Question: How Do You Parent an Introvert When You're a Raging Extrovert?

(Sidebar: I totally forgot to do my Question/Comment/Complaint headers these past weeks. Doh.)

This is one of the many pressing questions I have on my plate of late.

I'm seriously extroverted. My son is seriously introverted. He finds crowds of people hellish, and loud noises, and big parties absolute nightmares.

My daughter, on the other hand, like me, would like to have people over pretty much 24/7. It's all about chatting and playing and snacking.

My husband? Decidedly in my son's camp.

So what do two extroverts do for their social/entertainment fix when there are two dear introverts in the family to consider?

I guess one solution is going out, which we do: mostly to birthday parties both guys in the family would rather have their fingers filed off than attend.

But what about having people over to our house?

The thing is, the world is skewed in favor of extroverts. So our introverts, at least some of the time, have to deal with crowds and noise and mayhem. Yes, they can always climb back down into their sub-basement office at CalTech where they're getting their PhD in computer science, but they still have to go to the grocery on Saturdays.

So I'm not sure where this leaves me. Trying to fulfill the needs of one child necessarily does not take into account the needs of the other.

Ahh, the juggling act of parenting.