ABSTRACT Various social science and multidisciplinary investigations have focused mainly on what the family is and how to analyse it. However, these studies have paid less attention to what is not said and what remains silenced about the family and family-related problems. Starting from the assumption that silencing is a discourse-constitutive feature, this article investigates family frames and inherent silences within Romanian public policy documents. The empirical material consists of a specific collection of sources, namely national strategies for child protection, care for older people, employment, and equal opportunities, adopted during 2007–2024, i.e. after Romania’s accession to the European Union. The article interrogates how national strategies frame family issues and what remains silenced and obscured within this relevant collection of policy documents. It identifies various ways in which policymakers draw attention to certain points of view concerning family life to the detriment of other perspectives and angles of investigation. Additionally, it uncovers the unspoken and silently accepted correlation of the family with vulnerability, poverty, and invisibility, which can contribute to explaining the domestic tendency to marginalize the family as a political topic and to elaborate inconsistent public action related to it.