Aunts offer kids an opportunity to try out ideas that don't chime with their parents and they also demonstrate that people can get on, love each other and live together without necessarily being carbon copies.

It is through our extended family that we first learn to compromise and come to an understanding that even if we don't always agree about things we can still love and look out for each other.

An aunt is a safe haven for a child. Someone who will keep your secrets and is always on your side.

My father could talk about the Romany way of life and its culture. He could talk about freedom and the Scottish spirit. But that was all he could talk about. I was desperate for someone to talk to but there was just nobody there.

At the end of the day, that's what a family is - a group of different people who accept each other.

Our children make us so vulnerable. Our parents too, I suppose.

The bonds between a family are strange indeed.