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Are Girls Easier to Raise Than Boys?

 
Sep 4 2014 • By  5
Here's a post from our partners atBabyCenter! Every week, we bring you the best parenting and lifestyle stories from the experts at BabyCenter, including this post about raising girls vs. raising boys.


The other day, I took my three girls to the lake to swim and play. For an hour, my soon-to-be first grader swam back and forth from the shore to the rope separating the shallow end from the deep end. My preschooler bobbed around in the water with a friend. My toddler sat in the sand with a shovel and bucket, making mud pies. I stood there and supervised.


Meanwhile, nearby, four boys around the same age as my eldest daughter horsed around so violently their moms had to constantly intervene. This went on for the entire time we were at the lake, with no break in the insanity. At some point, I turned to one of the boy moms and (sort of) jokingly said, "Wow, I'm glad I have girls," to which she replied, "Yes, they are much calmer."
The truth is, I'm pretty sure I am not cut out for having a boy. While I know there are exceptions to every rule, the fact that boys are wilder than girls, frankly scares me. If I had a son, I'd live in an eternal state of panic he would get hurt. Here are some other challenges I see to raising boys:
  1. Boys are super active. As babies, they crawl sooner, walk sooner, and get into more. When they're big, they can't sit still! Moms of boys, I commend you.
  2. Boys eat more. Several friends tell me their sons eat mad volumes of food. Even boy babies tend to be hungrier.
  3. Boys are loud. It's true my girls are still too young to realize that YELLING is not a volume at which one should speak all the time. But my noisy girls have nothing on the barbaric yowling we witnessed at the lake.
  4. Boys break things. Whenever my girls have boy friends over to play, something inevitably gets broken. Fact.
  5. Boys are bigger. My daughters' male friends outweigh them by 10 pounds or more. My back hurts just thinking about this.
  6. Little penises are scary. There, I said it.
  7. Boys pee on everything. Just ask my fellow blogger Stacie Lewis.
  8. It's not as fun to dress boys. I've encountered the occasional sweet gingham boy outfit, but overall, girl clothes are cuter.
Of course raising girls is no picnic some of the time.
During a recent trip to the park, both of my older daughters fell down. Nothing was broken, but they cried like it. Here are some other challenges I've faced being a girl mom:
  1. The drama! Everything is the end of the world, all the time.
  2. Girls are VERY sensitive. With three daughters, someone's feelings are hurt almost every second.
  3. The sass. If the attitude my daughters give me is a mere preview of the high school years, I am in deep, deep #$*@!
  4. Girls can be mean. My oldest daughter has already been introduced to mean girls.
  5. Girls are perceptive. I am very careful about what I do and say around my daughters. Blurting out, "I feel fat," could lead to years of therapy, and an eating disorder.
Obviously raising kids at all is challenging, whether they are boys or girls. And not every kid fits into the neat, gender descriptions I've presented. Besides, I only know one side of the story, and I may change my tune when my girls get older.


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