This past week we have been talking a lot, in this class and in others, about if the experiences you have shape the person you are. Does your family having money help or hurt you? Can we really understand each others family experiences?
What is the purpose of family? To support, to accept and love unconditionally no matter what, to help you learn and grow and become a wonderful person. I feel we have a family to help us accomplish all of these things individually. As we grow we can become more loving and accepting of each other or we can take the opposite road, all depending on how we are raised and if we put our social class above the family.
In my opinion, I feel that money is a necessity, we need to to have a roof over our heads, to provide us with nourishment, to pay our bills and to help us accomplish many things in our lives, but is there a point where we can have to much money? I definitely feel like there is. I feel like when you have to much money it can effect the family structure and cause problems within the family. It can turn from, what can I do for you to what do I want. A child raised in a family that has a big house, with nice cars, always gets what they want will turn out differently than a child who was raised poor and has had to work to obtain money to live. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I feel that it all comes down to principles. How you raise your child based on those principles, rich or poor, can determine how your children turn out. I was raised in a middle class family I feel like, and we had a nice house and good cars and extra money to do things with, but  we weren't really rich. Plus, I had a wonderful mother who taught me the difference between right and wrong and who also taught me a good work ethic, that I needed to work if I wanted money to spend. I had it pretty easy, but she raised me righteously and taught me correct principles and let me govern myself. I am grateful for a wonderful mother and for her righteous influence. I feel like throughout the years my family has been from to bottom to the top and have been through a little of everything and I think that is what has shaped us to be the people we are today.

This week in my family 160 class we talked a lot about family rules and family systems and the way the family is setup. In a proper family the parents are the closest with an open set of boundries around them, then surrounding them they have the children and in this system the family works together to accomplish everything. They have family councils, they solve problems together and there are boundries of which are known and followed by all members of the family while having fun and enjoying life = THE ULTIMATE FAMILY SYSTEM!!!
As I mentioned, we also talked a lot about family rules that each family has. I particularly remember one rule my family has that has gotten me in trouble a lot of times and that is always being polite. I am from the south, and in the south the children say 'yes ma'am' 'no ma'am' and 'yes sir' and 'no sir', please, thank you, and you always be nice to your elders and to your parents when they tell you to do something. Now, when you don't do those things you can get in trouble and get a sweet little smack or grounded forever!! I remember this one time when my sister and I were riding in the car and we were in the back seat and on the ride my sister and I had to burp, well, when we decided that we couldn't hold it in anymore we let it out and I ended up getting in trouble but it taught me to be polite and to have better manners, because as we all know it is not polite to burp out loud, especially for a girl to do so....it was a pretty funny experience and when I look back I just laugh. There have been many other times that I got in trouble for not being the most polite person but it taught me a great deal about how our family works. Another family rule we have is 'do not interupt....at all!' When my mom was talking or when she was on the phone, if we ever interupted her we would get the look of death! Every mom has that look, it is the look that says, 'if you don't stop now you are in big big trouble mr.' yea, that look! i would get that one a lot just because I was a child that liked my moms attention when she was on the phone. I wasn't very patient back then :)
I really enjoyed this weeks discussions because I got to look into my family a little bit more and remember some funny memories that give me a good laugh here and there.