Parenting and the four Temperaments

Temperaments - Rudolf Steiner said about Temperaments

“It has frequently been emphasised that man's greatest riddle is himself. Both natural and spiritual science ultimately try to solve this riddle — the former by understanding the natural laws that govern our outer being, the latter by seeking the essence and purpose inherent in our existence. Now as correct as it may be that man's greatest riddle is himself, it must also be emphasized that each individual human being is a riddle, often even to himself. Every one of us experiences this in encounters with other people.”

Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic and Melancholic - we are all generally a mixture of them and at some points in our parenting journey we will come across areas of conflict in personality, we may struggle to align ourselves with our children and this is where looking at temperaments can help. How can we better understand our child? How can we re-structure our communication to help them grow and evolve in their temperament? This is something I have been exploring in depth lately as my three year olds choleric behaviour I felt was really difficult to deal with. What I discovered when I sat down and actually looked at her from an outside perspective was that she is more Sanguine and melancholic with only a couple of fiery choleric tendencies. So why was I so convinced she was choleric? Well this all has a little to do with my own temperament. More melancholic I was honing in on her choleric traits as these were the most obvious to me and the area where we did clash. Understanding my own temperament in relation to my little one has enabled me to take a step back and figure out the riddle of our own relationship. Steiner goes on

“ In education, very close attention must be paid to the individual temperaments, for it is especially important to be able to guide and direct them as they develop in the child. But the temperaments are also important to our efforts to improve ourselves later in life. We do well to attend to what expresses itself through them if we wish to further our personal development.”

Steiner’s work as well as the work of Connie Rossini have really helped me in my work with the temperaments and going forward this valuable new insight will no Doubt bring harmony and understanding to the most beautiful riddle that is our family

You can find Connie Rossini’s books in my amazing storefront (link in bio) information on the temperaments by Rudolf Steiner can be found free on the Rudolf Steiner Archive (www.rsarchive.org)