Female2Female

Your personality and parenting

Posted on 26. Oct, 2009 by Sally in Uncategorized

Liquorice-All-Sorts are one of my favourite sweets, they come in all  shapes, sizes and colours and each different one has a personality and flavour. The sweet coloured coconut parts perfectly balance the slightly sharper liquorice, and best of all for a fidgety person that can’t sit still, they provide the perfect opportunity to play with your food. You can peel them, separate them, squash them and in general have fun before you even eat them. Now I know that some of you are already going eeuuwww at the thought of these brightly coloured little delights. It would be ridiculous to think that we all have the same tastes in food and it is as ridiculous to think that one style of way of parenting will suit all of us. As much as we have a preference for what we eat so we have natural tendencies that govern the way we parent.

I have been going through a stage of rediscovery and change in my life and looking at who I am and how my specific personality type affects the way I do think about and interact with the world. The more I learn about my own preference and personality the more I can see how this influences my parenting.

It got me thinking there is no one size fits all parenting style, I think perhaps the most important thing is to know yourself. There is no point in telling someone like me who can’t deal with routine and rigidity to get your baby into a strict routine and it will make you life easier. It does not, it just stresses me out completely. If however routine and predictability work with your natural personality style having this structure helps you to feel so much more in control and able to manage as a parent. Your personality traits are pre-programmed and they explain why you would prefer behaving in certain ways and how this affects your natural tendencies in parenting

Myers Briggs is quite a well known and respected personality test. You can do a free test based on the Myers Briggs here, http://www.personality-power-for-everyday-living.com/test-page.html starting to understand why you do certain things will help you understand your parenting style a lot better.

There are 16 personality types that can be consolidated into 4 temperaments, I found this website that explained the preferences of the 4 temperaments in parenting helpful http://www.personality-power-for-everyday-living.com/Parenting.html

Your personality is of course only one side of the coin, your child and their personality and natural tendencies will of course play a huge part in the way you interact with each other. The Myers Briggs can be done on teens 15 and up. The Murphy-Meisgeier test can be used for children over the age of 6 but they either have to be done by a professional or you have to pay to do them on line.

What type are you and do you think it affects you as a parent? I am an ENFP

Tags: featured, Parenting