We don’t have a motto, but we have some tongue-in-cheek phrases that come out.
The favorite is probably this:
In any crisis, the first and most important order of business is to assess blame.
It is our way of saying, “how about we solve the crisis and then debrief on prevention when we’ve calmed down?” Blame doesn’t do any good except to point to how to do things differently next time, and that requires a bit of calm.
Speaking of kiddos, I wish we had a book with all the quotable quotes we have come up with over the years.
For instance, the time we were at a Christmas Mass at which the priest gathered all the children around for the homily and asked the children: What do you think the Baby Jesus saw as he was lying in the manager?
Our son’s answer: the roof of the barn.
I don’t want to de-rail your thread with quotes like that, but just to encourage you to write down the things that you and your children say that seem memorable at the time. Out of the mouths of babes…
I suppose our motto is this: Life isn’t fair. Life is good. If you think about it, you know it can’t be both.
We take it as being willing to take our blessings gratefully without pretending we are entitled to all the good things we receive.