- Family and relatives ‘most important thing in whole world’ say our kids
- More than a quarter of all kids and a half of all parents want to spend more time with family relatives
- New web tool launched to get families back together

6 May 2009:  Our kids say that their family is the most important thing in the whole world to them [67%] – more so than their pets [26%], schools [23%], friends [22%], football teams [13%] and even money [10%] – but new research, released today by National Family Week and 192.com, has shown that families are not spending enough time together. Is it time to listen to our children?

More than a quarter of all kids [28%] and half of all parents [55%] want to spend more time with family relatives and more than half [52%] of all parents admit that they don’t spend enough quality time together. The poll of more than 3000 parents and children has revealed that whilst family may be the most important thing in our lives – most children spend less than 45 minutes a day doing things as a family [62%] – that is less than five hours a week including weekends!   

To help families get together, the UK’s largest coalition on family issues, National Family Week, has teamed up with 192.com to celebrate ‘Family Reunion Day’ on Sunday 31 May, the final day of National Family Week. Going live today a brand new web-tool has been launched at www.nationalfamilyweek.co.uk/reunion. The tool has been designed to help families get back in touch, organise a reunion and track down lost relatives. Families can even put their reunion on the map and see how many other families are getting involved.

National Family Week co-founder Kevin Steele commented:

“We love our families and yet they are drifting apart - we just don’t seem to spend enough time together.  Making time for each other is what National Family Week is all about.  This research has inspired us to take action so we approached 192.com to build a tool to make it easy for extended families to plan a reunion and track down lost family members.  It’s easy to use, it’s fun and the kids will love the special occasion!”

Dominic Blackburn, Product Director 192.com added:

“How could we say no to this request? 192.com is used by millions of people every month searching for friends and family. We hope that this tool can help thousands of families to get together during National Family Week and that we are able to find those long lost uncles, aunts, cousins and even second cousins!”

Further research of 600 users of 192.com, the UK’s leading people finding website, revealed why families had lost touch.  Almost half (47%) of those surveyed said that they had ‘drifted apart’ while 37% said that living too far away was to blame. The research demonstrated a clear trend for family reunions with 80% of people saying they would love to get in touch with long lost family.

The free reunion tool is now available online at www.nationalfamilyweek.co.uk/reunion. Go to the website and register your reunion then mark it on the map. If you need to find current contact details for extended family you can search 192.com directly from the site.

National Family Week, the UK’s first, has been organised by the largest ever coalition on family issues with more than 150 stakeholders signed up to run thousands of events across the UK from 25-31 May 2009 (summer half term in England and Wales). The founding principles behind the week are to celebrate family life, encourage families to spend more time together and to help create a more family-friendly culture in the UK.  For further information on National Family Week go to www.nationalfamilyweek.co.uk.

So, no matter how long it’s been National Family Week is the perfect excuse to get in touch with long lost family. So go online and register your family reunion today.