Hi all, very new user here.
I’m a father of two. I made a collection project for all observations by our family.
I notice most of the other projects I come across are quite a bit more professional/official looking. Am I misusing this feature? Is there a different way we should be doing this?
nah, you’re good - enjoy the family project!
No you’re not misusing it. This is one of the very many legitimate uses of projects. Have fun.
That’s just fine! People make projects for groups of people, for classes, for large or small places, for anything they want. Check out Geralds of the World (don’t click on the first observation) or Goofly Looking Wildlife. Or Blue!, a project for a color.
I think that if you want to just have a project for your family, it is a good idea, but it may turn into a competition 
PS: No worries though, atleast you will contribute more…
You can also make a project for your own garden
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/backyard-biodiversity-global-umbrella-project
Or neighbourhood park (if there isn’t one already)
It’s definitely allowed. Some of my favourite projects are very silly, such as
People Gripping Animals Like They Owe Em Money, and others can serve to collect not types of organisms, but as social/identity groups, such as
the Trans Naturalists project.
I will add: if you don’t want people to know your home address – more importantly, your childrens’ home or school etc addresses – check whether y’all are obscuring any sensitive locations.
If your project is ‘at home’ I use a pinned location for my suburb. Narrow enough to make IDs possible, wide enough for my privacy concerns.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I have the project set to include our entire hometown, and we tend to be fairly broad with our locations.
People Gripping Animals Like They Owe Em Money is incredible!
Looking forward to watching our collection grow!
I love silly projects, I’ve made a few myself! Go for it!