What does family mean to you?

tea_lover

I'm really close to my parents, sister, niece and grandad. We're a small family but they mean the absolute world to me and I know I can rely on them completely. Then there's 'relatives', who are technically still family but more of a christmas card or the occasional meeting sort of thing.

I think of my OH as family, although we're not married, and love his family too.

Although, unless we ever manage to have children of our own I never feel like a proper family, just a big failure.

JimmyTheWig

pinkclouds wrote: »

I use the term "family" in two main ways. The first one is: *immediate family*, which these days is me, hubby and our kids. The second one is: *extended family*, which is every blood relation (e.g. sibling, cousin) or equivalent thereof (i.e. it is irrelevant whether the person's parents had them naturally or by adoption), immediate relative by marriage (e.g. aunt's husband but not aunt's husband's "blood relations")

I agree with this completely. (Didn't agree with the "close friends" bit, so cut that off the end!)
I define extended family as our children's great-grandparents and down. Counted up 93 of them (currently alive) the other day.