How to Create a Personal Mission Statement for Parenting | Guide to Grounding Your Family Values

Mission statements often feel impersonal, don’t they? They hang on a corporate wall, seemingly disconnected from real life.

But what if a personal mission statement for parenting could actually transform your life and guide your family with purpose?

What is a Personal Mission Statement for Parenting?

A personal mission statement for parenting is a guiding principle that helps parents align their core values with their actions in raising their children.

By clearly defining what they hope to teach and embody as parents, they can make decisions that are rooted in love, integrity, and their vision for their children’s future.

Why a Personal Mission Statement for Parenting Matters

Mission statements can sometimes feel meaningless—disconnected from the day-to-day work of life. But a personal mission statement for parenting can ground you, helping you align your values with your actions as a parent.

Imagine my surprise when I realized that a personal mission statement for parenting could be the key to grounding my decisions as a parent, making daily challenges more manageable and meaningful.

If you’ve read Stephen Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” you’re already familiar with the idea of a personal mission statement. Covey advocates creating a personal mission statement for life, and this same concept works beautifully for parenting.

How Stephen Covey’s Personal Mission Statement Translates to Parenting

Covey encourages his readers to prepare a Personal Mission Statement for their life that grounds them in their most highly-held personal principles. The idea is that if you are rooted firmly in your principles, it becomes easier to navigate the hard work of adulting and weathering life’s inevitable storms. 

He warns that a mission statement may take a long time to craft, that it’s dynamic and can change as we grow in wisdom.

They can be quite long or quite short, and take on various formats depending on the author.

While I didn’t define it as such right away, my personal mission statement for parenting has been in the making for awhile, brewing in my mind, whispering to me in a thousand different ways. So it didn’t take me long to put pen to paper: “My life’s mission is to embody what I hope for my children.” 

This mission statement for parenting informs everything I do and gives meaning to even the smallest decisions, reminding me to lead by example every day.

For some reason, when I ask myself what I hope for my own life, I am a deer in headlights, paralyzed by the weight of it.

But it’s so easy to articulate what I hope for for my children. My prayers for them pour out of me at night. My hopes for them know no bounds. My wishes for them unfold out of my heart like a red carpet.

Slowly I realized, they are one in the same.

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Parenting with a Purpose: How My Mission Statement Shapes My Parenting

As part of my personal mission statement for parenting, I often reflect on the hopes and prayers I have for my children:

• I pray that my children lead a life that gratifies them. I pray they allow their inner compass to guide them, to live a life that is true to them, the closest thing that the universe meant for them to be. 
• That they have integrity.
• That they listen and learn from others who they find along their life’s path, and find joy in their connection with them.
• That they wear their seatbelt. (Every time.)
• That they speak up when their heart tells them they must.
• I pray that when they screw up, they make it right. And that they forgive themselves for their mistakes, moving forward with their head held high. 
• That they don’t make a habit of texting and driving.
• That their life and home is overflowing with genuine love, abundance, and a whole lot of laughter.
• That they eat wholesome foods that nourish their bodies (those adorable, wonderful vessels that I worked so hard to grow.)
• That they meet life’s challenges with bravery. 
• That they keep healthy boundaries in order to care for themselves.
• That they are proud when they look in the mirror, and humble when they go out into the world.
• That when they grieve, they fully grieve, paying their receipts in full for the love they knew.
• That they break free of painful generational patterns that their parents and grandparents were unable to.
• That they wear the clothes they feel the best in, listen to the music that lifts them, and delight in the things that delight them.
• That they find joy in the every day.
• I pray that at the end of their long lives they can say they truly experienced what it is to be human.

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Through my personal mission statement for parenting, I’ve gained clarity about the parent—and person—I need to be. What I hope for my children, I now hope for myself. This alignment helps me embody the values I want to teach, and it’s a powerful reminder to lead by example.

My life’s mission is to embody what I hope for them, for I am teaching them most loudly with my own life.

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ASK “WWMCD”?

Remember in the ’90s when those WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) bracelets were popular? The idea was simple: in tricky situations, you could look at your bracelet and ask yourself, “What Would Jesus Do?” Though I’m Jewish, I loved those bracelets and have taken the same approach to guide my parenting journey.

Now, I ask myself, “What do I hope my children will do?” This question has become an integral part of my personal mission statement for parenting.

• When I’m about to text and drive, I stop and ask: What do I hope my child would do behind the wheel?
• When speaking to my husband or children, I reflect: How do I hope my child will communicate with their spouse and children?
• When making business decisions, I consider: How do I hope my child will approach finances and negotiations?
• When faced with a tough decision, I ask: What do I hope my child will do in a similar situation?

These daily reflections embody the essence of my parenting mission statement. It helps me live by the principles I hope to instill in my children, making them my abstract role model in a way.

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Forgiving Ourselves as Parents

Of course, I fall short of these lofty goals most of the time. But another key part of my mission statement is remembering to forgive myself when I don’t quite meet my own expectations. After all, what do I hope my children will do when they fall short?

I hope they’ll forgive themselves, keep trying, and continue to grow.

And that’s exactly what I’ll do—because, as parents, the most important lesson we can teach is through the life we lead.

If you’re looking for ways to inject more joy into your parenting journey, check out my guide on how to be a fun mom.