Anyone else have a mother hen in the brood? I’ve got two. One for each pair of sexes. Andie has always spoken for and mothered Rachel, and Cody tries to boss Logan around, who usually refuses to let him.
Just the other day, I watched in disbelief when I was telling Logan not to do something and Cody came out from the other room and began telling him the same things I was, as if I weren’t even there. Of course these little mothers make their siblings quite indignant, but they can’t seem to stop themselves.
It’s so interesting to see how different kids’ personalities are and watch them emerge and develop. Logan and Rachel are just too laid back to care, like me, while Cody and Andie have to know what’s going on, when, and why, before they’re able to relax.
Andie and I can drive each other absolutely crazy because our personalities are so different. I’m nearly always late for everything, no matter how hard I try not to be, which drives her up the wall. She just about makes herself sick over minor things that she worries about, while I usually just blow my worries off. She often demands to know what we’re doing and when we’re doing it, while I don’t like to be scheduled.
When I agreed a few weeks ago that the girls could have a birthday party with friends this year, the second we got home, Andie started a list of games they’d play, food they’d have, the friends they would invite . . . Their birthday wasn’t for TWO MONTHS! That’s how she is though. She peppers me with questions and worries over everything.
The flip side is that she has always been amazingly responsible for her age. She follows directions to the last detail, has been learning to cook meals, looks after her brothers and helps me a ton around the house.
Personality types fascinate me. You can learn so much about other people when you understand their personality traits. I did a personality quiz on the girls at http://www.personalitypage.com/kid_info.html. It’s geared towards kids who are 7-12, but you can get a general sense of your younger child’s personality as well. What I really like about it is that it gives you ways to relate to your child and other helpful hints.
The quiz is based on the Myers-Briggs personality inventory, which is the most widely used model. To discover yours, go to http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp. There’s also another fun one that’s not based on the Myers-Briggs at www.personaldna.com.
It turned out that Rachel is the same personality type as me, except that she is an introvert, while I’m an extrovert. Andie has the same personality type as her dad, but she’s extroverted and he’s introverted. I’m an ENFP, Rachel’s an INF, Andie’s an ENT and their dad is an INTJ. It’s all quite fascinating in how we relate to one another.
What’s your personality type and how does it compare to your child/ren’s?
[...] | Tags: intj, personality test | I was spurred on to take my personality test by this blog. It was interesting. You basically click on “yes” or “no” for about 80 [...]
I’m an INTJ! I couldn’t do the ones for the kids — mine are too young. (The first question was about reading — my kids are still learning their ABCs.)
That was so fun! I’m an ISTJ and I did it for Kate, who is only five but fairly precocious. She is an EFJ, but I’m not sure that’s right since I couldn’t do all the questions and quite frankly, she sounds like a mirror image of Andie, always mothering Sophia. That part about Cody coming in from the other room to yell at Logan is just the kind of thing Kate does constantly. It drives me batty! If Sophia is standing on the table and I’m in the process of getting her down, Kate will try to swoop in and take over, as if I’m not doing a good enough job on my own.
But Kate is definitely a feeling child; she always feels bad when someone gets their feelings hurt. When we fight on occasion she says, “Mom! Dad! You need to settle down!” which always cracks us up and diffuses the situation.