Entry 18 - Kersey and Parenthood

According to Kiersey, ENFJs tend make great parents due to the fact that their strong ideals pass down to their children and because they are also great for emotional support. In addition, the Kiersey website adds that ENFJs are the type of parents that present their children with choices and advise them to go with what their heart tells them and that show great pride in their children. Also, personalitypage.com goes on to state that ENFJ parents while being strict, are very warm, supportive, and well intention-ed parents. This leads to one of the ENFJs weaknesses as parents which is the fact that because it is possible that they may use their manipulative skills to force their values, their children may see past this during adolescence and end up resenting their ENFJ parent. Another problem that arises with the start of their children’s puberty is that ENFJs, being the type of people who like to check up on how things are going, may forget that children going through puberty need to be given more room for growth, which can also lead to resentment. This shows another weakness of ENFJ parents, which is that they can sometimes be so consumed passing on their values and ideas to their children that they don’t allow their children in adolescence to develop their own ideals and ideas. Overall, I agree with all of the strengths and weaknesses except for the part about me being too overprotective, because it is in my belief that while it is important for my children to heed my warnings about repeating any and all mistakes that I’ve made in my lifetime, I think that it's part of the human experience to make mistakes and to learn from those mistakes and to grow into a much better person. In other words, I’d be worried about my adolescents’ safeties, but I would rather teach them not to be blatant idiots rather than keep them cooped up.

This then leads me to theorize that in my childrens’ lives I plan to be that parent that always seeks to teach them a lesson that they would never forget and one that’ll help them make lemonade whenever life gives them lemons. I’ll also probably be the good cop parent, because the 16personalities website does state that discipline comes very hard to my personality type and so I may end having to rely on my partner to do that part. Overall, I think I’m going to be the parent that teaches the children to let their hearts be their lantern in the pitch black darkness known as life.