Meet a Family Hints and Tips

If you don’t see anyone in your area with the same interests as yours straight away, but another family has decided it would be fun to show their own interests and other details on meetafamily, they may be happy to meet you, whatever your interests. A single parent could use the meetafamily service to find other single parents. A new mum could find other new mums. You can try to contact another family to find new friends wherever they are – you are not restricted to your local area. Why not join Meetafamily as a full member soon if you haven’t already done so, to put you and your children’s interests and even a picture or two up on your free, “Family Special Page”. The first picture could be a family group and the second, something to do with one of your interests – or anything you like. In this way, people who register with meetafamily will quickly see that you would like to make some new friends – but they won’t know who you are, because no names or addresses are shown. You can write your own message for others to see, so this will add a personal touch and help to let people know you a bit better. For instance, you’ll be able to say if one of your children is looking for a pen pal, or that you have a small rowing boat - don’t sign your name though. Do not be put off, if there are no links to other families’ Special Pages showing yet on your village, town, or a nearby town’s page (you can have your family link in up to seven other local places). Someone has to be the first in the area of your local town or village – so why not you? As soon as people see your Family Special Page, it might make them want to join too! If you do not wish to be contacted by another family for a while because you are going on holiday, sign in to your member’s Admin to disable your Family Special Page – but remember to enable it again when you are next available to meet a new family. If a family responds that it is not convenient to meet you when you ask us to contact them on your behalf, try again at a later date (perhaps they are going away for a short period), or use your meetafamily credit to contact a different family for free. If you put up a family picture, make sure you are not shown in front of your own house. We should like to assure users that we consider pictures of family groups including children, are normally fully acceptable for the Internet. It is quite easy to decide if a picture is appropriate for access by other registered users of meetafamily, so we hope our members will not be too concerned. Everything that a member submits to their Family Special Page however, is entirely optional - so you don’t need to include your children in a picture if you don’t wish to. When you arrange to meet up with a new family, it’s advisable to meet on neutral ground eg. a café, beauty spot or picnic area, rather than your home. This will give each family the opportunity to assess the other, before continuing with further plans. Do not be afraid to say if you would like some time to decide if another meeting is what you want. It is unlikely but not impossible, that a family may not be quite as they make out on their Family Special Page, or initial email messages prior to meeting up with you. If you do not wish to use your usual email address when you decide to meet another family, it is easy and free to obtain one you could use just for meetafamily purposes. You can change the email address you have on record with us at any time. Our advice is that each family should respect the other and agree in principle to make an email exchange the next process, after a first meeting: a) The small contact fee is paid; b) The families email each other and agree to meet on neutral ground; c) No new plans are made at the meeting – an email exchange between the two families when you get home, would say whether everything is OK for further plans. In this way, neither family is put under too much pressure at the end of the first meeting. Of course, you may be 100% certain that everything is fine straight away - then it is up to you to decide whether you need to observe the courtesy of a later email.