Do we assume too much that parents are SJs?
It is true that SJs are more common in society than the other 3 Temperaments. Most people think of SJs as "Guardians", so they naturally seem like a parental kind of figure, or some kind of guiding hand.
But parents are parents, and there are certain things that they either have to do or are expected to do, right? Things that would make them seem SJ.
So do we assume normal parental behavior to be SJ personality sometimes when it shouldn't be?
I bet you're right. Perhaps a lot of it has to do with what Keirsey says is the parent-child kind of relationship that many SJ "Guardians" tend to have with others regardless of their age. I always felt that the SJs in my life were parental in some way to me, regardless of their age or our actual relationship. My ISTJ older sister was a "second mother" to me, and I doubt that had anything to do with our actual 3-year age difference, because I certainly don't think I would have felt parental had I been the older one. I think also when you become a parent or act in lieu of a parent, because you are responsible for the child's well-being, you're almost compelled to develop the "parental" behavior traits that match with the SJ temperament description.
I've certainly noticed that with regards to my job. I'm expected to show logistical intelligence and be concerned with the safety of the children in the library I work at. I'm a children's librarian and I do a lot of programming for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and grade school kids. This means when I plan and present these programs, I
have to do typically "Guardian-like" things that don't come naturally to me. It's required of me because that's what people want and expect of anyone who works with kids. I'm not normally tuned in to whether an activity kids are doing is "safe" or not (and some parents expect
extreme precautions to be taken!), and so I've had to make myself become aware of that for the sake of the parents. I'm also not normally very good at planning the logistics of an event, but I've had to develop that skill in myself. What I have learned in the 10 years I've been doing programs for kids is that if I don't pay attention to details of safety and logistics, parents notice the lack, and they very well may decide not to come to library events in the future.
I think anyone who works with kids is expected (required?) to get good at the kinds of things Guardians are naturally good at, and as a result, I find myself mimicking my SJ coworkers' behavior sometimes in an attempt to learn from them and adapt my natural style to include some of their strengths.
And yet, there are obvious differences between the SJs and myself in terms of our overall style of programming and interacting with children. I'm very comfortable with improvising, and changing plans at a second's notice, and I prefer a style of interacting that allows me to do that, whereas I notice that my coworkers would prefer not to have to improvise at all, if at all possible.
Sarah