Family Relations

    This week in my family relations course we talked about the characteristics of a female and male. How they are different and how they are alike. I really enjoy learning about what makes boys and girls different because, for some reason that I don't understand, the relationship between the two work together so well.      Today in class we talked about gender roles and how it effects the dynamics of a family. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little worried at the beginning of the lesson because I was prepared to hear someone say that a man can't have feminine traits and a female can't have male traits and that they SHOULDN'T. Good news! That's not how the discussion went! It was actually the opposite. We talked about this study that had been done on little kids around the age of 4 or 5. I mention how old these kids were because they are at an age where they haven't been influenced by outside forces, telling them to act a certain way because they...

     What does someone’s social class mean to you? I have been thinking about this question a lot this past week based on our discussions we have been having in class. Do I judge a person based on their social class? Do I care at all about someone’s social class? I don’t know if there is a definite answer for any of those questions, but I do think that maybe we, myself included, are often too quick to judge a person or we put them in this universal box of what we assume their life should be, whether it’s their character or appearance based on their social class.      This week we talked about what that means and looks like. I learned that we sometimes create a social class in our minds based on how much money a person has or we think they have, their job, how much education they have, or even who a person has connections with. I thought this was interesting because in many cultures, social class is something you are born into, and you stay in. For example, ...

     At the start of the week we talked about the different family relationships and theories. Naturally I started thinking about my own family and the relationship I have with them. An interesting thing we talked about this last week in class was  symbolic interaction theory. This is a very basic thing to understand but the discussion that occurred in class to was so interesting to me. Symbolic interaction theory is the idea that we show symbols, or do small things, that show others how we are feeling. These symbols are often different based on the situation. An example we used in class was a simple hug. When it comes from a friend or a family member, you feel loved and cared for. But when it comes from a random person, it is often weird and a little creepy. I think everyone has had an experience like this where the relationship with a person and the action didn't quite match. These small interactions sometimes change the notion we have of a person whether that is i...

     This week we learned SO much in my Family Relations class! I felt like every time I went to class, I learned something new! We started the week off by talking about how the trends of family have changed. This is in relation to divorce rates, marriage rates, and fertility rates. One of the most interesting topics we talked about was about fertility rates. We talked about how they have change and how they compare to different countries around the world. When I say fertility rates, I mean how many kids each family on average has. I knew that it was going to be low, but I didn't expect it to be 1.6 kids per family! That seemed crazy low to me! I come from a family with seven kids, so my idea of a small family is pretty much anything smaller than five. I knew it wasn't going to be way lower than I was expecting but I still thought that the average would be higher than that! This has lowered over the years and is at a lower average than ever before! In my own personal opin...

September 16, 2021 Hey team! My name is Megan Flake and I am starting this blog for my FAML 160 class. I'm excited to get this blog going and to share some of the principles I am learning about! I've thought about doing a blog in the past but have always thought that I would run out of things to talk about. This class is a perfect opportunity to see if this is something I really enjoy! A little about me. I'm eighteen years old and attending my first semester of school. I'm a fairly social person but definitely have my moments where I would rather be at home watching a movie. I'm hoping this transition to college life is a smooth one and I get the hang of it fairly quickly. I have grown up in Washington state my whole life, in the Puget Sound, on an island about an hour north of Seattle. I love all things outdoors, specifically being on the water or in the mountains! I am the sixth of seven kids and have many nieces and nephews, who I ADORE! I'm sure there is mor...