Culture

This week in my Family Relations class we talked about culture and diversity. We talked about how when most people when hear the word culture they think about different countries and how they act. In our class we talked about how it is more a set of rules and traditions inherited by family or those around you. Every family has their own culture, and it carries and changes as children grow up and have their own families. When people grow up and get married, they tend to marry those who have similar family cultures to their own families. I thought that this was interesting because I am about to get married in a couple of months. I thought about my fiancé and I and our families, they are actually quite different, but I fit in well his family’s culture. This really made me think about what culture I want to have in my future family. Which was nice because we were posed this following question this week in class:

What are two aspects of your own culture you’d like to perpetuate, and two you would like to set aside or improve? How can you do that?

I really liked this question and the opportunity to reflect on my family culture and what I want to take into my marriage and future family.

The two things that I would like to perpetuate would be encouraging each other in what we do and having an attitude of service. Two these are two things that my family and I do now that I think that are good to continue doing.

1-Being encouraging

Being encouraging is so important because it can help those who are having difficult times to buck up and get going. My family has always been encouraging to one another with so many different things. Some of my siblings played sports, and we would encourage them in that aspect, and we would encourage each other when some one would go through a big life change like graduating, or getting married, or getting a new job, or moving. I think that this helps promote healthy family bonding.

2-Having an attitude of service.

This is something that I think is very important to have individually and as a family. My mom is one of the most selfless people I know, she is always doing things for other people and encouraging the rest of us to do the same. Being a member of the church, I hear about how important service is, but I am so grateful for such a wonderful example. I think that it is important to be good examples, especially for children.

Two things that I would like to improve for my family culture would be keeping in contact with those who live far away and improving family dinners.

1-Keeping in contact with close family members that live far away.

I think that this is important because it helps keep relationships. In our class we talked about how when you are apart from your families and you don’t get that in person quality time, you can lose some of that bonding. I think that it is important to build your relationships and sometimes that can only be through some sort of long-distance communication. I think that if it is just a short phone call or even just a small text to remind them that you love them, that communication can improve your relationship with that person.

2-Family Dinners

I think that family dinners are something that are so important to have on a regular basis. I also think that making it a time where there is no electronics is a good thing. Not only does it help children not get addicted to electronics, but it gives the family a time to be able to bond and communicate, which helps build a stronger family.

I think that it is good to take what you have seen from cultures and apply it into your own family and your own life, this is culture appropriation. I think that when we do this, instead of just following some traditions blindly it helps us build a better stronger family!