Parenting

Even if you are not a parent quite yet, I want to share some advice that I received when it comes to parenting. I am not yet a parent either, but being a mother is very important to me, and I want to do the best I can when I become one.
Children need contact, love, and belonging. Who better to provide this than their parents? Offer contact freely. As my professor of Family Relations stated, "Contact is like food -- you don't wait until your child passes out to feed them." Withholding contact and love have long-term consequences that parents don't always consider. I don't think I even quite grasp just how vitally important it is for developing children.
Also, children need encouragement as they grow up in order to better avoid destructive behavior. Build on the children's strengths. Show confidence in their abilities. Value your child for who they are. And stimulate their independence. Focus on the needs of the children, and not their behavior. This leads to discouraging actions on the parents' part such as focusing on mistakes, expecting the worst or too little, expecting too much, and being overprotective.
Encouraging your children and giving love and contact freely can have life-long benefits for the children can help improve parent-child relationships.

Family and Finances

      Finances, for many couples around the world, create marriage and family tension and conflict. The reasons for this is unique to the family. But what if you could help ease this in your own family? Would you do it? In the pamphlet, "One for the Money," Elder Marvin J. Ashton gives individuals and families counsel on financial management responsibility. The information provided is the same that many financial professionals would charge you for. I encourage you to read the article here.

       I'm going to outline the major points in his article as part of this blog post because I found this to be incredibly useful and I want others to take advantage of this life-changing knowledge. First, in a marriage, the finances should be handled together so both the husband and wife are on the same page when it comes to how much money is being earned and how much is being spent. This is something that has only recently been introduced into my family. My mom would always handle the finances, and my dad had a general idea of where we were at. This caused some problems because the combination of my dad's lack of knowing exactly where our financial standing was at and his yellow personality led to him wanting to buy many things we could not afford. My mom had to put down her foot every time. This led to a little conflict because they were both in the wrong. Now, both of my parents are involved in the financial process, and things are better. Next, Elder Ashton gives the reader 12 points to improve financial management within the family. They are:

• Teach family members early the importance of working and earning.
• Teach children to make money decisions in keeping with their capacities to comprehend.
• Teach each family member to contribute to the total family welfare.
• Learn to manage money before it manages you.
• Learn self-discipline and self-restraint in money matters.
• Use a budget.
• Make education a continuing process.
• Work toward home ownership.
• Appropriately involve yourself in an insurance program.
• Strive to understand and cope with existing inflation.
• Appropriately involve yourself in a food storage program.

As you can see, the information (which goes more in-depth in the actual article) will not only be an immense help to you, but also to your children. Again, I encourage you to read the article. It has ben a great help to me, and will continue to be as I start a family of my own.