Summer Heaton

Decision making. A pretty stressful time. Something that isn’t always clear and hard to understand. It can drive wedges in relationships or strengthen them. There is so much to decide in life. So many things that are thrown in our path that we have to figure out and make decisions on. It's tough business for sure. I think there is definitely a right way to make decisions and a whole lot of wrong way to make decisions. As parents and spouses we want to try our best to make the best decisions for our family. So that everyone involved can have the best opportunities and try and get everyone on the same wavelength. It's important to be on the same page as spouses when making decisions that affect everybody in the family. It’s difficult because we hardly ever are. There are a couple different decision making models we use without realizing it. There is the alternate model, the dependent model, and the divide and conquer model. All these models that can lead to problems

This week in class we talked about stress in the family. It was pretty insightful to hear about family reactions to stress and difficulties and relating it to my family and what we’ve gone through. I think it’s interesting that we as a people almost forget sometimes that life can be hard. Its kind of stupid to say but its actually pretty common. When people are first getting married and starting their families they seem to think that marriage will solve their problems… It won’t. They think that once they find the right person everything will be sunshine and roses. It's a nice thought for sure. But life rarely is all sunshine and roses . Life is hard, and it always will be. It doesn’t matter who we have in our life, stuff is going to come up and that stuff won’t be easy.Realizing that trials can bring reimagined strength to the family dynamic is important. Being aware and prepared for the trials that can and probably will come up can help us in our marriages and our

“We show our faithfulness to God by loving him with all our heart, might, mind, and strength (D&C 4:2) We show fidelity to our spouse in the same ways. Indeed, our spouse is the only other things besides God who we are commanded to love with all our hearts.”( From Making a Love Connection) Fidelity to our spouse is one of the most important things we strive for in this life. Showing our spouse that we care and commit to them and ONLY them can create some of the highest joys in life. In that same vein breaking that commitment can create some of the lowest lows of sadness and insecurity we can experience. I think we all strive for complete commitment but there are just some things to be aware of. The beginnings of infidelity can start with something as innocent as having friends with the opposite gender. It can start with something very private like pornography that can go unnoticed for months or even years. It can lead to serious emotional detachment from

Men, although powerful and often rule the professional world, get pushed aside when it comes to family and home matters. In the media Men are always the joke. The big dummies or idiots of the family. The fall down stairs and make stupid mistakes all for the comedic relief. When women are getting married it's not really a joint thing anymore is it? It is the women's day and their day only. Little girls grow up planning their wedding. They just need a plastic ken doll to stand in for the magical day. Also when the first baby is born. The mother is their 2nd in command and the man “just doesn’t understand!” For all this I kind of feel bad for them. Do we really discredit them so much? How could we distrust them so much with the children? With practical tasks? With the things that seem so important? Today in class we talked about the stresses that families with new children struggle with and for the most part it seems like the dad gets the short end of the stick. For me to say

Look. I know I might come off as a bitter single byu-i student and I understand that but I have my reasons and I wouldn’t classify myself as bitter either. There’s just a lot of weird things about dating culture that really doesn’t suit my fancy and I want to get it out there. So here goes. First of all dating isn’t casual anymore and if you do date casually congratulations you’re a special snowflake. Dating is serious and asking someone out is like asking someone to marry you. Or asking them to have your first born child. Or asking them to spend eternities with you. I know I’m being dramatic but people are dramatic! You have to really like someone to ask them on a date or they just think you’re creepy. People put so much pressure on “dating” these days that if you do ask them out its crazy, blasphemous, or even just serious. Its annoying because people like me who aren’t really looking for a serious partner can’t go on any dates for experience. I just want to have f