In recent years, national governments in OECD countries have been pressured from many sources to reform social policies for families with children. This paper, based on research from a portion of my recent book manuscript, focuses on one source of political pressure: trans-national organisations such as the United Nations, the European Union and the International Labour Organisation. Although trans-national organisations develop multilateral agreements in order to urge governments to restructure social policies, these organisations are often forced to focus on "soft politicking" to encourage "welfare laggards" to tow the line. Efforts to restructure three areas of family policies are used to illustrate my argument: the development of parental benefits for employed parents, reproductive concerns, and issues relating to child maltreatment. I show that national politics and existing institutional arrangements of welfare provision present important constraints on trans-national efforts to encourage the harmonization of family policies.