Hopelessness to Happiness in Family Life.

First I want to share a link to some videos that will change your life. It's a long documentary, so I will give you a brief summary, but I still encourage you to go and watch this!

Demographic Winter
It's called the Demographic Winter, and it's well done, including a lot of opinions from highly accredited economists, professors, authors, government leaders, etc. The basic idea from this video is that the previous belief that we will eventually overpopulate the earth because there is not enough room for the amount of people, is not true. In fact, according to some of these professionals we will begin to depopulate worldwide as early as 2040 as a result of the falling fertility rates.  Now this may not involve many of us, so I wanted to include some of the other negative effects that will come from these falling birth rates.  First of all, the economy will suffer as human capital decreases.  The more people we have going into retirement is not being matched by enough workers to support them.  We are going to have to start working harder to hold on to the same lifestyles we have grown up with.  Along with this, it's predicted that the real estate market will suffer as the "Baby boomers" sell their larger homes to downsize, without enough families to buy them.

Now, I don't want to lead us into hopelessness, or call for mass amounts of people to just start having babies.  I simply want us to change the culture. In this video they interview all kinds of people, who seem to have the same ideas of family. They say that having kids is a burden and if you have them there should only be 1 or 2.  I disagree, it's still the choice of the parents, but if we are able, it is our wonderful privilege to bring children into this world.

As human beings we thrive off relationships with those around us, and need them to remain emotionally well. The best thing we can do to change the world, is raise a generation of children in a stable family life, with love and support. According to the "Family System Theory", each individual in a family affects all of the other members of the system whether positive or not.  For example, to build a delicious cake, we need many different ingredients, all with varying purposes that are all still necessary.  Families are worth it.

*HAPPY FAMILIES CHANGE THE WORLD*

Happiness in Marriage

So today I'm here to talk about the happiness that can be found in marriages, and being a newly wed of three months (tomorrow) I think I can be counted as an expert..obviously..


I mean come on, look how cute we are!
         
 

All the credit goes to our photographer, Simply Amor Photography, look her up she's seriously so talented!!

Anyway, back to my thought for the week, we learned a lot about the importance of the family structure and then how essential it is for those families to have babies!  But what stood out to me the most was that the foundation has to be from a strong marriage. I know I for one was terrified to get married, hasn't everyone heard the statistic that 50% of marriages end in divorce? (Not true by the way), but it's still a scary thought!  I know some people wonder if it's even worth it to get married at all, as we have seen the rise in cohabiting couples.  Now I'm not here to tell you that you are wrong, or that I know what is best for everyone, but I want to show you some facts that will give you some hope in the idea of traditional marriage!  There have been studies that show that the highest level of well-being comes from being married (Soons and Liefbroer 2008). After reading that in our textbook I dug a little deeper and found a lot of data that shows higher levels of happiness in more committed relationships, aka marriage.  Being married to your best friends also provides a built-in support system to help you overcome the trials we all face in life (Dehle, Larsen, and Landers 2001).

We need to change the culture!  I choose joy just like I chose to get married. When the time and person is right, don't be afraid.  Marriage is worth it.  Family is worth it.

"Marriage and children are not part of the plan of happiness it IS the plan of happiness." Boyd K. Packer

Hello blogger world!  I am Makayla, first time blogger in order to fulfill a grade for one of my classes.  However, I also hope to change the world as I share what we are learning and the insights that I gain.  (At least I hope to enlighten a few people with these words!) It's a Family Relations course which I am told can be full of a little bit of controversial topics, so I will let you know that I am not here to start any arguments, I just want share some data and opinions of mine.


After this torturous first week of classes in this semester (I may be a little over dramatic), there was a bright spot in the dark.  I realized this week that I have an intense passion for learning about families, and what I can do to help.  It was so fun to be able to discuss events that have changed the basic unit of our society: marriage.  I feel an intense desire to learn more, and especially to understand the REAL facts.
Finally, one current event topic that I can show true interest and be up to date in!!

Can't wait to share more,
Thanks!

Makayla