Blog 8 - Family life and stress

     Family life can be stressful. There are many events that happen in family life that can be very stressful. Last April I thought my mom was going to die from an accident and it was very stressful and I was getting married that month too. My mom and her friend were out walking and a biker ran into her and she went flying in the air, because she was tiny. She flew a few feet and landed on her head which split her head open about seven inches. She broke her collarbone, bruised her hip and got a concussion. I showed up at the accident site and she was barely concuss. My dad and I, who showed up, thought she was going to die. 

    My dad later told me when he was in the ambulance with her that he was thinking how he was going to tell us kids that mom just died. Luckily she didn't and she had a rough many many months getting better. At the beginning of her, getting better, journey she couldn't walk because the biker hit her really hard on the hip. She couldn't sleep because her collar bone was broken. It was hard for all of us but me the most, but we all got through it.

    I have many other stressor stories because there is stress in families. It doesn't even need to be in your family, you will see stressors in other families that you witnessed. It is very important that when events in the family life become stressful to be there for your family. From what I said earlier we all needed to be there for my mom. I was getting married very shortly after this accident and I felt like I always needed to be there for her, that is what you should do when things like this happen. While reading this just take a minute to think of some family stressors, that are in your family or others that you have seen. Think back and think about what you did in those situations. 

    In every family there are kids who are more connected to the parents, in my family we have that. There are five kids in my family and a few of us are more like our dad and the others are like our mom. In every family there is also a healthy family. For example, there is open communication between the kids and parents and the parents to each other. It is very important to have great communication in a family, especially if you have a lot of kids just so you don't feel like someone can't talk. If you don't have any kids then it it's more important to have open communication between spouses so you can be on the same page. If you don't have that open communication, then the marriage and family will become stressful.  

    Another thing that a family can do to create a healthy family life without having stress is to have the parents lead by example. This really applies when you have kids because you want them to grow up knowing what is right and they will do what you do. No one wants their kids to grow up not knowing what a healthy family look like. The two of you spouses should lead the kids in the way you want them to know when they are older. However you teach your kids they will know that is what a marriage is like and we want them to feel good about getting older, getting married and have kids. If not then the family life will be stressful and it will be harder.