Tanner Sigler- Family Relations Blog

 What do you feel when I bring up dating? Whether you are single or married, dating can bring up so many different emotions. For me, dating was fun, terrifying, awkward, romantic and everything in between! Dating is something that should require plenty of effort and not be "off the cuff". In my class this week we talked about the 3 P's of dating: Planned, Prepared, and Paid. Let's break this down a bit.     Planned. A date should be very well thought out while leaving some room for flexibility. As big a fan that I am of movies, a movie should not be a date unless you have been dating for a while or you're engaged or married. When you are dating someone you should get to know them through conversation or recreation. For me, a date usually consisted of getting dinner/dessert, having an activity planned, and ending with a conversation in a park.     Prepared. A date should be prepared meaning you have everything ready to go. You shouldn't do things randomly, or c...

     We all have someone in our families who lives an alternative lifestyle. The alternative lifestyle can vary in a lot of ways from doing drugs, participating in a different religion, or engaging in homosexual relationships. Today I want to focus on loving those with homosexual attractions. There are theories as to why people are gay, those include genetics, victim of abuse, filling social gaps in their lives, etc. The theories go on and on. Of course these are theories for a reason because not one is accurate for every person who is gay. These attractions can be very difficult for everyone involved. For some, typically depending on your political beliefs, coming out as gay or being told someone you love is gay can be easy, or the scariest thing you've ever had to do. Strictly speaking in general terms, those who come from Liberal families tend to deal with this news better and those who come from Conservative families tend to struggle with this more. What I just talked...

     Wouldn't it be nice if we could control our children? Obviously that's only a dream for many parents, but would it actually be a good thing? I know for some of my siblings, my parents were worried sick when they would go out, not knowing if their friends were good influences, what they were doing, and when or if they would come back. That must be a really hard thing to deal with. So how can we shape our family into what we want them to be while still allowing them to make their own choices? Let's step back for a moment and take a look at the world around us.     Our culture has its ups and downs. Each of us has many opportunities to make a life that we want, yet there is a lot of hatred between races, political parties, communities, and sometimes even religions. From my perspective, a lot of these problems happen because they want the other person to be like them. Does this sound familiar? So many of our problems come from us trying to change others. For th...

      If I were to start singing Jingle Bells what would you think of? Christmas? That's what I would think of too. That's because you have learned to associate Jingle Bells with Christmas through your experiences. Now think of an experience in your past that triggers specific emotions. An example could be when I was younger and would do something to get me in trouble, my mom would give me "the look". I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about because your mom probably did the same thing. When she gave the look, I would feel anxious, regretful, maybe even a little bit scared of the consequences. Now, years later, my wife will occasionally give me the same look that my mom would give me when I did something wrong and immediately, I would become defensive, anxious, frustrated, and all the other feelings and I would direct them towards my wife. But you know what's different? My wife isn't even mad at me, in fact, she may not even realize she's g...

     Until about the early 2000's, it was a common belief that marriage is between and a woman. About the time when Obama became president in 2008, that belief started to be questioned by society. Many started to wonder why homosexuals shouldn't be allowed to marry each other. But this also raised more questions about family life, well-being of children, etc. This week in my Family Relations class, we talked about the APA (American Psychology Association) Brief which was part of a study on the effects homosexual relations had on children, or at least that is what the study claims. During class, I discovered that this brief contained the results of many studies that didn't prove much if anything at all about the effects of homosexual relations on children. Many of these professional studies were measuring the opinions of psychologist, the parents, and anyone else besides the children. I am not a professional and I am strictly speaking based on what I saw with my own eyes. ...

Hello! My name is Tanner Sigler and I'm from Lubbock, Texas. I'm studying Therapeutic Recreation at BYU-Idaho. I'm creating this blog as part of a Family Relations class and I hope I can share with all of you my passion for strong family relations, things that I learn throughout this semester, and I'll even include specific ways that we can build and strengthen our relationship with our family members.