Meaningful family time is often spent in summer, students say

This week Pulse reporters asked their fellow students, "How does your relationship with your family change when school starts?"

"It's very chaotic, but mostly we grow a little closer because we help each other with homework." -- Brenna Alius, freshman, Timpview High School

"During the school year we all play soccer after school, so we hardly see each other so we have to wake up earlier in the morning to have breakfast and stuff together, so we do that." -- Ryan Lamoreaux, junior, Lone Peak High School

"My relationship pretty much stays the same. I just make doing homework a 'family event.' If everyone isn't involved, we obviously aren't having fun!" -- Cierra Blair, junior, West High School

"We definitely aren't as close as we are during the summer. We're usually all so busy. We feel that we are invading on each other. " -- Abree Stone, senior, Hunter High School

"My relationship becomes more of a business relationship. Check in, do work, go to sleep. Except I don't have a cubical. My family understands, which is nice." -- Anne Parma, junior, West

"I don't see them (in the summer) because I hang out with friends a lot, so I don't feel there's a change." -- K.C. Sandstrom, junior, Hunter

"It's probably better because I'm always involved with things in school so I'm not around as much so we only talk about things that we want to talk about." -- Scarlett Merrill, junior, Lone Peak

"I sort of avoid them. Except for food. I see them for food." -- Kate Throneburg, junior, West

"During the summer my family and I do lots of activities with each other. But when the school year starts, we don't do as much with each other. We talk more than anything after school about what happened that day. We are very open with each other, which really helps us stay close." -- Katherine Agle, freshman, Timpview

"We all get busy and ornery, so we fight a lot more when school starts than we did during the summer." -- Adelyn Asay, junior, Hunter

"Usually, the beginning of school marks the start of a trying period for my familial relationships. With added pressure and stress, I often find it hard to continue to convey meaningful communication. Conversely, I find the support offered by my family to be very helpful." -- Milo Carrier, junior, West

"Our relationships are a lot more strained. We also see less of each other because of extracurricular activities." -- Ellie Crandall, senior, Timpview

"My mom will have to stay up late and work with us on homework because sometimes you need help. And then she's tired the next day and she gets grumpy and I get grumpy because I had a bad day. I can't talk with them as easily because my mind's just really complicated during the year and then my dad gets stressed out because we're not doing our chores because we're doing our homework and he wants the house clean. Summer is definitely easier because we're a lot more laid back." -- Brittney Hackett, senior, Lone Peak

"I don't have a relationship with my family because I go in the mornings and I come home at night and just go to bed. I see them for like two hours or so during dinner. Sometimes I don't even have dinner, I just go to bed." -- Alyssa Creighton, junior, Lone Peak

"Nothing really changes. I guess I become more secluded." -- Shea Stephenson, junior, West

Hannah Owen is a junior at West High School, Coryn Cope is a senior at Timpview High School, Samantha Tuttle is a senior at Lone Peak High School and Brooke Sylvester is a junior at Hunter High School. All are members of the Deseret Morning News Pulse team of high school writers. If you are a Utah high school student and have a topic you would like to see covered, please e-mail pulse@desnews.com or write to Susan Whitney at the Deseret Morning News.

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