Do any of you have a "Family Mission Statement"? And if so, what is it?

[LittleBella]

Am reading a book where it suggests such a thing. Am thinking it sounds mad and more suitable for business, but does anyone have one in the RW and if so, how does it work and what effect does it have on your family?

We have house rules, but that is not the same thing.

A Mission Statement sounds interesting - can you expand upon what this entails?

It's in this book I'm reading called 7 habits of highly effective families. Basically the family is supposed to sit around and discuss what they want their home and family to be like and come up with a mission statement. The theory being that if you know what you want to do with your family, you are more likely to keep the end in mind when dealing with difficult day to day situations. And when discussing the mission statement it also throws up where disagreement/ conflict is in the family and if you can negotiate a mission statement that everyone agrees with and has contributed to, you get buy-in from all members. I've just never heard of it and wondered if anyone on here has tried it and how it works.

No not really a mission statement but we have a phrase which shapes our general day to day lives.
Do what you have to do then do what you want to do.

It's a practical thing which means we rarely come home from a day out to find the breakfast things still there.

Oh goodness, no, I've done these for work but I don't fancy doing one for my family. For eg Coca Cola's is

• To Refresh the World...in body, mind, and spirit.
• To Inspire Moments of Optimism...through our brands and our actions.
• To Create Value and Make a difference...everywhere we engage.

Which I think is a bit ambitious for a sugary drink but there you go.

(did you used to be C btw?)

Ahh, I see.

Thank you for the explanation

The idea of a mission statement for my family strikes me as a bit, I don't know what, creepy or corporate or something. My family can't be run like an organisation (or can it? Hmm, wonder if teambuilding meeetings would help, I could ensure I engaged them all in the priorities for the coming month )

Seems a little but Stepford Wives, if I'm honest. But I admire your efficient approach.

Yes I did WWW

Yes I kind of feel like that, it sounds a bit corporate. PMSL at Coca Cola's - refreshing the world - is that after it's dehydrated the whole of the bloody developing world by sucking ancient waters dry for its poxy sugary drink?

I like the do what you've got to do then what you want to do. Good house rule. Not a mission statement though.

A lot of the examples in this book were about bieng kind and supportive to each other, praying together etc. All a bit icky for me. But some of them were OK. One was just a stick with a funny end, showing that if you pikc up one end you pick up the other, meaning all your choices impact on others.

LOL. I could introduce productivity targets and monthly objectives.

i do vaguely remember having heard of this as a sort of 'new year' exercise, when the kids are older... sort of, 'what are our goals for the year and how can we help each other meet them' american blah.
i think the idea of a mission statement has hilarious possibilities. do you think i could get it painted on a big sign for the front garden, so that everyone going past on the bus could go 'oh, the x family - they believe no challenge too big, no problem too small, and intend to live life to the max for 2009'...
i think we'd still be arguing until feb here, or actually just look at each other waiting eagerly over the kitchen table until we all drifted off and had another cup of tea.

Ah thought so LB! Hi!

I';ve done some work on Mission statements and it's quite interesting to see if you can guess the company from them: so often they're just SUCH corporate bollocks speak. Virgin's is "to grow a profitable airline where people love to fly and where people love to work" - better than Coke's load of old flim flam imo

I think in a family maybe rules and values would work better, so a discussion about how we all think it's ok to behave and to not behave. We used to have "violence is unacceptable" on our rules list on the wall amongst other things.

Snort at Romy and your idea of the sign in the garden, ha ha ha ha

I'm still getting over the fact that there is a book called The 7 habits of highly effective families.

To be blunt, and I have to say I am in a very blunt mood, the mission statement is, usually, meaningless corporate wank. Why for the love of god would anyone want to continue this concept into the home?

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"

It keeps us focussed on always trying to do the right things.

The possibilities are growing. I could have one of those thermometers that they have outside hospitals for their MRI scan target or whatever. With an arrow that could go up and down depending on how many clothes had been ironed, how many toys put away, how many times DD had apologised for winding up DS...

PMSL Little bella

Got in the library Wasabipeanut. But look, it's here on Amazon!!! I'm guessing you won't be buying it

lol LB

and you could introduce performance related pocket money. You don't meet your targets, you don't get yer money, baby

As well as a daily buzz session where you all talk about what you're going to achieve today

Hmm. I'm liking the performance related pocket money idea. I've already got a primitive form of that, at least in theory.

we do performance related pocket money.
it all depends on how many stickers you earn.
i'm hanging my head in shame.

My dad tried to introduce a similar thing. He would ask us to think about how we wanted to be as a family and how we thought people percieved us/how we wanted to be percieved. He would write points down on the white board that he had affixed to the kitchen wall.

We had family board meetings every Sunday morning where he'd draw up an agenda and get someone to take minutes. In all seriousness!

I don't think it worked at all. I can see the point of trying to get people to talk things through (ie "Okay Tommy, let's talk about why you took Freddie's toys on Wednesday") and making sure that all your kids (there were 5 of us) got important reminders and advance warnings of events.

But the formality of it was a drag when we were kids and just put our hackles up as teenagers (and were generally hungover and incoherent).

I don't think you can expect small people to discuss things coherently and sensibly on demand at a set time, surely some of the best parenting conversations where kids open up are more informal and relaxed.

It does just make me cringe looking back at it. I think you need to leave work at home and try and treat your family as people. You can't really expect teenagers and children to act like they're in your office all the time with mission statements, white boards and minutes!

i can't decide which PIs though - obv your ironing one is workable, but should there be a goal as to increasing productivity, for meals for example? increasing numbers of children fed by increasing playdates per month?
it all has amazing possibilites.

does my pay go up as well though? annual bonus if i meet my objectives?

or i may have to look for another family to foist myself upon...

pmsl at your dad's whiteboards.

I have visions of doing a powerpoint presentations to my kids while they're trying to watch Dr Who

Oh LOL I can't get over your dad!