Tanner Sigler- Family Relations Blog

     Teenagers are notorious for giving their parents and other adults gray hairs. Between the ages of 12-18, teenagers are wanting to break away from their family and explore their freedoms such as hanging out with friends, staying up late, getting a car, having an income through a job, and dating. There are also some bad things like drugs and alcohol which can be appealing to teenagers. Some of these things are good, but too much of a good thing can quickly become a bad thing.      I am a new dad with my first child on the way, so obviously I don't have much experience raising a teenager. I am the second youngest in my family of five, so I have been able to see the way my parents have raised the teenagers in my own family. Another qualification I have to speak on this topic is the fact that I have directly worked with teenagers for about three years. In Utah, I worked at two Residential Treatment Centers, Daniel's Academy, and The Heritage Community. In t...

     For this blog, I am reporting on an article I read about fatherhood from fatherly.com. I loved the whole article and it was so difficult to narrow my favorite parts down to just five things. Below are my top five favorite topics that the article discussed.      1. Good Dads Are Incubated Traditionally, dads are the ones responsible for teaching their kids how to ride a bike, throw a football, and wrestle. A book from 1977, Constructing Fatherhood by Deborah Lupton and Lesley Barclay suggest that the more involved a dad is, the stronger the relationship will be with their kids. Examples of this is spending serious quality time together and not just getting the energy out. Spending quality time begins before the baby is born. In 2011, a literature review claimed that fathers who are engaged and involved in the pregnancy of their child tend to remain in the child's life as they grow up.      2. Good Dads and Engaged Father Figures In a best...

      How often do you misinterpret a message or someone misunderstands what you are trying to say? I am sure each of us have had this problem probably numerous times. It is not fun! In fact it is pretty frustrating! We communicate in many different ways such as through our spoken words, our written words, and our non-verbal communication. In this blog, I'll discuss a process we can use to overcome these situations.     The first step is what is called "Disarming". When someone is upset with you and they blame you for something, typically our initial reaction is to become defensive which the other person is most likely expecting that and preparing for an argument. Rather than becoming defensive, try to find the kernel of truth in what they are saying. Most likely, what they are saying will have some truth, even if it is only a tiny bit and even if it is hard to hear and accept. So when you are getting chewed out, be humble and listen to what they are saying. Lis...

      Where do I begin? There is stress at every level of family life. For this blog today, I will go through the stages of life and review some of the stressors that are associated with the corresponding stage. Many of the stress that we experience is external, but we can quickly internalize it and make it grow worse. There are many things we can do to help us cope with our stress, but the biggest thing is having faith in our Father in Heaven and trust that despite whatever we may be going through, our Father is aware of our situation and is with us as we endure to the end. He cries with us when we cry, and He rejoices when we rejoice.     Let's being with dating. For me, the most stressful part of dating was the filtering through the girls who didn't want commitment. I thought dating was fun, but I was so excited for it to be done! Ever since I could remember, I've wanted to be a husband and a father. Of course I wouldn't say that to my dates, but my inte...

      Sex can be an uncomfortable topic of discussion for anyone, but it doesn't have to be. Sex is meant to be a beautiful thing, ordained of God to bring enjoyment to a marriage. Sex isn't just physical, sex is emotional and relational. In order to have great sex you need more than just a comfortable bed. In this blog, I'll discuss some of the various aspects of sex.     Let's begin with when we should learn about and discuss sex. I'm not going to tell you what is right or wrong because obviously everything I talk about can be right for one person, and wrong for another. For me, I began to learn about sex when I was about ten years old. My parents would help me feel comfortable and then talk to me about what sex is. At first I was incredible uncomfortable. I would sit in the fetal position and rock back and forth. But although I appeared to be uncomfortable, I was listening. For kids today, pornography is readily available. Learning from my parents about how s...

    My wife Dani, and I got married in October of 2021. Best decision of my life! I am so grateful to be married to my best friend. After we dated for a while, we started talking about marriage and I quickly learned that while we shared the same opinions on most aspects of marriage, there were definitely a few things that I never even thought of. I learned that marital traditions vary between families and generations. Here's my story:     Let me begin with how we started talking about marriage. Just from dating her, I knew that Dani would make a wonderful wife. We shared the same views on religion and politics. I knew she had great integrity, she was kind, fun, playful, and loved being with her family and my family. For her, she was definitely paying attention to who I was, but she didn't want to talk about getting married until she had prayed about it first. So here is the first tradition to be put into question: should you pray about who you should marry, or if the...