Joy in the Family

Dating is the most important part of selecting an eternal companion. It’s important to date around and get to know as many people as you can so that you can see what qualities you like and don’t like in a person and figure out what you want when you are looking for a husband or wife. I know that I have been on dates where there was things I liked in a person and things I didn’t like very much. This is my second semester here at BYUI and when I came up here, I expected that I was going to get some schooling done first before I get married and that I was only going to go on dates. When I got up here, I went on a few dates with this one guy and realized that he did not have some traits that I wanted in a person and decided that I was going to try and go on dates with other people. A couple days later, I went on a date with a guy who immediately I enjoyed spending time with him. We went out more and more and started spending a lot of time together. We started dating a week and a half l...

Gender roles is something that is mentioned in our everyday lives. Especially when it comes to getting married and having a family. The definition of gender roles is the role or behavior learned by a person as appropriate to their gender, determined by the prevailing cultural norms. In the family, men have their roles of being the provider. They are to work and provide for the family. The women are to nurture and care for the children as well as clean the house and take care of things at home. In my family, my parents grew up from both of their parents to work together in many roles until it was done. My mom’s parent’s were farmers and my grandma worked just as hard as my grandpa did on the farm. On my dad’s side, my grandpa worked as a physical education teacher, but my grandma also taught piano lessons and provided for the family as well. I have seen the example of my parents working together. My dad is the main provider of our home. He goes to work, but he also comes home and does...

My family has many cultures that define us. The two that I would like to focus on has to do with potatoes and Adidas. The two things that we would like to set aside are nagging and being too worried about everything. My family and I have always lived in Idaho. My mom grew up in Blackfoot and my grandpa was a potato farmer. They always ate potatoes with every meal. You can eat a potato in many ways so they always ate potatoes with everything.   My mom still loves potatoes and quite often in my family, we eat at least some kind of potato in our meals. Everyone in my family loves potatoes just as much as she does. They are the best in Idaho and the best variety of potato to eat is Russet Burbank’s. If they aren’t Russet Burbank’s, we always find a way to complain about how they don’t taste as good. The love of potatoes will always be in our hearts and will always be a culture in my family. Another culture that we have in my family is that we love Adidas. My grandpa B is the one ...

I like the quote “Families are like branches on a tree. We grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one.” (Unknown) This just reminds us how different we are as individuals in a family but we are all bound together as one. Families are all so unique because each individual member of the family has different personalities, attitudes, goals, and dreams. This is what makes being a member of a family both difficult and wonderful at the same time. My parents always said that each individual member of our family was born with a distinct personality that could be detected from day one. My oldest brother Andrew was a child that was always going. You rarely found him sitting around doing nothing. This paid off for him as he worked very hard at BYU-Idaho and earned 2 degrees; one in Financial Economics and one in Applied Mathematics. Ellis is my oldest sister that as a young child was afraid of nothing. She was self-driven and always set her goals very high. She has always worked...

It’s interesting to come to an understanding that the world’s population will eventually start declining for the first time since the earth was created. I never considered this to be a problem because I personally come from a large family. My fraternal grandfather and grandmother each had 10 and 11 siblings. My mother in turn had 7 sisters and 2 brothers, but now that I think of it, each of those siblings only had 5 or 6 children at the most. I come from a family of 5 and have noticed that each generation really has reduced the number of children they’ve had. We have grown up in a different culture then the rest of the world because of our religion. We are taught to multiply and replenish the earth, and that the “family is central to the creators plan for the eternal destiny of his children.” (The Family: A Proclamation to the World) After I watched the Demographic Winter, I understand why it is so important to have children to replace generations that are passing away. I learned tha...

Hi, I'm McKayla Benson! I am from Idaho Falls, Idaho. I am 19 years old and this is my second semester up here in Rexburg. I'm attending school at BYU-Idaho and I am studying Marriage and Family. I am the middle child of 5. I love spending time with family, and I especially love being an aunt. I hope you all enjoy my blog!