Mariah's Blog

We all grow up believing that everyone in the family has a certain role, but what happens when that role in your family is different than the role in a different family? That has happened in my family actually and I've had people think it wasn't normal, but to me it was normal. In many families the father is the provider for the family and the mother is the care taker of the children. In my family that isn't the case. My parents switched roles when I was about a year old because my father hurt himself at work and wasn't able to work anymore. My mother went to work to provide for the family and my father stayed home and took care of us kids. Many families the kids are closer to the mother because she stays home with the kids during the day while the father is providing for the family at work. The kids just have more of a relationship with the mother then with the father. That wasn't the case for me, I was closer to my father only because he was always home when I...

Have you ever been judged by people around you by the things that you wear, dress or the things you own? I have in my life. I've had friends while here at college ask if my family is rich. The reason they ask is because my parents pay my tuition for school and also some of the things that I own. I just tell them that my parents work really hard and when they found out they were starting a family they set money to the side for each of us kids every year. People don't understand that not everyone is rich or has money even though they look and act like they do have money. I've known many people in my life that dress and act professionally, but actually are in the low middle class. People around them would guess that they were in the upper middle class or the low upper class. I watched a video that shared a story about a lady named Tammy and how she lived. She was in the lowest class (poor) and her oldest son wasn't loving that class. He was always trying the dress diff...

This week the topic made me think a lot about my family at home. A genogram is just like a family tree, but instead it shows the relationships in the family as well. I made a genogram of my family and I'll tell you a little about what I learned. Let me tell you about my dads side of the family. My dads father passed away in the Fall of 1996. It was a death that everyone was dreading, but knew would be for the best. My dad took on the role of the father in his family, even though he had a family of his own at home. When my oldest brother turned 16 he took on the role of a father because at that time my dad was a stay at home dad due to him getting injured at work and not being allowed to go back. My dad was still our dad, but he would be off taking care of his side of the family or he would be down due to his injury. When I turned 16 as well I took on a small role of mother of the family. My mom would leave me a list of things I had to do for that day.  I would do the grocery shop...

In the 2nd week of Family Relations class we talked about the different positions on family. I learned that the average marriage age for LDS people is 24,26, but if they aren't LDS it's 28,30. These numbers really surprised me because I'm a LDS person and I have seen many friends or family around me getting married before the average marriage age both for the world and LDS. Even family and friends that aren't members are getting married before the average age. Another one that really surprised me was that Co-habitation is going up while the marriage is going down. I know many people who are co-habituating as well. Some of them are engaged and others are just living together. Majority of them have kids with each other which isn't always the best because if they decide they don't want to be together anymore than the kids will be have to be living every other week or weekend with the other parent if they get joint custody. Which isn't the best on the kids beca...