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

We seem to have narrowed down over the years. It's me, my two sons, Adam and Brent and their families now. That's fine by me and we are so close. My husband died 7 years ago and I live with my eldest son. Now, his ex-wife and son live just down the road from us. You see, my sons married 2 Thai sisters, so even though they are divorced Nam's sister is married to my other son. Nam has remarried and has a baby, Eve. Her husband Ian and Eve are our family now and we are all very close. Adam is at their house most days and from the outside no one knows we aren't just all family.

My granddchildren, Jaret is 11, Kris is 7 and Eve is 5 months.
We are a tight unit and love each other so much. We keep in touch with Thai family on Facebook but in this country we are always there for each other. We make each other happy and I can't remember a cross word. So proud of how Adam and Nam handled their divorce. Jaret came first and isn't in the middle of sqabbles. My sons became amazing fathers.

I remember larger extended family when I was young. But you know, there wasn't really love. You were family but that didn't mean being close. We are a small unit but very close and we feel the love from each other every day.
Very proud of each and every one of them.

We have 5 girls and me and my hubby, we have a biggish family nans, gradad, aunties, uncles ect. We enjoy going out as an extended family for visits to attractions, BBQ's or just family walks.

We chat all the time visit each other when we can and are always there when needed Family is not always plain and simple, complicated can be normal too.

Modern family life is now not so isolated if you don't live within the same town. Social media has now reconnected us with family we otherwise wouldn't be in touch with.

My family is me, my sons and my husband. He is a fabulous stepdad to the boys. Then we are really close to dh's mum, dad, brothers and grandparents. Not so close to my mum, dad and sister, although now i have a niece and nephew i do try to see them more often.

Modern family life is a bit more frenetic than before imo. Everyone works full time in crazy jobs so fitting in time to see an extended family is difficult. So phones and skype help. Maybe we are getting more disconnected, but there are only so many hours a day, so i think we are getting more selective with whom we spend our precious time.

Very modern but facebook is amazing for keeping in touch with family who live far away. I am in touch with family who live in England (I'm Scotland) through FB and its fantastic for sseeing pictures and little updates of how they are getting on.

As a family, (Me, OH and 2 girls) we love having a film night at the weekends, usually Frozen or Finding Nemo but still.... we also like little trips out to the beach or forest walks.

My first husband was already a father of two (adopted) children when we married 36 years ago. My new husband has six children, so I'm step mum to 8, and Grandma to four, so far. Will need a bigger table!

My family is my dh and two DS.

Family means everything to me. Thankfully i found my soul mate and we knew instantly that we would have a large family.

We met on a Thursday, had our first date on the Saturday and he proposed the following Thursday! I said yes and we set about starting our life together. Almost a year to the day we met our first son was born. We have now been married 15 years and have 6 children - the youngest being 1 this month.

Family to us means being together through thick and thin. Learning about each other as well as ourselves and bringing the best out of each other too.

We love to play together, go for long walks and enjoy the good old fashioned ideals of playing pooh sticks, singing songs in the car, sitting down to meals together etc. The boys love playing on their tablets but that is part of growing up and needing space - as long as we have family time its good to have alone time too. Every family needs a good mix of both.

Our children talk to us about anything and everything and i like to think they know how to hold their own but will ALWAYS know that each and every one of us are right behind them all the way. Unconditionally.

I guess i'm a modern family in that I'm a divorced single mother of three. I work school hours and to make income up I also run a small business from home so that I can also look after the children after school hours. I have no other close family and so we are alone in that we have no outside help at all. It doesn't seem to matter we muddle along as everyone else does. Work hard and play hard together.

Family life is busy, busy, busy! By the time I have worked two jobs and looked after everyone else, there isn't much time for me :-(
But one day ....

No family apart from me and the kids, which is difficult as I am disabled. I do feel I overburden the Children but due to our circumstances I have no choice.

Lots of technology and lots of love :)

my family is all my relatives, the close ones and the not so close ones. My immediate family means everything to me and hopefully I mean everything to them. I always make sure that I am in contact with immediate family on a daily basis, if I don't see them I make sure that I phone/skype/email/text every day to make sure everyone fine and dandy!

For some reason calling anything 'modern' conjures up 1950s style ads in my mind.

My family is massive - I have a trillion cousins, so Facebook is great for keeping in touch but rather superficial in some ways as I never post anything that will worry my granny. So when DH had cancer, family shrank a bit, we only told a few close people. Then once he was ok we let it filter round. And when my aunt ran off with a taxi driver no one tweeted a thing. So you still need phone calls or better still face to face meet ups to get to the real heart of the family.

Hectic! We have two kids 15 and 3 and a new baby due in 4 weeks. My husband works in a fairly important job and I work 3days a week to try to cope with life and family. Once we have our youngest in bed our evenings are spent watching tv whilst all on our mobile devices - probably like so many! We love spending time together and our house is our haven!!

My family are predominantly disabled, my DM has literacy issues, my dcs have autism. My ds has a child with a disability my other ds is struggling with infertility. Me and dh often feel like life is a battle rather than an adventure, but actually it is an adventure! For us, work is a way of getting the money to enjoy life. Whether that is a day at the beach or a day at a leisure park. Cheap quality clothing like that sold at matalan is a life saver. We stay connected by enjoying the fresh air! Getting out as a family and enjoying the natural beauty of the world around us. Beaches, woods and the back garden raises our spirits. What makes us laugh? Chasing our dogs around, digging on the beach, pulling faces at each other, cooking in the kitchen, cleaning the loo! Everything we do has the opportunity for laughs. We are a family. We stand together, we laugh together, we cry together, we are together. We are a family and I love them more everyday.

I think Grandparents are key these days - i know we rely loads on granny and grandad to help out whether it is with childcare or being there in emergencies they really are an extended part of the family. I think things are coming full circle in recognising the value of having a network of family for moral support and actually helping out day to day. You don't necessarily need to live under the same roof but can support each other sometimes virtually with skype/facetime/ social media etc helping you to feel close and get that emotional support we all need from our families.

Family life has taken in new meaning since our daughter was born six months (!) ago. I used to be a bit of a workaholic, now I'm dreading my return when maternity leave ends next month.

Thanks to everyone who posted on this thread. Congratulations to hiddenmichelle who has won the prize draw for a £250 Matalan voucher! We'll be in touch soon