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What's My Type?
Discover Your Parenting Personality and Recognize What Motivates You
By Janet Levine
Let's begin with nine simple questions. There are no right or wrong responses to this well-tried methodology for identifying the foundation of your personality, your dominant motivational mode. Once you understand what motivates you, you'll be prepared to discover whether you tend to be a Helper, Organizer, Dreamer, Observer, Questioner, Entertainer, Protector, Peacekeeper or Moralizer.
Following each question are three statements. Choose the one that fits you most closely.
1. When you reflect on your approach to parenting, which of the following statements best describes your style?
a. My parenting style has to do with interaction and energy, with connecting to my children. I ask myself, am I getting through on an emotional level? I try to feel where they are coming from. Do they understand where I'm coming from? How do they see me? It's important that we connect in a meaningful way.
b. My parenting style is intuitive; I have a gut sense about what's right and wrong, fair and unfair. I'm ambivalent about conflict, but when I have something to say, I have a great need to say it and to be heeded. I don't like being encumbered by extraneous demands or the social expectations of others.
c. My parenting style is intellectual, no question. I'm interested in how children think, process information and work with ideas. I live in my head – conceptualizing, fantasizing, thinking things, researching and proving – that's what's important to me. "Rationality" is a big word with me.
2. How do you assess the way you communicate with your family?
a. What you see is what you get. I don't use guile or fancy gimmicks. I talk about things the way I understand them; I give it my best shot. My family gets my honest sense of how it is.
