Warning! Contents of this post are little all over the place

I was reading a friend's blog today and she was talking about some things that I have had some experience with. It is hard to hear things from family that we should not hear from them. Families and home should be a sactuary from the world. When we go home we should have some protection and be in places that uplift and renew us. Sometimes that isn't the case. I grew up in a home where everyone was very critical of everyone else. My mom was 19 when she got married and my dad was 22. My mom has always been very critical of what I should look like and be. My dad use to be pretty critical of me until I told him what I really thought of what he said and the effect it was having on me. When I am having a hard time with something my mom will join the complaint bandwagon and even throw in some things that I didn't even think of to make me feel worse. For example, I have always had trouble with my weight. All of my friends are skinny mini's with the perfect body and it seems they don't have to try hard to get that way. I had two friends that had babies and they both gained about 35 lbs. Less than a month after the births my friends were back to their pre-pregnancy weights and looking better than ever. I look at a piece of cheesecake and gain 10 lbs, no lie. I recently lost about 20 pounds and am pretty happy about the success. When I was home for Christmas my dad and I were taking our blood pressures. My dad, for some unknown reason, has high blood pressure and is on meds so he has to check it all the time. I decided to check mine since I hadn't done so in a long time. My systolic pressure was through the roof while my diastolic was fine. I told my mom and all she could say was, "I guess you need to lose more weight." Then I told her I don't understand how my pressure could be like that seeing that I exercise all the time and don't eat alot of unhealthy stuff and with the current weight loss my pressure should not be that high. All my mom could say was that I should try harder. My mom is also not happy that I am not dating anyone. For the first year I lived here she would ask me every time I talked to her if I was dating anyone. My mom wants me to get married and start having kids so bad that she has already started buying baby clothes for her future grandchildren. She is upset that I did not follow in her footsteps and get married at a young age. Alot of it has to do with being a Mormon girl. For some reason in the Mormon community if you are not married before graduating college there is something wrong with you, or so it seems. I look at the generation my parents grew up in and the generation I have grown up in and realize that they are two totally different generations. My parents grew up in a time when the woman's place was in the home and that was what was most important. I still believe the most important work a woman can do is in her home with her children, but I am not even close to being there, so it's not a big deal to me right now. Today's 20/30 something women have benefited greatly from the women's lib movement. Women have more opportunities than what was afforded them in the past and that is a great thing. There are just some things our parents don't understand.
I have learned to handle what my parents say with a grain of salt. I think at some point in time parents try to live vicariously through their children so that they can make a choice they never were able to make or regret not making. I know my parents want the best for me. I listen to what they have to say and then go and do what I know I need to do while still keeping what they have said in mind. I have learned that family can say some harsh things and be very critical of one another, but I still love them. They have supported me through all my ups and downs, good times and bad times. I have also learned that the only person who can make me feel inferior is me (Thank you for that quote Eleanor Roosevelt). I can't let someone else dampen my image of me. When that happens I have to remember that I am a daughter of God and he knows how beautiful I really am and what I can become. Even when things get are difficult and the world seems to turn it's back on you, you can always turn to your Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ for comfort, strength and support.