The Challenges of Blending a Family

This week as we talked about divorce, remarriage and blending families together. I learned new things I hadn't thought of. My parents have been married for 27 years and this is both of their first marriages. Most of my aunts and uncles have also stayed in their first marriages. So I have never had to deal with divorce or remarriage, which I am grateful because it does not sound easy. While I was watching the videos in preparation for Wednesday homework, it talked about "baggage" brought from the old marriage/divorce into the new marriage. This baggage can be harmful to the family as they are trying to blend two families together. You cannot focus and strength your marriage if you are constantly thinking about your old marriage and guilt or other emotional baggage that may be a result of the end of a marriage. I really enjoyed Wednesdays class. It was interesting to listen to Sister Williams and hear from someone who had experience divorce, remarriage, and blending a family first hand.

One of the Hardest Things You'll do: Parenting

This week as homework we had to watch four different sessions of parenting videos. Even though I am not a parent and will not be for several years, I found these videos interesting and helpful.A couple of times I found myself telling myself to remember something they taught. Parenting is not easy. Everyone knows that and everyone has made that clear. But it doesn't have to be a miserable power struggle all the time. These parenting videos were about how to deal with teens. I have to be  honest when I say that I am not looking forward to parenting teens. But these videos taught how to deal with rebellious teens and other struggling teens. One thing the videos taught that I liked was to give the teenagers choices. When it is chore day, instead of telling them what chores they will have to suffer through, show them a list and ask which ones they want to do. We need to show respect to our teenagers. Otherwise, why would they show respect to us? I would recommend  to parents who are having having a hard time parenting their children to watch these videos. They are called Michael Popkin's "Active Parenting."