This week was a sensitive and honestly a sad topic.  We discussed divorce and the consequences it can have on a family system.  I am now a marriage and family studies major and I hope to become a marriage and family therapist after I finish my schooling and I imagine I will most often be dealing with cases of divorce or people who are seeking a divorce.  On Monday I wrote down a very powerful statistic.  Seventy percent of divorced people, two years after the divorce believe they could/should have saved the marriage.  This really struck me because one of the biggest things I hope to accomplish in my career is a realization in people that marriage is tough, but it is most often worth saving, not only for the children (if there are any), but for the couples themselves. My parents are happily married, but I do have an aunt who has been married and divorced several times.  When we learned about the role this plays on the children I started looking at my cousins and I know they have definitely been affected by their mother's choices.  The oldest son in that family is currently in prison and he will be for some time.  I linked this back to not having a father in the home.  When a father isn't present it takes a toll on the boys in the family interestingly enough.  However, the two sisters in this family have also suffered greatly without a positive model of what a relationship should be; therefore, they have had their own struggles.  The youngest son in the family is the one I feel most sorry for.  He is the one who has lived through several fathers, abuse from those men, the pain of his siblings, and now I see his own choices going downhill simply because he didn't have the security of two parents in the home with a loving relationship.  I do believe there are instances when a marriage should not continue, in such cases of abuse, but for the relationships that have simply grown apart I believe those are the ones worth saving along with many other scenarios.  This is what I hope to dedicate the rest of my life to.

This week we discussed parenting.  Even though I am not a parent yet I learned a lot this week about why my parent's did certain things and I started to pattern out some ways I would like to parent.  We watched several videos about parenting that were actually pretty good because they acted out certain situations that I know I have seen happen in my own family.  But, they didn't always just act it out in one way, they would change either the way the parent acted in the situation or how the child acted.  I wish it were that easy that we could just pause, rethink the situation, and replay.  One thing I was always frustrated with was the fact that at least one of my parents would stay up to make sure I made it home safe and on time.  I felt like they didn't trust me to follow curfew, but the video explained why it is a good idea to be awake when your children come home; it enforces curfew, let's them know you are safe, and honestly I realize now that it showed my parents cared about me.  We also addressed some of the reasons why people have the desire to be parents.  One of the ideas I was most inspired by was that parenting encourages a stronger relationship with our Father in Heaven.  We begin to see why Heavenly Father lets us go through some trials just as we would let our own children go through trials; it serves the purpose of teaching a lesson so we can grow and learn.  I am excited to become a parent one day and I am really starting to see just how smart my parents really are.  I hope I can pattern my own parenting in such a way that it strengthens my relationship with my children and helps them learn and grow in a positive environment.