It's a 'Strategy' it is not 'Strategies'

[IamRechargingthankYou]

After years of hearing this incredible misuse of the English language I now stand firm. We as parents do not use 'strategies' in the home to deal with dc (or anything else in fact). What we use are a series of actions (coherent or correct may be up for question, or not) within in the/a overarching strategy that we operate (coherent, correct or not, etc.). What we do not use, and neither do you, irrespective of your role as a professional or innocent bystander that you are or might or might not be is - flipping strategies! It's called 'A STRATEGY' if you have to give it a name!'

OP you really don't sound like you know anything about anything.

Example sentence from the Oxford dictionary

‘Organisers hope the conference can help develop new strategies and new marketing programmes.’

I am now unreasonable for bothering to copy and paste that

This is truly random. Hey, add a dash of synergy, optimisation and empowerment into the mix and we could play Buzzword Bollocks

Its just soooo Mumsnet.

Love it, love it, love it.

embedded that was the other word I was trying to think of. And embrace the culture ....

What about if you were using a strategy for two different things. Strategy A for a work issue and strategy B for an issue at home. Surely then you would be using strategies?!

No but I get what op is saying. I bollocked dds nursery last week and told them they needed effective strategies for finding their arses with both hands something but am now blushing to think I may have meant an effective strategy.

Actually Greythorne, it could well be that I might know too much....
Anyway examples per se off top of head, unrelated at all to my own situation:

In order to get dc1 to school I need to make sure everything is in place.

Dc2 does not go to sleep unless read a bed time story.

The cat needs to go out at 6pm and comes home at 8pm.

All of these things require actions. They are all part of making this household run properly. They are part of the total household strategy. Each component is an action as part of the one strategy. Each 'actor' has a place in this strategy, the 'actors' are part of a singular strategy and they may or may not require individual actions, but the whole is not a 'sum of strategies' but a 'sum of actions' that form a strategy.

I kind of know what you mean OP. You have a series of planned actions, but the overview of all of your actions, and the reasoning behind them all, is your strategy, singular.

It doesn't piss me off that people talk about strategies though.

x-posts

I'm more concerned about use of "incredible" in your first post.

Yeah-hay! I just knew that I couldn't have been the only one that had noticed......yippee....[irish jiggy cleels emoticon if it existed - can I invent that too?]

Ok, but like I already asked you, what about if you have a strategy for home and a strategy for work? You must have strategies!

If for example you decided on a series of actions for child 1 and then given time realised you needed a different series of actions for child 2 you would be employing different strategies. For example if you have a child with LD, as I do I employ a different strategy for dealing with her as compared to her sister. That is 2 strategies, block your ears OP.

There's no issue with the existence of the plural of strategy, it's people using strategies when they mean strategy.

Or rather, using strategy when they mean action, and then pluralising it to mean actions.

Can't I have one strategy for potty training, another strategy for mealtimes, one for sharing etc ?

That makes sense in that context but the way you worded your first post made it sound as if the word strategies was not an actual word which is of course not the case. Your example will not always work though, I have to put together various strategies at work but it us not a work strategy as they relate to different things

You, OP, have a problem with people who use strategies when they mean tactics.

Incredible as in "that which can not be believed; surprising", hope that clears that little question up.

Frankly I was more concerned at my reference to "jiggy-cleels" when I meant "jiggy-heels" but on reflection I prefer "jiggy-cleels".

And if it's a new word with new definitions I stand by it and will not pretend it's anything else.

And that is [an action within] my strategy.

Actually I don't have a problem with people who use the word 'strategies' when they mean 'tactics' at all, nor indeed anyone else on their use of words. I might have a problem with the use of words and will address this by having really fricking well have enjoyed this conversation and really pleased to get it out

I'm not being sarcastic when I say thanks for reminding me of the word 'tactics', because it is a valuable descriptor in the hierarchy of strategy.

Therefore, say, when discussing a household who uses 'strategies' to whatever effect, what is this group of strategies called? Strategem would be most likely, but I haven't heard that yet.

I don't hear it now but in recent years I heard so much:

"And what strategies do you use with minirecharger..?"

I wasn't sure if I was being asked a question or if a box needed ticking.

None of it had any relevance at all.

While we're here, does anyone use 'datum' any more for a single piece of information?

So I have a range of different tactics for getting my son to eat dinner:
If he's tired, I offer to feed him from his favourite fork
If he's really hungry and gets stuck in, I just leave him to it
If he's ill, I make his favourite foods and let him watch youtube videos of dogs
If he's in a bad mood, I use the wildly advance psychological tactic of pretending I am going to eat his food

So, together, these form my 'successful dinner strategy'.

Then there's my 'bath-time success' tactics:

If he's tired, we skip it
If he is fine and in a good mood, we have a long, fun bath with plenty of fun
If he's ill but needs a bath I'll get in with him
If he's in a bad mood I give him a quick hose down with the shower in the hope that it will make him forget

My 'getting clean with minimum fuss strategy'.

So, I have two strategies - otherwise surely every strategy is just 'get everything done' or 'parent my child' which is so vague that it's surely not worth even classifying them?

Sorry but on either the literal meaning of incredible or simply meaning " surprising" incredible is not the right word.

It's clearly not literally incredible and it can hardly be surprising any more as you've been hearing it for years.

As one of those 'professionals' of which you speak, I can categorically state that if you were in dire straits and in need of my help then I will give you 'strategies' to deal with whatever behaviour your DC is displaying and causing you want to lock yourself in a dark room and weep.

I say 'strategies' because I will provide you with more than one way to deal with each behaviour because as we know children are individuals, one size does not fit all, and your first strategy may not work.

But hey, what do I know? I'm too busy dealing with all these pedantries