> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.uplifter.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What is a family, and how does it connect guardians and athletes?

> How families connect guardians and athletes: the roles, how athletes join, how other adults get access, and what staff can see and change.

<Note>
  **Must know**

  * **Every guardian account has a family.** New athletes join a family as soon as a guardian or staff member adds them, with no approval step.
  * **Roles decide what people can do.** The family owner and co-managers invite people and manage the family. Relationships such as Mother or Child are only descriptive.
  * **Other adults get access only by accepting an invitation:** a family invitation, or Shared access to one athlete, which never includes signing waivers. Invitations expire after 7 days.
  * **Staff can see families but can't manage their members.** Find families under **Athletes > Families**. Beyond creating new athletes, staff can't add existing people, remove or move members, or change Shared access.
</Note>

**What a family is.** The household Uplifter uses to connect guardians and athletes and to decide who can see and manage each athlete. Every guardian account gets one automatically, named after them (for example, "Jordan Lee family"). A family isn't tied to one club, so it follows its athletes to every club they join, and a person can be in more than one family.

**Roles, not relationships, decide access.**

| Role | What they can do |
| - | - |
| **Family owner** | Everything a co-manager can, plus invite co-managers, change roles and transfer ownership. Each family has one. |
| **Co-manager** | Access every athlete, and manage people, relationships and Shared access |
| **Guardian** | Access every athlete in the family, and add athletes to it |
| **Athlete** | An athlete, with or without a login; one with their own account manages only their own profile |

Each athlete also has a **relationship** to someone in the family: Child, Parent, Mother, Father, Guardian, Partner, Friend or Other. Relationships build the family tree but never change access.

**How new athletes join.** Right away, with no approval:

* **Added by staff.** From **Add Athlete** in the Athlete Directory, or **Add athlete** on a guardian's **Athletes** tab, the athlete joins the guardian's family when you save, with a **Relationship to \[guardian]** (default **Child**). If the guardian has several families, you choose one. A guardian with none gets one first.
* **Added by a guardian on your club website.** The athlete joins that guardian's own family. The duplicate check (same name and date of birth) covers only athletes that guardian can already see, so it never reveals athletes they don't have access to.

**How other adults get access.** Families manage this on the **Family** page of the family portal:

* **Family invitation.** An owner or co-manager selects **Invite family member**. The role defaults to **Guardian**. Only the owner can invite a **Co-manager**, and ownership is transferred, never invited. The person sees **Invitation from \[family name]** with **Accept invitation** or **Decline**, and must accept while signed in with the invited email. The owner or a co-manager can **Revoke invitation** until then.
* **Shared access.** An owner or co-manager gives someone outside the household, like a grandparent, chosen permissions (such as **View schedule** or **Register athlete**) for one athlete, at chosen clubs or all clubs. It never includes signing waivers, and the person keeps their own family.
* **Add athlete from another family.** An adult in a family adds an athlete they can already see. This creates **Approval to join \[family name]**, with **Approve sharing** or **Decline** (the requester sees **Awaiting approval**). An athlete with their own login decides. Otherwise any adult in one of the athlete's current families does, and it goes through at once if the requester is one of them.

Invitations expire after 7 days. For the family's side, see [What is a family, and who can see my athletes?](/families/families-household/what-is-a-family)

**Where staff see families.**

* **Athletes > Families** (needs **View Families**) lists every family with an athlete at your club. Filter by **Pending invitations** for people still joining. A family's page shows its members, family tree and Shared access.
* An athlete's **Overview** tab opens with a **Family** section (**Open family**, plus a switcher for more than one family), and the header shows their families or **Family not set up**. The Athlete Directory has a **Family** column.

**What staff can't change.** Apart from creating new athletes, staff can't add, remove or move family members, or change Shared access. The athlete edit form has no guardian field (its **Family access** box links to **Review family connections**), and the **Add guardian** dialog notes that a family manager approves sharing before family access begins.

**Other rules.**

* **An athlete can't be removed from their last family.** They must join another family first.
* **Purchases belong to a family.** Each purchase records the family that owns it, and the **Family / sibling discount** counts only that family's athletes.
* **No claiming athletes.** An adult can't claim an existing athlete: they get access only by invitation to a family or through Shared access.

**Related:** [What is a guardian, and how are they connected to athletes?](/club/athletes-families/what-is-a-guardian) · [What can I see in the Families directory and on a family's page?](/club/athletes-families/what-can-i-see-in-the-families-directory) · [How do I connect an athlete to another guardian?](/club/athletes-families/how-do-i-connect-an-athlete-to-another-guardian) · [What does Missing requirements on a family mean, and how do I resolve it?](/club/athletes-families/what-does-missing-requirements-on-a-family-mean)