Boy-Girl Debate

Frequently I hear parents discussing whether it is more difficult to raise boys than girls or vice versa. Although I am not a psychologist, I feel that I am able to speak to that question rather confidently as I have raised two boys and two girls. My observation is that the parenting difficulties are different but equal. The fact is that boys and girls are just different. For instance, when my young daughters had a little friend over to play, they greeted each other sweetly, joined hands and walked quietly down the hall to the bedroom where they played Barbies, paper dolls, dress-up or maybe got out crayons and designed doll clothes or dream houses. When the boys had little friends over, they met at the front door, immediately practiced the latest wrestling hold and rolled around on the floor for awhile before choosing some other rambunctious activity. The difference came home to me recently when I was entertaining my three year old grandson, Josiah. He asked if he could play with my hand-painted set of Russian matruska dolls. He was not the first grandchild to ask this question. Amaris, my seven year old grandaughter, has been playing with them for several years every time she comes to visit. Amaris lines them up for imaginary beauty pageants, wedding etc. during which the dolls have delightful quiet conversations before they nest again and go back on the shelf. As a grandmother, I believe totally in equality: what one grandchild is allowed to do the other grandchildren should be allowed to do. Thus Josiah received immediate permissionto play with the dolls. Very carefully he un-nested the dolls and lined them up. Then he asked me where a ball was so he could knock them down explaining to me that they were bowling pins. Together we nested the hand-painted dolls and placed them back on the shelf before looking for other objects to use as bowling pins. Thus my point "boys and girls are different" received reinforcement.