Family Mission Statements: The Purpose and the Goal

Strong, bonded families don’t just happen. After all, glue needs time to dry. And honestly, aren’t the most worthwhile things in life the ones we invest in?

Strong families are ones that are unified and where every member feels cherished and valued. Creating this strength takes a lot of thought and commitment from every member of the family. One of the best ways to ensure you and your family put a great deal of thought into what you want out of your life and your family – and how you are going to get there – is to write a family mission statement.

What is a Family Mission Statement?

Smart, successful businesses write mission statements. They do so to tell you what their business stands for and to create a team feeling for their employees as they work toward a common goal.  Think about your place of work and how that mission statement can unify coworkers. So, too, should a family mission statement make it clear to all members of your family what your family stands for and help create the cohesive feeling that your family is a team (because you ARE on the same team).

In actuality, a family mission statement isn’t just one statement, but rather a series of statements that help to establish your family’s priorities and values which you will actively (actively being a keyword) try to live by. It is kind of like a road map on how your family will treat one another and other people around you. It’s a playbook for conduct inside and outside of your home.

Every family member should have input into your family mission statement and every family member should agree with the statement and agree to live by the values set within it. If you’re not all on board, it’s going to be more difficult to live out the mission.

When Should You Write Your Family Mission Statement?

It is never too late to write a family mission statement; however, it is best to begin thinking about and writing your family mission statement as soon as possible (bonus points if you start the convo with your family today after reading this article).

Long before you meet that special someone, you need to think about why you want a family and how your family will enhance your life and how you will enhance theirs.

Then when you meet that special someone and become engaged, you should spend some more of your time as a couple discussing your combined vision of a family, your joint and separate dreams, and the values you want playing a part of how you live your life and raise your family. To go back to the “team” analogy, every player on the team should know the play to run before they line up on the field. If not, they’d be running into opposite directions or even colliding with one another.

Having serious discussions on these topics will bring you closer together as a couple (and that is always a great thing). The actual framing out, writing of your family mission statement, and putting it down into black and white (or color…I won’t limit your family’s creativity) has the effect of providing you with a great start for building your family – a solid foundation to begin building on.

Keep in mind that as your family grows and you have children, your family mission statement may need to be revised in order for your children to have some input into the statement. Besides, having kids can often realign and refocus your goals anyway. Also, involving your kids helps your entire family to commit or recommit to the values and principles put forth in your mission statement.

Putting Your Family Mission Statement Front and Center In Your Home

Once you have written your family mission statement go ahead and frame it and place it somewhere in your home where it can be read often by every member of the family. Who knows? Maybe your unique family mission artwork will inspire your guests to go home and create their own family mission statement. You can also place copies of your family mission statement in every bedroom of the home so family members can read this statements as often as they like. Have fun with it! Adjust the colors or fonts or style to each room – but keep the message the same.

While the writing of your family mission statement gives your family a road map to follow, the discussions leading up to the writing of your family mission statement have abundant value also. The open communication channels for families create a safe zone and security net that helps to build a stronger bond through the process of listening to others and being listened to.

If your family has a mission statement already, what is it? And what did you learn from each other while creating it?

Celebrating Family,