Melancholy...Me??

I've been reading a book about personality types, Personality Plus for Parents by Florence Littauer, because it was the topic of my monthly mother's group last Friday. This is the first time that I have seen personality types (sanguine, choleric, melancholy and phlegmatic) explained clearly and all at once I can see that there is some benefit to this, even though in the past I have been sceptic to say the least. I need to be careful not to pigeonhole my kids in my mind, but listening to my friend Cherub speak and reading this book, I can see that looking at my children in this way can help me to understand what they are thinking and what they need from me in terms of discipline and discipling.

So here's a very quick overview of how I see my family through the lens of personality type:(The chart came from the book. The red bits are my artwork - Jeff has both sanguine and choleric traits.)

Being able to categorise these elements of our personalities will help me to deal with situations which Jeff and I were struggling to understand, I think. Obviously I need to read the rest of the book - and I know there are other ways of looking at things, such as through the lens of Love Languages (insights from that book really helped Jeff and I understand each other in the early years of our marriage) as well as the basic sex/gender differences. But I'm definitely intrigued.