Building a Healthy Marriage from the Start

I look at a healthy marriage being two people who have equal respect and love towards each other. A marriage  needs to consist of both spouses making an effort when it comes to the relationship.  Relationships form over time and through that time certain patterns and disciplines are formed in the relationships. A person's every day actions effect one's relationship. It is important to set priorities in your relationship for the future but know that your marriage is the main priority of all. As years go by, and couples have kids, peoples' marriages should not fade away but to realize that it is still crucial for the relationship to do things just for you and your spouse. As Jimmy Evans says during this clip, a married couple should keep parts of their routine,  like having a date night once a week, even after have children and life becoming more crazy. It is important to  re-evaluate your relationship every so often to make sure a couple doesn't lose the romance and the being in love factor of marriage.

The "Perfect" Family

There are many views of the "perfect" family from all different groups of people according to this website article Family Life. In the United States the family unit has been changing rapidly as time progresses. There is the stereotypical family unit of having two parents (a mother and father) active in your life, where you may have one or more brothers or sisters.  In this stereotypical family unit, the father is the care taker of the house economically and the mother stays home and cares for the children.  However, in today's society with the increasing divorce rates, more and more women are joining the workforce and the single parent "family unit" is growing.  These once taboo households (having divorces, single parenting) are becoming extremely common among the US.

Children are now aware of the different family units that a good percent of the US lives in.   The likeliness of kids having  friends who's parents are divorced is very common, children are becoming more familiar with the different family structures.  Children are learning about the different relationships other children have with their parents. Ever since I was born, I have known my older cousin with having her two parents divorced before I came along. Therefore, it was always just her and my aunt living together and my aunt being the dominant role in parenting and taking on the financial aspect of the family. My Aunt was able to give my cousin everything and worked hard for daughter and herself. This is a perfect example of how Americans have dealt with the decreasing of the stereotypical family unit and are commonly seeing single parent-households and other family arrangements that are becoming  more common.