Family Dynamic

 

    As we go through many changes in our society, one thing, in particular, is standing out to me. Fewer and fewer people are choosing to get married. There can be some reasons that prevent some from marrying not by chose like not being able to find an eligible partner, but others are willingly choosing not to. People are choosing to put their careers first, fear commitment/divorce, or have no time to find a partner in this crazy world because of a time-consuming schedule. It is important to teach these values to our children and our peers because the lack of marriage is diminishing family connections. Coming from a Mexican/Peruvian household, the older generation is married while out of 12 grandchildren who are in their late 20s early 30s, only one three are married. And out of the three marriages, one of them had three teen pregnancies in their high school career and the other resulted in a birth before marriage. With the third marriage, they were married in the Saint Paul Minnesota Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. All of these marriages are filled with so much love and happiness in their homes. The kids have both parents in the household and have great relationships with their families. These examples were not to prove which families are better, but to show how we need to teach our children marital values. To prevent teen pregnancies, parents need to do better. It means having these uncomfortable conversations about having safe sex, or better, not having sex until marriage. Today, the topic of sex is everywhere and has a derogatory concept instead of a sacred sense to it. We have to implement these values to our kids to prevent teen pregnancy. Especially with Latinas, there is a higher chance of getting pregnant while being a teen. I personally believe that this is because there is no sense of conversation in homes. Machismo, which is aggressive masculinity is a big problem in Latino homes. Men are the leaders of the homes and the women are expected to take on the matronly duties by cooking, cleaning, and raising children. There is no conversation about the importance of being abstinent. And when there is no conversation about these important issues, by having these conversations, there will be no confusion/struggle for the children of these teen moms. Mothers and fathers also have to teach their sons that marriage is an equal partnership, there is no alpha and omega. By being equal in a relationship, it will only be a better and stronger family dynamic. Marriage brings families together when it is a loving mother and father. Being taught strong values at a young age will be able to produce strong family values in the future. Latinos are known for having great family values but we need to rearrange some of them. Communication is key. There is an increase in mental health issues because there is a stigma that Latinos are too busy to be sick and there is no need for communications in homes. By not practicing good communication skills, families will only be torn apart even if there is a mom and dad in the household. This is probably one of the reasons why marriage rates are going down. Kids don't want to go through what they went through. As I talk to my friends who are also of Latino descent, they can relate to these subjects. They feel as if there is no sense of communication and our parents have gone through things that no one should ever go through, but they never could talk about them. So the kids have gone through hardships because our parents did not believe in mental health awareness. As young adults, we now have to reverse these concepts. By being the change, we will be able to produce loving families.