Can i ask you some questions?

I think my ideas of family have changed since becoming a single parent.  Now I think of my children having a family that is wider than parents, siblings and grandparents I guess.  I consider a few of our really close family friends to be a part of our wider family too - almost like that concept of the community bringing up the child.  Because of that, I think both my kids have a small selection of adults that they know quite well, trust and are always really excited to see.  My mum has taken a huge role in their lives and I see this as being really crucial to the way our little world works.  My very immediate family is me and my two children but I see there being this wider family group that doesn't need to just be about blood.

In terms of family in todays society, I think the concept of Mum, Dad and two and a half children is long gone.  I think family takes many forms depending on individual circumstances and values but that we would all benefit from taking a wider 'community' approach - as in taking care of each other and sharing more.  I think that 'family' can get a little lost in our need to keep up with the rest of the world, have the latest gear and be seen to be pushing our kids to be perfect.  I also believe that in the current politcal climate the concept of family is simply becoming too difficult to maintain (at least the 'family' the way I see it).  I think many families (whatever their make up) spend so much of their time stressing about how to pay the bills and just get by day to day that they don't have the energy to concentrate on family.

Gosh...sorry for the novel!  Hope that is the kind of thing you want to know!!

Do you mean family, as in who lives with you, or family as in your support network?

I think of family as anyone who supports each other day to day and lives together. Wider family I think of as anyone who offers regular support/friendship etc. I think family can include blood relations (who have a good reason to stick together no matter what) but it's not limited to that - for example I have some friends that I consider family, who are there for us a lot.

I'm not a single parent. So my home family is hubby and two kids (the cliched version of a family unit) but most days we have my sister and my neighbors at our place for something or another and I consider them to be pretty close family.

I think our 'family' - Me, DH, DD and the cat is becoming a rarity. We were married before we started a family and have our own home, we haven't been married before and don't have any other children. This seems 'old fashioned' these days, as many of my friends and fellow parents are either single, divorced, defacto, re-married and/or with children from previous partners.

Anything goes these days as to what makes a family.

LittleMiss I've just been thinking about my concept of the ideal family and although in part I think it would be one made up of two parents and children surrounded by grandparents and other family and close friends,  I actually think that my ideal is more about the values within that family unit regardless of the people.  I want my family to be a place where my children and I feel loved and valued, and where we are challenged to grow to our full potential.  I want us in turn to make the other people in our family feel loved and supported in the same way. 

I see my ideal family as Mum, Dad and kids. Im pretty old fashioned dispite being younger but I sort of think all your kids should be to the same dad.

I also value my wider family relationship very much. This is my brother and sisters and my parents as well as DH's family except he has his grandparents, uncles and aunties, cousins round as well which my family doesn't.

I was brought up in a family where my parents didn't come from very "close" familys, when they grew up everyone moved away, had dissagreements and stopped talking to eachother. My parents have always been very set in they wanted their children close and to not "break" the family up. As yet none of us have moved away for very long, we are all close and now having kids we have no intention of moving away from family as they are the most important people in our lives.

DH would like to move away from where we live for a bit and I sort of feel he doesn't value the extended family quite as much as I do for bringing up kids.