The Steps Toward Marriage

This week in family relations we talked about the steps towards marriage. The first step is dating. This means  dating a variety of people. After you date many people, you may find one person you want to get to know more. This is when you move onto the second step. The second step is courtship. Courtship means that you are exclusively dating one person. This is a trial for marriage, seeing who well you get along and would do together. The third step is engagement. Engagement means you have a ring and date for the wedding. During engagement several steps must take place as well. These steps are: making decisions together, practice sacrificing for each other, establish boundaries, problem solving, relying on each other. After engagement the fourth and final step in marriage.

Another topic that we discussed that I thought was interesting was the importance of involving the father in the pregnancy. Mothers are obviously building that relationship with the baby during the pregnancy and then afterwards take care of that baby while the father is away at work. Often times the father doesn't feel that special connection to the baby because they mother does all the caring for it even when he comes home because she may not trust him to care for a baby. This is why it is so important to involve the father. Take him to doctor appointments, take him shopping for baby stuff, let him feel when the baby kicks, and most importantly, let him be there doing the birth of the baby.