Raising A Family

I was an introverted and very shy child. I never raised my hand and it was almost the end of the world if the teacher would ever call on me. Almost thirty-two years later I have changed a bit, but I’m usually one of the quieter people in a group setting.
We were blessed to have three children that are all very different. Our oldest and youngest children are very social. With my first I didn’t have as much to compare his personality to at a young age, but by the time I had our third child I could tell she would be social only a week after she was born. Our middle child is more of the introvert just like his mom. He’s a lot more mellow and prefers to have a fewer close friends rather than 20 acquaintances like our oldest.

I worried a little about not putting our 5 year old in preschool this year because people would comment that it would be so good for him socially. It would help him get over his “shyness”. Inside I knew that it’s just his personality and that I was the same way. One year of preschool was not going to turn him into his older brother. Since he told me he would rather stay home for preschool, I stuck to my gut and kept him home this last year. I’ve taken him to story time at the library and he has play dates with friends. Half way through the year I fell he is already academically and socially ready for school.

Research seems to be on my side with this issue. I just read an interesting article about our kids’ personalities. It supports the notion that personality traits we display as young as preschool age will most likely stay with us into adulthood. Although they may learn to become more social as time goes on they will not turn into extroverts.

An interesting part of the study did point out that the most rambunctious and aggressive children will most likely mellow out during their 20’s. This is due to all of the teasing and negative peer pressure causing them to be more self-conscious of themselves. MSNBC.com