Making friends when you were young was easy. You’ve got the football team, the dance club, the classroom banter, and the neighborhood friends.
But let’s be honest, making friends as an adult is hard…
Actually, making friends as an adult with a family is even harder.
Even when you do meet someone you would like to be friends with, what do you say? How do you ask to be friends? Befriending someone new often triggers the same nervous behavior you once had when you wanted to ask someone out for the first time. It’s a strange feeling.
Today, there are many services and apps to help single people find friends or partners. But what about couples or families who want to broaden their circle of family friends?
This is exactly what MatchFamilies App is for – it helps you find family friends quickly and easily, and we’ll get to that in a moment. But the one thing you need to know is that you’re not alone.
You’re not alone!
I moved to Germany in 2014, and ever since, I’ve been an active member in some of the cities best expat meetups. I like to consider myself a relatively outgoing and sociable person, so I can only imagine how much harder it may be for those of you who identify as introverts.
There came a time where my wine nights and late-night pub meetups came to an abrupt end.
I had a baby.
And that’s when I was really faced with the inadmissible truth.
I needed friends. But not just any friends, friends who I could relate to. Friends who didn’t mind meeting up at 3 PM because my little one had to go to sleep at 7 PM. Friends who didn’t mind talking about dirty diapers and a side of entrepreneurship. Family friends who live similar lifestyles to my husband and I and who are at the same point in their lives – raising rambunctious children and spending weekends with the family.
And I know I’m not the only one.
There are millions of other families who no longer have close connections because their circle of friends has simply changed. Life goes on, people change, people move, and families grow.
In my case, I moved to Germany for my husband. So when I moved, it also meant leaving all my loved ones behind. The initial excitement of moving to a new country often stood as a shield to protect me from my loneliness. But as time goes on, and you start to settle in, it’s only natural that you start to feel lonely.
I still miss waking up to the smell of perfectly baked cinnamon raisin muffins at my mom’s place or calling up my childhood best friend to go for a walk along the lake when I needed a shoulder to cry on.
Not having this in my life took a much harder toll on my emotions than I ever thought possible.
I didn’t realize how important these relationships were until I started noticing that I wasn’t living my best life here in Germany without those similar bonds. I’m not always happy and I still feel gutted when my husband spends all Saturday night with his Kindergarten mates. It’s not something I have, but it is definitely something I know I need.
What is MatchFamilies all about?
It is a free and easy-to-use app that helps families find and connect with other compatible families in their area. Call it “the Tinder to make family friends”, call it whatever you’d like… it’s fantastic. 
You can find the app on the Google Play Store as well as the Apple App Store.
In all honesty, it is pretty much like Tinder, only you’re on the search for a family who would be a kickass team to partner up with on a picnic, a hike, a backyard BBQ, you get it…
On MatchFamilies, you can:
- Find other families nearby who you may be compatible with using the apps interest filters
- Explore their “suggested family profiles” which are filtered for you based on language, location, age, common interests, etc.
- Engage in private chats with matching families and arrange meetups
- Check who has liked your families profile
And in the following months, they will also be launching a “Board” feature, where you can post events, ask questions, share tips, create and join communities, and more!
What makes using this app different than just finding family friends on my own?
You get the concept of Tinder, I’m sure. Now ask yourself the question, why are people using Tinder for companionship versus venturing out on their own and exploring their chances at work, in the bar, or on a trip?
The answer? Tinder is faster and easier.
MatchFamilies is also a matchmaking service but #1: for families/couples #2: without that romantic context. ?
This app allows you to:
- Increase your chances of meeting lifelong family friends that actually share the same interests as you (there’s nothing worse than meeting up with a family with who you have nothing in common, am I right?)
- Helps you find family friends faster (a hell of a lot faster than offline, that’s for sure)
- Saves your family effort, time, and money (who doesn’t need this?!)
- Removes that “awkward” stage of asking the family “so… do you wanna hang out sometime? Can we exchange numbers?”
And might I add how cool it is that they make your privacy their highest priority. Their server is in Frankfurt to ensure your data is safe with them and that it neither leaves the EU nor is being sold to any third party.
Having MatchFamilies to fall back on has definitely worked for my family in more ways than one…
But the overall fact that I can straight up say…
“Hi, I’m Jenna. I have a family of 3. We love hiking, exploring the outdoors, we’re penny pinchers (so don’t invite us to a 5* restaurant), and our favorite thing to do is hang out in the backyard, drink a beer and watch the kiddies run around collecting pine cones.”
OH, this makes things so much easier. It cuts the awkward conversation and allows me to actually find family friends that are a perfect match for my family.
My thought? The more of you who are on the app, the better chance I have of making more awesome lifelong friends.
Why you need to put “finding friends” first on your priority list
Having friends and having a support circle is crucial to your happiness. I’m not just saying that, there are facts to back it up.
Harvard professor, Robert Waldinger, recently shared interesting results of one of the longest studies of adult life. Over the course of nearly 80 years, the researchers asked a large group of people the same question after 20, 30, 40, 50 years…
“What makes you happy?”
The result was that close relationships with friends and family, more than anything else, make people feel happy and help them live longer lives.
Friendship trumps money, fame, and career goals. Why? Because we are social creatures.
So, if close connections to friends and family are so important, why do we spend so much time trying to build empires, make the big bucks, and grow our social media followings?
Because the fear of being rejected is far greater than the fear of having no friends.
Now that you have the MatchFamilies App doing the dirty work for you, what’s stopping you? Lockdown regulations will be lifted and we are now all at a point in our lives where we need to reflect and think about the quality of the social circles we have and how happy we really are.
I know so many people who have left their new lives in Germany because they blamed the country or the people for their unhappiness. However, 9 times out of 10, the root of the issue really stemmed from the fact that they didn’t put the effort into finding lifelong friends when they first arrived. Why? Because for them, this was hard work.
If only we all had an app like this around when we first moved to Germany! But, then again… it’s never too late!
After being in lockdown for so long, I know it has certainly opened my eyes up to how important social connections really are for not just me, but my family. And interestingly enough, it has also allowed us to take time away from some of the relationships we had with others to reflect and realize that not all our connections were adding value to our lives.
If I have one takeaway for you from my experiences, it would be to take the time now to find family friends online who you can relate to. Build a bond, chat with each other, and plan cool events for the future, together with your families. Trust me, you’ll have an even better reason to look forward to tomorrow.
Where can I learn more about MatchFamilies?
You can find out more about MatchFamilies over on their homepage, Instagram, Facebook, and of course, check out their app over on the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
If you have more questions, you can check out their FAQ page or simply send them a message!
