Motherstyles

Motherstyles is a wonderful introduction to personality type and motherhood. It will help you understand yourself if you are a mother and ALSO help you understand YOUR mother. Highly recommended for easing the guilt and tension of the “mommy wars.” 

MotherStyles by Janet Penley with Diane Eble is kind of like a Pixie self-help mothering/parenting book. Because parenting is such an all encompassing job, it turns out that almost every personality type can feel inadequate if they don’t give themselves credit where credit is due. It also helps you realize where you need to focus if you ARE obsessed with being a perfect parents. Actually, I’m betting only Classics (SJ) or Organics (NF) would ever be obsessed with this likely unachievable task. Although, my mom comes pretty close to being perfect.

The book helped me immensely because right there in black and white was my struggle as a Classic Freedom (SFJ) mother — guilt. Umm, yes, guilty as charged! Before reading the book, I felt guilty when reading the newspaper while my son and I ate breakfast together. I’d always charged up for the day reading the newspaper but felt guilty doing so when my son came around. But the book helped me banish my guilt because I know it’s just me being me and I have loads of things that make me an exceptional mother — such as routines, I’m brilliant with them.