Normal Parents, Strange Children

I hadn't intended to make my post on Susan Cain's book (Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking) a two-parter but it turns out that I have more to say on the subject; I'm now reading a section in which she talks about children who are mismatched with their parents (introverted children with extrovert parents). The point is to illustrate the learning curve when your child has a vastly different personality than you and, while I'm not a parent, I'd like to think that adapting to your child's personality style is, at least somewhat, instinctual. Ms. Cain gives two examples in the book; in the first, she talks of extroverted parents who were concerned for their son who seemed to shy away from new people/experiences, so much so that they took their child to a psychiatrist who told them that their son was perfectly fine and not to worry. Were they comforted by this assessment? Not at all. In a stunning display of bad parenting, they took their kid to multiple psychiatrist until they found one that agreed to "treat" him (watch the news for a Menendez-style outcome to this approach). The second is of an extroverted mother who finds herself with an introvert for a daughter. Did she drag her kid from shrink to shrink in hopes of "fixing" her? Nope. Guess what her approach to the introverted/extroverted "mismatch" was? Patience and understanding. Or what I like to think of as parenting. Now, I've never been a parent but I have been a child; a really, really odd child. A child who ground crayons into the rug in an attempt to build a castle. A child who pretended to be a cat. For a week. When it was nowhere near Halloween. (Including sleeping in a cat crate and taking meals in a dish on the floor). A child who decided she was Wednesday Adams and wore only black. A child (and now adult) who talks to herself more than anyone else. Did my mother search desperately for a cure to my weirdness? No. (At least not as far as I know). Did she try to change me on her own? Nope. Did she hope she would one day end up with a "normal" child? Don't think so (though, now that I think about it, perhaps this is why my sister was born). All through my odd childhood and now as an odd adult all my mother has ever done is love me and accept me; tiaras, cat ears and all. Now, while my mother is a self described introvert, I'm still not sure what I am, but we are definitely mismatched. And, on behalf of odd, different, weird children everywhere, whether this means you prefer your own company to that of others (9 times out of 10 the right choice) or if your life is a constant performance piece (complete with costumes), your parents should celebrate it. If they didn't/don't, they missed the point.