Positive ways to get family relationships back on track

[MissBracegirdle]

I always seem to post in here moaning (I change my name a lot though)

I think we as a small family are being passive about our parents and brothers and sisters. We used to see a lot of our families and it has dwindled down to almost nothing.

It's not for any sort of overly dramatic reason. It's more that feeling of 'well if you can't be arsed to put yourselves out then neither will I, I will do what I fancied doing in the first place' - but that sort of unkindness is really damaging to grandchildren/nieces/nephews and it's not their fault.

I come from a very broken family myself and I don't really know how to foster a more easy-going relationship with everybody. So I'm looking for nice tips, things you do naturally which keep you a little closer to your in-laws or aunts and uncles. This is for me and DH and all our respective parents and siblings, btw. We're all just too insular and passive about 'family'.

It's difficult to do this naturally. I suppose much depends on whether or not you all live near one another. I think a good place to start would be special occassions; however, we tend to be less subtle about it and say : It's been a fair few months since we've all been under one roof - we're having a BBQ - please come along.

It's been arkward at times, but after the event, everyone agrees we should do it more often. Of course they seldom do, until we host the next one. It annoyed us at first, but we accept that we have to be the drivers of it for the sake of the kids.