You Think You're Fancy Huh?

What is class? Are there different types? What does class mean?
According to the dictionary, class is a number of persons or things regarded as forming a group by reason of common attributes, characteristics, qualities, or traits; kind; sort. We use it in our society to describe people in different economic and social backgrounds. As you know there are 3 different kinds: lower, middle, and upper class.
 To prepare us for this topic,  we were to watch a couple of videos from the documentary "People Like Us: Social Class in America." I watched four different videos: Belles, Friends in Lower Places, Tammy's Story, and How to Marry the Rich. It was so interesting to see each story. The video Belles, was about the cheerleaders, and how so many girls from a very young age who are in dance lessons, strive to be one of them in the future. Some girls who loved to were in those dance lessons didn't know who the Belles were and therefore were "banned" from the click the other girls had formed. You had to be in a certain category to fit in. 
Friends in Lower Places is about a group of people who go to the "lower" class places to have a good time. It is interesting because the "rich" people try to go and fit in and behave like they can't back where they're from, and the locals know they're not from town. A lot of them were offended because the rich people think they can just go and be accepted, but if they were to go to the rich people's "environment" they wouldn't be welcomed. 
Tammy's story was my favorite. It's about a mother of 3 boys, who are in the lower class. They live in a trailer home, she works at Burger King, doesn't have a car, and other situations. Her oldest son is embarrassed of the way they lived, and it makes Tammy really sad to know that her own child is embarrassed of her and their home. Her son wants better things, a better life than his mom's, and I think that's great. The only thing I disagree on is that he should be grateful for the hard work that Tammy is putting on to bring food on the table. 
How to Marry the Rich is about a woman who is being "trained" by another woman who has married a rich man. The single woman is tired of finding men who do not have jobs, a car, or successful life; so the married women helps her learn the ways of the "upper" class in order for her to meet a rich, and successful man. 
What I learned and found very interesting is that no matter in what social and economic "class" we fall in we all want what the other has. The upper class wants the "freedom" that the middle class has, the lower and middle class want the success and the advantages that the upper class has. To me it is just sad to know that we have these labels and we all get treated differently depending on which class we fall in. We are all human beings, we live on the same planet and we should all get treated the same. It's true that some work harder than others, but if we really want that success in life, that is what we all have to do. You have to work hard and be patient for what you want out of your life. You can't be something you are not, don't let people label you no matter where you were born. We can "level up" depending on how hard we work, and even then some people will still not accept you. It all comes to the individual, and how much work you put in to get where you're at today. Unfortunately, we care too much about what people think about us, and that is what stops us from moving forward. Class is just a word not who people are, if anything we should be labeled by the type of people we are and not where we come from or how much money we have. 

How time has changed...

Time...Time is what we call years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. However, time is not only a measurement of our days, but what impacts the change in our lives. Throughout time so much has changed in the American culture. Such changes would include music, way of dressing, food, media, all the way to standards and how we view families. Today, we see cohabitation, single parenting, same-sex couples, divorce, premarital sex, and living alone becoming the new "typical American family". So what's the big deal you ask? Well the big deal is that these "trends"are not only affecting certain families, but children and this country as well. As you know, I'm taking a Family Relations class, and we studied these trends, and I'll summarize some things I think are really important to consider in order to have a positive change throughout our future time in this world.
So as I sat in class and we discussed this topic we brought up all the different trends that are going on at the moment. Don't forget that by trends, I don't mean fashion, but family. These are the trends going on today:

1. Birthrates
2. Age at marriage
3. Unmarried births                           
4. Cohabitation
5. Employed mother (6 years old)
6. Living alone
7. Divorce
8. Household size
9. Premarital sex

It was interesting to realize that at the end they all affect or lead to one another. For example: Cohabitation and living alone lead to premarital sex and age at marriage, then that leads to unmarried births and birthrates decreasing, and if they do marry it leads to divorce, which leads to employed mothers, and finally to household size. Now, what might be confusing to some of you is how household size, and living alone affect families today, or how they are even considered a trend. Well let's start with living alone shall we? An increasingly number of people are living alone today, from being separated, widowed, or just never married. This is a trend because it pushes people to wait to remarry (not that they have to); which affects the age of  when people marry. While people live alone, it encourages them to have non-committed relationships and premarital sex which again could lead to unmarried births and so on. Now, household size due to unmarried births, cohabitation and living alone, the average household size is decreasing. A family consist of more than 2.5 people; and at this rate soon it'll be 1. As you can see all these "trends" are affecting families all over this country, and the more we inform ourselves about these subjects, the more we can avoid this from happening in our lives and our families. We need to go back in time and remind ourselves how the value of family was once one of the main priorities in people's lives. Time will only tell how soon our priorities will affect our families...

Humble Beginnings

Well, my name is Kathy; and like many of you I'm starting this blog for my Family Relations class at BYU-Idaho. A little bit about myself, I'm married and at the moment is just my husband and I, and our 4 month old puppy, Cambria

. We've been married for a little over 8 months, and are looking forward to starting a family in the future. We both come from very different family backgrounds, and yet we all seem to get along just fine! I come from a family of 9 +, thanks to my parents' divorce; and my husband comes from a family of 5 counting his parents. Different cultures, beliefs, size, etc. It is one of the many reasons why I'm looking forward to this class since I've experienced many, many things with my family. I love our families very much and can't wait to see what I can offer to this class from my personal opinions and experiences.