rather than from people at school? Educating ourselves and our children can have many positive effects on our families and society.

Getting Married

Many people think that as soon as they get married all of their trouble will cease to exist. This isn't true. You have never lived with this person before. He or She will have quirks and habits that are completely foreign to you, they may even annoy you. Marriage is really a wonderful thing but it does take time to adjust to. 

Most LDS couples end up having babies pretty early in their marriage. This will take some more time to adjust to as well. You have another life that you are responsible to care for and make sure he/she thrives. This can take time away from couples to be together. Husbands can start to feel neglected and feel like the mother is only paying attention to the baby. Even when the baby comes parents still need to find time to go out on dates, even if you need to leave your baby with someone you trust. 

Parenting

I really enjoyed this week. The parenting skills I learned help me feel more positive about teaching my children in the future. The purpose of parenting is to protect and prepare children to survive and thrive in the world they are going to live in. I think the key word here is thrive. We don't want our children to just survive in the world that they live in. I want my children to be able to thrive in the world. I want to teach them the importance of the gospel and the doctrines. I want to teach my children many of the things that will help them to do well throughout their lives.

The information we used came from a program called Active Parenting. I thought he did an amazing job with this program. He said that we want our children to have four different character traits.
1 Responsibility
2 Cooperation
3 Respect
4 Courage

I really like that he focused of Natural consequences rather than punishment.