Today we discussed what the purposes are of parenting. There are many purposes to parenting. One of the first that comes to my mind is becoming more like God. We are given such a divine right in this life to be more like God by being able to have and raise children. Although I am not a parent yet I realize that it is a very important responsibility parents are given to guide, love and protect their children. They also have the responsibility to teach their children responsibility, love, natural consequences and the realisms of the world. 
One thing we discussed in class was cooperation and how we were taught cooperation. When I was young my brother and I were fighting. We always got into annoying little fights and would whine and complain to my mom. "He's hitting me", "She's pinching me". One day my parents decided that they were not going to intervene anymore and stop us from fighting so we just went at it. We were probably only fighting for about 10 minutes but it seemed like an hour to me until we were both in tears. We never fought like that again. We learned that there were other ways to cooperate rather than fighting. Haha mom and dad I hope you laughed reading this :) 

This week we talked about Fatherhood and Motherhood - and the differences between the two. I think this is so perfectly timed especially with the Supreme Court Debate going on right now about changing the Marriage Law. I am going to focus on Fatherhood and the importance of it.
What are a few things Fathers do in children's lives? 
1. Fathers build confidence. Fathers are much more opt to encourage their kids to swing or climb a little higher or throw just a little bit harder, which challenges them and increases their confidence to do thing. 
2. Fathers communicate differently. In a large study it was shown that when speaking to children mothers will simplify their words whereas Fathers are not as inclined to do so. By doing this Father's challenge and expand the child's linguistic skills. 
3. Fathers help prepare children for the real world. Fathers are more likely to show children that attitudes and behaviours lead to consequences. 
Mothers of course have a great role in the child's life as well. Mothers teach love, compassion, trust and so much more. I think that in today's society the importance of the role of both a mother and a father are being pushed aside. 
I watched a testimonial of a young girl in the supreme court who talked about her parents. She explained the important things she has learned from having both a father and a mother and asked the court, which one will you take away? Which one can I do without? I think that is the same question we should ask ourselves. 

COMMUNICATION. 
Communication? 
Communication!!!!
Communication.........
As you read those different ways of me expressing the simple word "communication" you all probably read into it differently as I punctuated and wrote the word differently. Chances are many of you also read it differently than I intended. This is a common example of miscommunication. Nowadays, especially because of technology, the sending and receiving of messages can so easily be misinterpreted. In communication we read into non-verbal communication much more than we do in what the person is actually saying. Because of this it is easy to understand how messages can be wrongly decoded when we can not see the non-verbal side of what someone is saying. Therefore it is totally up to our interpretation. For example I use multiple periods when I am annoyed or frustrated. Like "um ok.....". Whereas some people just use them as commas or spaces between what they are saying. Learning to encode and decode messages sent (whether through technology or not) is a skill everyone can work on. 

This week we talked about STRESS. Ah, something that has been hanging over me the past few weeks. We all have experienced stress. But what is it really? Does it always have to be a bad thing? 
In Chinese if you break apart the symbols that spell crisis they mean "danger" and "opportunity". I think this is so interesting. This tells us that stress does not always have to be a bad thing. We can learn and grow though the stress and trials in this life. This is shown in this month's Ensign article "Raising Resilient Children". We can always learn and grow, something I have always felt very important in life is remembering the Law of the Harvest. We have to work hard and learn the things Heavenly Father wants us to know before we are rewarded with our plentiful harvest.                

"If we would truly seek to be more like our Savior and Master, learning to love as He loves should be our highest goal". President Ezra Taft Bensen. 
I must admit, I've been putting off blogging about this week. This week was our physical intimacy week. I'm just going to overview the hormones in physical intimacy which I found very interesting. There are 3 main hormones released in sexual intimacy, serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin. Oxytocin is a very powerful hormone associated with kissing, cuddling, sexual intimacy and pregnancy. In essence this is a bonding chemical. How perfect is it that this hormone is released during sexual intimacy, I am so happy our Heavenly Father created us the way He did so a husband and wife can become even closer through this means.