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As part of our work on the Family Review, we asked families to contribute to our research by sharing their Family Profile – a snapshot of what families means to them, their strengths, the challenges they may have experienced, how they like to spend their time and the support that they value the most.

Read our next three profiles below:

I am a divorced mum of two children aged 19 and 15, who live with me 50% of the time. I also have a long-term partner who lives separately, but visits occasionally. I also have my brother, sister and my father. I value honesty and trust above everything, and I’d like to think my children feel the same. My daughter can be very moody – typical teenage behaviour I guess – so likes to be by herself. I just have to let her get on with it, whilst offering opportunities to join in with spending time together. It’s had a bit of an impact on my self-esteem as I’ve taken her isolation quite personally. Luckily my son is the exact opposite to her.
I have been married to my husband for 31 years. We have four children aged 31, 28, 25 and 16, of which the youngest still lives with us, and two dogs! Also within our family is my mother and father and my husband’s father. In our family we most value caring for others, being hard-working and social justice. It was challenging managing a family member’s ill health due to dementia as we were working full time and with children at home and in education. It meant we had time taken away from our children as care for the relative took priority. But our family continues to support each other and we had enough money to pay for carers as we are financially secure. We used Local Authority adult social care which was good but overstretched and under-funded.
I am a mum to two adopted children aged 8 and 7 and we live with my husband. For us what matters is spending time together. School has been difficult for my son which impacts us as a family. We’ve arranged play therapy for him to help him with his emotional regulation but it has caused tensions amongst us, and we are worried about how best to manage it. I have been supported by post-adoption support who were really good to start with but unfortunately it’s now very difficult to make contact with the social worker.

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