Tell Matalan what modern family life looks like for you - £250 prize draw! NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

Matalan have asked us to find out about your modern family life… who do you consider “family”, how do you stay connected, what makes you laugh out loud together?

Here’s what they say, “A family-run business for thirty years, Matalan has always worked to support UK families by taking the time to listen, understand and evolve in order to make sure our products are the right fit for happy homes.

What’s right for the modern family however, looks very different to what it did when we first opened our doors three decades ago. We’re seeing that family today comes in many different sizes and forms and that it is being reshaped and redefined to meet the demands of modern life”.

So what does family mean to you? Tell us about your favourite things you do as a family, what makes you smile and how you stay connected with loved ones.

Everyone who comments on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win £250 to spend in store or online at Matalan.co.uk!

Thanks and good luck

MNHQ

My family is my husband, my children, my parent and all my brother and sister and their partners and friends!
I am lucky that my mum still cooks a weekly Sunday dinner for the whole clan! This sometimes comprises of over 20 people! It is great knowing that you have a weekly opportunity to all get together and catch up, I love it!

Modern family life is family that is spread out across the world and can use Skype to stay in contact. With Facebook we can also share family photographs and memories with other family members that may not be around

My family is me and DH and our 3 gorgeous children who are 11, 8 and 3. DH have been together since we were 15 and were in the same primary class at school before that -so have pretty much always been together and we are very lucky that it works for us.

My parents live 20 miles away so we seem them regularly as I do my sister and her child. DH's parents live further away so we don't see them as regularly but we regularly speak to them on the phone.

I think compared to 30 years ago families probably have less time together-with 3 children and juggling work and childcare plus the children's party invites and activities it means that we have limited time to spend as a family all together , so when we can it is quite precious-we enjoy things like walk to the beach, picnics. We sometimes split up to do things because of the ages of the children-dh and Ds will go to football or play golf together and I will take the younger girls to a park or activity.

We try to eat together every night if possible -its the one time that we can all sit together , no interruptions and catch up with each others day.
Also if we can afford it we try and manage a family holiday away -it is so nice to just have a week or so with just our immediate family to chill and enjoy each others company. It is a total luxury but also a really important family time.

My family consists of myself hubby and our four boys.
We have a close family we are lucky we can stay connected because my mam and dad live across the road and my mother and father in law live in the same village .
We stay connected to other family members a lot by email I have an auntie and uncle who live in Florida and it takes seconds to send a photo of the boys via email and keep them updated

My family is me, DH and our two kids. Plus his Mum, his sister and her DH and kids. They live an hour's drive from us and we see them every few months. Then my parents who are an hours flight and see about 3 times a year. And my brother who is a 10 hour flight and who we see once a year This is hugely different from my parents generation - they came from large Irish families and all stayed in the same small town, seeing each other all the time. Sometimes, I get lonely

So what does family mean to you?

Family are very important to me. My family does not only include blood relatives, but step grandparents and family friends have become part of our family too. You cannot have too many people in your life that love you and your children, in my opinion.

Tell us about your favorite things you do as a family:

Picnics, long dog walks, baking,, and food in general! Food is a massive part of our family life. Any excuse for cake is a winner .?

What makes you smile?

Seeing everyone around me smile and have fun

How you stay connected with loved ones?

We set up events on Facebook for picnics or BBQ’s and birthday parties. I use Skype to chat to my brother and uncle who live overseas.

Lucy x

Modern life for me means helping out by looking after my granchildren, as both their parents have to work to help pay the bills

Me and dd we have a cosy family :-) we love dancing and singing, roller skating, playing beauty salons . We have our baby boy cat too :-)
we are small but perfectly formed as a family.

I'm a single parent family and I have always been the sole financial provider so when the children were young it was very hard juggling career and child care. My parents helped enormously so Grandparents are very important to my children. The love, friendship fun and even arguments we have for each other and mutual respect and loyalty is what makes my family strong.

Modern family life in this house consists of a partner and children age 29 to 4, black, mixed heritage and white. No we are not a step family. We are a fostering family. Any child living under my roof is part of my growing family. Every time I accept a new placement my family swells and with every child that goes to adoption it grows further. I love seeing bewildered children put down roots , grow in confidence and reach their potential whether they stay with me, move to adoption or return to a supported birth family.
My two birth children age 29 and 27 are now independent living in Scarborough and Shaghai. Thank goodness for Facebook and Skype enabling us to keep in touch.
I feel like one of the luckiest mums alive.

My immediate family is my hubby and our 9 children and then I have 2 sisters I am very close with but don't see enough of due to distance and my parents who spend most of the year in Turkey. My inlaws are an hours drive away down the motorway and we see them every couple of months.
Due to distance I mainly keep in touch with my parents and sisters through Facebook, email, phone calls, text messages and Skype. It isn't ideal and often I wish that we all lived much closer in the same area as I miss everyone so much, but it just isn't possible. Some of hubby's family is in the USA too so again distance separates everyone. I think modern families seem to communicate a lot more using technology and thank goodness for it! Even if you are separated by thousands of miles it doesn't seem as bad with a quick phone call or Skype! I would hate to be relying just on post for communication.
What makes me smile on a day to day basis are my lovely children and I absolutely love it when the whole family meet up at Christmas or in the Summer. You can't beat a good get together, hugs and catching up with each other.

Modern family varies enormously.

Mine is me, my hubby and our son.

I would consider my immediate family unit to be the three of us and then We then have my parents and my mother in law and my sisters in law.

We are busy and try and fit a lot in but the best times are snuggled up with hubby and son under a blanket with a glass of wine watching some film son has chosen.

Modern Family may appear different but it's not really. I feel out values are the same as my parents - work hard for our son to provide for him and to bring him up in a way we feel best for him.

So far touch wood we aren't doing too bad a job

Family life looks like being Europe-wide at least. All my side of the family lives in France (I am French). My daughter is getting married in Norway in August. And my son will be working for a worldwide accountancy firm, so he could be based anywhere, but initially in London and Reading. Unfortunately, as he is taking his exams in French and German, they may want to use that! So family life is just my husband at the moment. And any grandchildren in the future are likely to be a couple of coach journeys and a flight away!

My family is DH, DS and the cat.

We largely live a long way from the extended family (our parents, siblings and cousins all live 4 hours drive away) so we stay in touch by phone/text/ Facetime. DS sees one set of grandparents at least once a month (either we travel or they do), the other set of GP's can't travel so we see them 5 or 6 times a year. My best friend is surrogate auntie to DS and her children are as close to DS as I was to my cousins growing up.

As a family we love to potter around the house (most of our life is spent in work/school/childcare so time doing nothing at home is a luxury!).

Family to me is those closest to you, the one's that are there no matter what. Family means everything as without everyone I would be lost.

We are a bit family so we stay in contact with others through social media and of course in person visits when we can!

As a family we enjoy anytime that is spent together whether that is a day out for a picnic, to a theme park, in a restaurant or just simply around the dinner table.

My modern family is my husband, two children and myself and the love we share. We have extended families who do not live in the UK but live in other parts of the world. We have friends and neighbours who are closer than family at the moment and it brings us a lot of joy. We are a very happy family and make time to enjoy the little things of life together. Most important we teach our children to be there for each other and always look out for one another.

Family to me is those that I care about. My immediate family is my son (4), my DP, followed by my parents, Sister & her family, then my DP's family, then my ExH and his parents (son's grandparents).

Family time is doing stuff together. My son splits his time between my family and time with his dad, so when he is with me we do stuff he likes to do. Family time for me when my son is with his dad is about meeting up with my parents or with my DP's family or getting together with our friends.

My son's grandparents live in Scotland and his uncle lives in Spain and they stay connected through Skype. We also use social media to stay in touch and share photos.

I smile most when my son goes off into his own little world - getting lost in his imagination and not realising that he is chatting away to himself.

My family is my husband, my two children and me. Our extended family includes grandparents, uncles and anties, cousins...

As a family we like spending time together at home or out. We have family days out with special meals and trips.

Our extended family lives far away, my relatives in Italy and my husband's in different cities. We meet the English grandma often and my brother and his girlfriend as they live close to us. We often have meals and spend the main holidays together.

Family, for us, is global. My husband, son and I are the only members of family that live in the UK. Whilst the rest are scattered everywhere from Dubai to USA. We all keep in touch with Skype, FaceTime and Facebook and that's what keeps smiles on faces

A digital family which takes prompting to remind them that theres a real world as well the digital world. Think this is true of so many families now that the true art of conversation is being lost. That being said though when all distractions are out of the way we are a strong and united family x

Immediate family is Me, DH, DS1 (4) and DS2 (2) but we live very close to my parents and all my siblings so we see them all regularly, both individually and as a big group. We love getting together for big birthday meals, normally at mum and dad's but sometimes at mine. We all pitch in to help with the cooking and cleaning up afterwards and play stupid games, drink lots and laugh.

My husbands family live far away so we see them less.

Immediate family is me, dh and our dd's. Extended family is all our other relatives, we are pretty close to lots of them even though we don't live that close to most. My sister lives abroad and we Skype and face time weekly.
We love all playing together in my immediate family- tickle fights, hide and seek, imagination games and playing at the beach makes us laugh and smile :)

i have a huge !!! family i have 4 brothers and 4 sisters who mostly have kids of there own now aswell , but my immediate family is my partner dan and my two sons danny and harry :) i do love having a big family but when we're all together it can be a bit much however that rarely happens these days so when we actually do meet up for a family occasion its always a great laugh i love having a big family x

This is what our modern family life looks like!

Our family is quite close in that my daughter lives in the next village with her husband and daughter. My brother and his family also live in the same village, so we all see each other a lot. A good BBQ is what we all like to do together and have fun.