What is my mom?

[pianosinger]

Some observations about my mom and Si...

She is rather regimented in her cleaning. For example, every Saturday growing up was chore day. Unless we were traveling on the weekend, my mom (and the rest of us helping her) cleaned everything on Saturday (except daily stuff like dishes, of course). I don't know how things are like back home now, since I don't live there anymore, but I imagine it's still the same.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays were laundry days; my mom never did laundry on any other days, as according to her this would have thrown off her entire schedule.

She used to keep up on the deep cleaning pretty well when my siblings and I were all at home; but I've noticed lately, whenever I go down to visit, the house is not nearly as clean-looking as it used to be. I see cobwebs on the ceiling, etc.

The last time I was down there (last Christmas) I noticed my little sister's (age 5) rubber duckies sitting by the tub, and they looked like they were full of mold on the inside (eww).

Aesthetics do not seem to be important to her at all when it comes to the home. Tidyness, yes. Functionality, yes. But she has not bothered herself at all with interior design or decorating.

To my knowledge, the only time she's ever had the carpet shampooed was when a Kirby salesman came and did a demo several years ago.

I remember growing up, my bath towel always smelled like chemicals, because my mom washed all the towels together, including the cleaning rags.

Okay, now vote.

[pianosinger]

Wow, I just reread my OP, and I sound a little...well, mean.

I really love my mom. She is an amazing person. Someday I'm sure I will get around to discussing many of her strengths.

I'm mostly just trying to figure out if she's more of a weak Si, or maybe strong Si but unvalued so that it looks like weak Si...or maybe it's weak and unvalued...idk.

K...

[CILi]

Might sound random, but... does your mom work a job(s) outside the home?

I ask 'cause, in so much as cleaning/laundry/dishes are involved, I wonder if your OP might be more closely related to your Mom's Te (must-dos, work, productivity) than her Si.

FWIW, though, moldy duckies don't strike me as Si-Leading.

(Oh, and in re: "", you don't sound mean. You sound like a daughter.)

[UDP]

Your mother is a ____

[Azeroffs]

There's more to Si than cleaning. I couldn't give you any type based on this.

If I absolutely had to type based on this, I'd tentatively say not ESE.

[pianosinger]

Might sound random, but... does your mom work a job(s) outside the home?

I ask 'cause, in so much as cleaning/laundry/dishes are involved, I wonder if your OP might be more closely related to your Mom's Te (must-dos, work, productivity) than her Si.

She is a part-time substitute teacher, but other than that she does not work outside the home. She did not work outside the home when I was younger, though she did volunteer at our school a lot.

There might be some Te in the OP...didn't think about that before.

Possibilities right now for her sociotype seem to be perhaps EIE, ESI, or EII.

[pianosinger]

There's more to Si than cleaning.

True. Cleaning is just the most obvious to an outside observer...

Okay, how about this: my little sister is terribly picky about food and of course prefers junk food/processed foods. She is chronically constipated, and it has not occurred to my mother than her diet could be to blame...or if it has, she has not really tried to do anything about it.

and also, fwiw, we rarely had fresh veggies in the house growing up, except for carrot sticks and maybe celery. Mostly we were fed canned veggies or those frozen bags of "mixed vegetables." I remember growing up disliking veggies for the most part growing up because of how those veggies were served; but once I got into my own home I discovered that I love vegetables and they are the main part of my diet now-- they just had to be prepared the right way.

[Aiss]

I ask 'cause, in so much as cleaning/laundry/dishes are involved, I wonder if your OP might be more closely related to your Mom's Te (must-dos, work, productivity) than her Si.

There's more to Te than work.

I'm kind of reminded of someone I type EII, but I wouldn't call most of what you describe type related, and I know EIIs who are nothing like this. Strict schedule sounds more like rational, probably devaluing Ni (or possibly weak Ni), though xIIs are usually more flexible if you offer them an alternative.

[EyeSeeCold]

Your mother is a ____

[pianosinger]

Now, some more about my mom (not Si-related).

She is VERY into tradition. She guards family traditions like the world would fall apart if they slipped by the wayside. We have so many things we have to do at Christmastime, for instance, all in the name of tradition.

She is always starting new traditions, too. If we did something once as a family and someone suggested making it a tradition, so it was.

Okay, so, I can't blame it totally on her, since there were seven of us involved in the tradition-making. But she is the one who continues to insist on all those traditions, even to the point of tears if things aren't going according to plan.

Shoot, my boys are going crazy; be back later with more.

[pianosinger]

She loves to do jigsaw puzzles, word puzzles, logic puzzles...

She majored in math education. Though she only taught math for one year while my dad was still in school and she was pregnant with me.

She is a good friend, and has managed to maintain close (as close as possible) friendships with her best friends from elementary, high school, and college. Whenever she goes back to her home state to visit her family, she always makes a point of contacting her old friend who still lives there and setting up a meeting while she's there. She keeps in touch regularly with her friends, and she doesn't need (or use) Facebook to do it.

She has a Christmas letter mailing list a mile long (haha, okay, not really of course), and mails out her letters faithfully every year.

She knows the names and faces of everyone at church, and keeps up with what's going on in many of their lives (but not in a busy-body sort of way). Her weekly emails to her away-from-home kids (including me) almost always include some report on how so-and-so is getting married, or so-and-so had a baby, and so forth. She really cares about people.

She is always one of the first to volunteer where she sees a need. In fact, she has a hard time saying "no" to anything; though, I think she's gotten better at it as she's gotten older.

She made a special point each year to have my siblings and I write cards to our teachers for Christmas, and she accompanied our cards each year with hand-made (by her) ornaments (when we went into secondary school with multiple teachers, though, she stopped making the ornaments and just made jam instead).

I know she really cared (and cares) about her children and family; and even though she kept herself so busy with other things, her family was clearly her first priority. She supported us faithfully in everything we wanted to do. Looking back, I just can't imagine how she did it without falling apart.

She takes pictures and/or videos of everything that happens in her family's lives. She has kept dozens of photo albums over the years, complete with captions; and she's even made duplicates of many photos in order to make a special set of albums for each of her children (though she's still working on those).

Yeah. She's really pretty amazing, come to think of it.

[Exodus]

She loves to do jigsaw puzzles, word puzzles, logic puzzles...

She majored in math education. Though she only taught math for one year while my dad was still in school and she was pregnant with me.

She is a good friend, and has managed to maintain close (as close as possible) friendships with her best friends from elementary, high school, and college. Whenever she goes back to her home state to visit her family, she always makes a point of contacting her old friend who still lives there and setting up a meeting while she's there. She keeps in touch regularly with her friends, and she doesn't need (or use) Facebook to do it.

She has a Christmas letter mailing list a mile long (haha, okay, not really of course), and mails out her letters faithfully every year.

She knows the names and faces of everyone at church, and keeps up with what's going on in many of their lives (but not in a busy-body sort of way). Her weekly emails to her away-from-home kids (including me) almost always include some report on how so-and-so is getting married, or so-and-so had a baby, and so forth. She really cares about people.

She is always one of the first to volunteer where she sees a need. In fact, she has a hard time saying "no" to anything; though, I think she's gotten better at it as she's gotten older.

She made a special point each year to have my siblings and I write cards to our teachers for Christmas, and she accompanied our cards each year with hand-made (by her) ornaments (when we went into secondary school with multiple teachers, though, she stopped making the ornaments and just made jam instead).

I know she really cared (and cares) about her children and family; and even though she kept herself so busy with other things, her family was clearly her first priority. She supported us faithfully in everything we wanted to do. Looking back, I just can't imagine how she did it without falling apart.

She takes pictures and/or videos of everything that happens in her family's lives. She has kept dozens of photo albums over the years, complete with captions; and she's even made duplicates of many photos in order to make a special set of albums for each of her children (though she's still working on those).

Yeah. She's really pretty amazing, come to think of it.

Your mom is rational fo sho, and this whole description points to (minus the math thing). ESI sounds perfect. The emphasis on tradition, taking pictures, and helping people in mundane-but-concrete ways point to ESI > EII.

[The Exception]

Might sound random, but... does your mom work a job(s) outside the home?

I ask 'cause, in so much as cleaning/laundry/dishes are involved, I wonder if your OP might be more closely related to your Mom's Te (must-dos, work, productivity) than her Si.

I was thinking the same thing.

I think your mom has unvalued Si but I didn't have enough information from the description to determine strong or weak.