Family Relations

This week in my family relations class we talked about recent trends in the family. Some included delaying marriage, more people living alone for many different reasons, more mothers being employed, the increased number of births to unmarried women, more people never marrying, and how household size is decreasing in the United States. Our world is starting to change in many ways.

Some of the ideas that I found really interesting as we talked about the topic are as follows:

• Some people in cohabiting relationships have a certain expectation of their significant other before they get married and a different expectation after they get married. We talked about how this can cause big problems in these kinds of marriages.  
• We also talked about how marriage is more frequently being viewed as a capstone to a life instead of a cornerstone. My belief is that a marriage is needed as a foundation or cornerstone to be built upon. I recently got married. One thing that my mother told me that I think is very important is that now you have someone to go through life with. When you get married you have someone to rely on, share hard times and good times, and who loves you for who you are. 
• One personal insight that I gained from this week is how important my parents example has been in my life. As we talked about these different trends I realized that my knowledge started with the teachings of my parents and became mine as I lived my life and experimented on what they had said. I gained my own knowledge and views but so many of them come from the knowledge gained from my parents.I hope that I can be this example for good someday.

Just some thoughts! I hope that you all have a wonderful week!