Nurturing Temperament
How much can parents really impact their kids? Isn't a lot of who they are genetic? The
debate between nature and nurture is still raging. Studies of twins
reared separately suggest that many behaviors we might have attributed
to environment may 
be innate. But does that mean we’re off the hook as
parents?
It turns out that about half of who we are can be traced to our genes. The other half, scientists say, can be attributed to our environment. Environment, of course, includes the world of peers and school, so some of who our kids become is attributable to the outside world. But the most important traits – the ability to give and receive love, the ability to maintain inner happiness regardless of the slings and arrows of fortune – are determined by a child’s earliest relationships.
Anyone
who’s ever had more than one child knows that children are born with a
distinct temperament. As parents we can’t control this raw material,
but we can try to give our children the environment that will best help
them to make the most of their potential.
Let's
take, for instance, the trait of shyness, which geneticists believe is
greatly influenced by our genes. Shy kids are at a disadvantage in our
outgoing, busy culture, because they’re highly sensitive to stimuli and
have a harder time relaxing and connecting with others. But shy baby
chimps given to extremely nurturing mothers became leaders in their
group, while their shy siblings raised by average mothers remain shy
and fearful throughout life. The responsive mothering helps the shy
chimps learn to calm themselves and manage their reactions, while their
heightened sensitivity makes them more responsive to the needs of other
chimps and better at negotiating group situations. What a perfect
example for parents of the interaction of genetics and environment.
So we start with what we are given: temperament. Stella Chess and Alexander Thomas’s landmark study on temperament identified nine apparently innate traits in babies: activity level, regularity, approach or withdrawal, adaptability, responsiveness, intensity of reaction, positivity or negativity, distractibility, and attention span or persistence.
Given that Chess did not observe the babies until they were already some months old, there has been debate as to whether these traits might already have been influenced by environment, but most developmental psychologists take Chess’s conclusions at face value.
Infants can be rated somewhere on a continuum of high to low on each of these traits, and it is thought that they are unlikely to change throughout their lives. What can change is the way the trait manifests, depending on how the person learns to modulate it.
Everyone
is born with strengths and weaknesses. Learning to manage one's
weaknesses so as to make the most of one's strengths is a major task of
maturation, and one that remains challenging to many adults.
Each child is born with unique gifts, and our challenge as parents is
to help our children understand, appreciate, and modulate both their
strengths and weaknesses so that they can develop into healthy, happy,
successful adults.
One insight that can help parents to
accept their child's "weaknesses" is the realization that almost all
weaknesses can be understood as the flip side of that person's
strengths.
For instance, a child might be incredibly stubborn, arguing with her parents to get what she wants until she simply wears them down. While that trait might be hard to live with and might indeed alienate others at times, from friends to teachers to employers, the flip side of the trait is dogged persistence. This is the kind of persistence that will serve this child well if she grows up to be a detective, a scientist, a novelist -- indeed, almost any profession would be served by such persistence.
The parents of this girl can assist her by helping her recognize that while this trait is an asset, it can also drive others crazy and make them angry at her. She needs to learn to modulate it and use it, rather than letting it control her. Helping children to know themselves well and to manage themselves to best meet their overall goals is one of the most helpful gifts any parent can give a child.
Here's how:
1. Know your child.
Pay attention to what you love about him, and also to what drives you
crazy. Those "negatives" may come out only with you -- parents have
special privileges, after all -- but they probably emerge in the rest
of his life too.
2. Accept your child’s weaknesses.
Everyone has them. Think about those "negatives" in the context of our
hypothesis that they may be the flip side of a strength. If she has
trouble controlling her anger when her brother disrespects her, is she
an equally passionate fighter against other injustices she perceives?
Is his dawdling a sign of immense imagination -- like Calvin of Calvin
and Hobbes, is he secretly Spaceman Spiff?
3. Help your child to understand her strengths as well as the areas she needs to learn to manage.
Talk with your child about what you see. Be sure to frame it
positively, starting with how you've noticed this wonderful thing about
her. Be honest about how the flip side of this trait is a challenge to
live with. Point out how that ends up being a problem for her, too,
when she impacts negatively on other people.
Ask her if she has ideas about how to manage it so she gets the benefits but not the drawbacks. If you or her other parent has the same trait, point that out and talk about learning to manage it. Make your story positive and hopeful. That will help her to feel less alone and more optimistic about handling what may seem like a daunting challenge.
One caveat to this: Your goal is to help her notice something about
herself, and to learn to manage it, not to label her in such a way that
she feels locked in to your expectations. Be sure to make it clear
that everyone changes, and that as we grow up, it gets easier to manage
ourselves.
4. Own your reactions. Sometimes we think
it's self-evident that our child's personality is difficult. But what bothers one
parent might not bother another. A high energy kid might might fit
right in with some families but exhaust others. Frame your requests as
"I" statements rather than criticism: "I see you feel like jumping
around right now. I'm tired and a little cranky, and the noise is too
much for me. Do you want to go outside and play or down in the basement
to jump on the old mattress?"
5. Look in the mirror. Often what drives us crazy about our child is something we can't acknowledge about ourselves. If we think our child is obstinate, we might want to look at who he's pushing up against. It takes two to have a power struggle. If we think she's a "drama queen," is that because we had to "cut off" our own big feelings when our parents told us to stop over-reacting? Softening our reaction to our child and healing ourselves is often linked.
6. Contextualize -
Children need to know that they don’t make mistakes because they are
bad, but because they are human, and, in many cases, because they are
children. This is especially important when she slips and feels bad
about her progress. “I know you didn’t mean to yell at your friend
when you got upset. You’ve been working hard not to lose your
temper. I had a hard time managing my temper when I was eight too.
It will get easier as you get older.”
7. Be patient.
You may be amazed at the change after you begin talking about
temperament, and you may not. Sometimes self awareness and clear
intention is enough to effect remarkable changes. Sometimes you need to keep talking, keep reminding, keep exploring ways
to manage whatever challenges you about his behavior. And what works
will evolve as he does. But once you've found a way to help your child
see his whole self positively, he'll be on the road to learning how to
manage even the most challenging character traits. Even more important,
he'll feel cherished for who he is. Celebrate every step in the right
direction
"Try to see your child
as a seed that came in a packet without a label. Your job is to
provide the right environment and nutrients and to pull the weeds. You
can’t decide what kind of flower you’ll get or in which season it will
bloom."
-- Anonymous
