Mascot:

In our family of origin, we each chose roles as our way to belong in the family. Possibly we were indirectly “assigned” these roles. However, we settled on two of the roles. One is our “doing” role (how we appear to others) and the other is our “being” role (the role we choose to solve our emotional problems through). The roles are family hero, scapegoat, lost child, and mascot.

Positive characteristics of the mascot:

Playful—joyful—active—charming—sense of humor—keeps the peace in the family—cute

Negative characteristics of mascot:

Immature—disruptive—short attention span—confused—feels crazy at times—accident prone—fragile—may have learning disabilities

Inner feelings of mascot:

Need to provide fun and humor as distractions for family—insecurity—anxiety

Major hidden feelings of mascot:

They are afraid that they will be judged “dumb”

Gift to the family:

To provide fun and humor as distraction from family’s problems

To outgrow need mascot role, he/she needs to learn:

To learn to accept responsibility

To not use humor to avoid conflict

To feel comfortable with feelings of sadness and/or grief

Techniques others may use to help the mascot to give up using this role exclusively:

Through validation that the ideas of the mascot are sound

To agree that the mascot is able to take care of self

To appreciate the mascot’s sense of humor