Nurture by Nature: How to Raise Happy, Healthy, Responsible Children Through the Insights of Personality Type (Paperback)

~ Paul D. Tieger (Author), Barbara Barron-Tieger (Author), E. Michael Ellovich (Contributor) "Lisa and Barry had always imagined their children would be small versions of themselves-talkative, friendly, and active..." (more)
Key Phrases: lazy parenting, Know Our Children, Whole New Way, Judging Estimated (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Personality-type assessment helps parents learn about a child's individuality. Armed with knowledge of that individuality, parents can add understanding and acceptance to their unconditional love, gear their parenting to the needs of the child, and help the child develop lasting self-esteem and happiness. According to Myers and Briggs, inventors of the personality inventory scales that bear their names, there are 16 types of personality, each of which is characterized by preferences in interpersonal interaction, sorts of information noticed and remembered, methods of decision making, and degrees of structure found desirable. Tieger and Barron-Tieger offer detailed interpretations of each of the Myers-Briggs types as they flesh out personality assessment as a valuable parenting resource, stressing that how valuable will depend quite heavily on specific parents' insights, perceptiveness, and imagination. Some prior familiarity with personality-type assessment will help in making the best use of their advice, yet this remains a remarkable tool for relating to children. Kathryn Carpenter

Product Description

Using Personality-Type assessment for the first time in child-rearing, the authors explain how to recognize which of sixteen unique personality types matches a child's behavior, and then how to more successfully parent children of each type. 100,000 first printing. Tour.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1st edition (May 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316845132
• ISBN-13: 978-0316845137
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #25,797 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must have" book for any parent!, March 25, 2000

By	Beverly "mcneece" (Utah) - See all my reviews

I originally checked this book out of our library, but within a few weeks I bought my own copy. I'm amazed at how one book could change the way I look at my children (as well as my spouse and myself!). My husband and I are complete opposites (he's ISTJ and I'm ENFP) but tend to complement eachother's strengths and weaknesses. I was able to see how my ENTP daughter needed more space than I was giving her, and how it was important to save "no" for the big things. My ISFJ daughter has always caused us concern because of the way everything goes over her head. She also has a very difficult time making decisions. Through this book I was able to see more of her strengths and also am better able to deal with her "personality quirks"...it's been a lifesaver! My ISFJ daughter has always been slow to warm up to people, but quick at understanding how things work . She learned chess in one day (on her 7th birthday) and regularly gives us a run for our money! And lastly we have a little ESTP who is only 2 but has already learned the art of manipulation...I guess you could say she was born with it! But now I can use the tips in NURTURE BY NATURE to help with all of their different personalities. I bought this book only 6 months ago and have used it more than ANY other parenting/help book I have. You wouldn't believe how marked up it is! I could probably toss all the others! I only wish that I had found this 10 years ago! It's worth its weight in gold!

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile, February 9, 2002

By	Ms Diva "cycworker" (Nanaimo, B.C. Canada) - See all my reviews

This book takes the Myers Briggs Type Indicator and applies it to parenting. The book is supposed to help parents identify their child's personality type, so that they can then parent them in a way that best suits the child's needs as well as the parents'.

I like the fact that the book shows that children are individuals, and that a one size fits all approach to parenting tends not to work. The book could really give a parent insight into a child who is vey different from the way the parent is (say, a very extroverted mom or dad who can't quite understand why his/her child would rather read a book or play with a chemistry set than go play with a group of kids). It can also help the parent understand why some discipline techniques that work really well with one child completely fail with another. The book talks about all these sorts of issues - school, discipline, overall behaviour, etc.

The problem I have with the book is that I think is difficult to identify some children's preferences, particularly in the more complex areas of a person's type. It's rather easy to tell if someone is an extravert vs. an introvert. Other things, like sensing vs intuitive, or judging vs. perceiving are more difficult to assess in a child. I found it hard to determine the type of the child I was thinking of. Where the book is more useful is knowing your own type, and looking at how your child might respond to it.

Although I'm not convinced that the Myers-Briggs Type Indictor is a valid instrument to use with children, I do believe this book can still give parents and other adults who interact with kids a good broad base of understanding of how temperment is displayed in children. For that alone, the book is worth looking at. I would reccommend getting the book out of the library and skimming a few chapters to see if you like the book and think it will be useful to you before you spend the money to purchase it outright.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!, December 31, 1998

By A Customer

What a great book! I strongly recommend this book for all parents and teachers. Especially those involved with so-called learning disabilities like attention deficit disorder, which can simply be the manifestation of a child's natural temperament.

I was already familiar with the MBTI/Jungian theory of temperament before I bought the book and suspected my son to be an "ENTP" because of his apparent preferences for extraversion, intuition-imagination, logic and divergent thinking. When I got the book in the mail and opened it up to ENTP I immediately read it to my husband and we were in hysterics. We've been calling him "The Negotiator," and the heading under ENTP was "Everything's Negotiable." There were about ten full pages on the ENTP temperament, from infancy up through the teen years. I'm also an ENTP and it rang true. It was simply amazing how true it all was. I now feel a bit more prepared in that I have an idea about what to expect in future years.

Then we looked up ISTP, my husband's type, and read that. I said to him about certain parts, "you weren't like that, were you?" and he reply rather sheepishly, "well, actually, I was." Then he began to tell me stories I'd never heard before of him as a child. I just never pictured him hanging off the tops of cliffs.

All in all, it was incredibly valuable for me to identify that my son has pretty much the same temperament as me, and it was probably even more invaluable for my husband to read about the temperament traits of an ENTP, since my husband is of a different type and would naturally tend to have different expectations of his son. I think he understands him a little better now.