(Un)Natural MomSample

The (un)Natural Mom on Boxwood Boulevard

Nurseries use the term boxwood for the ideal topiary tree. They are stylish trees often pruned into ornate shapes and used as decoration, especially in formal gardens. These trees appear tidy and controlled. When left unpruned, they form neat, round shrubs.

The temperament type they represent is just as exemplary. Boxwood Tree moms desire to add style sophistication, improvements, and the finishing touch that speaks of high standards. They love excellence. Boxwood moms seem almost perfect to people with other temperaments.

Boxwood shrubs are sometimes pruned into perfectly angular hedges and used as borders around yards or flower beds. Similarly, human Boxwoods love setting up boundaries between “this side” and “that side” of an issue. They want the lines drawn clearly. They seem to have an inborn sense of right and wrong. They comply to authority willingly and want others to comply too.

Interestingly, the thin trunks of boxwood trees are used for turning finely crafted chess pieces and the tailpieces and tuning pegs of stringed instruments. People with Boxwood traits normally try to play by the rules of all games and of life. They can, like a boxwood in a pot, easily thrive in situations with strict rules and regulations. They definitely can embrace the idea that they are fine-tuner too! Like tuning pegs, they are eager to make adjustments toward perfection.

The wood is as moldable and dense as plastic but soft under a sharp tool. Boxwood moms can seem polished and shiny as well but are easily hurt. It is easy to shape them in the way one wants, which makes a Boxwood mom the likeliest mom to be “bent out of shape” by the opinions of others. She is the mom who will feel guilty when something not healthful is pointed out in her shopping cart. She will be embarrassed to have leaves out of place, so to speak. She’ll try to adapt and may end up lost and demagnetized.

As we get to know our Boxwood moms better, we will often see them following chess-like strategies. They make their moves carefully. They anticipate problems and next steps. They want to be told how a mom should be and what she should do to make the cut. They are the most likely to read this book from cover to cover because of their hunger for learning. I hope they will read to the end, as they are the moms who may need the liberating news the most.

A Boxwood mom shares many characteristics with the personality type C (compliant, cautious, conscientious) featured in the DiSC model. She is called a melancholy by some. How liberating to know that she is so much more than that and need never be a victim of such a label.