theHword.com

When my daughter was about 2 ½ years old and my son was barely 2 months old, I was asked by a parent with only one child “Do you see a difference between having a boy and having a girl?” At the time I was focused on the fact I was being unfairly punished with a 2nd colicky baby. So my response was “no, not really.”

My daughter came into this world barely 6 ½ pounds as petite as could be. (In fact, I asked the doctor why she was so small–we sure weren‘t expecting such a little thing.) My son arrived over 9 ½ pounds ready to start as a linebacker for the Cornhuskers! (I wanted to ask the doctor why he was so large, but I figured one silly question post delivery is all I should be allowed.) So what WAS I thinking when I was asked that gender question?

My daughter is a great combination of tomboy and girlie-girl. She loves to get outside and just get dirty. She loves making mud pies, chasing toads, riding the tractor with her daddy, and promptly removing any hair “pretties“ carefully placed on her head. But once back in the house, it’s time for dress-up, playing princess, babying her dolls, and making cinnamon rolls whenever Grandma comes for a visit. And whether she’s outside or inside, she’s just not very physical as far as her strength. She never climbed out of her crib as a toddler. At the park she shies away from most everything except the slides and things to be climbed up on–swings are her enemy. And she barely has enough “umph” to roll her hand sized plastic bowling ball into the small plastic bowling pins neatly lined on the floor.

In contrast–

My son has scaled the wooden changing table numerous times in the past few months–in both directions. (We’re still waiting for him to scale his crib.) A month after we broke down and purchased our new TV he flung a hard plastic ball in its direction–thank God it landed 4 or 5 inches from the actual screen (all potential projectiles were promptly put away). During one recent bath night the comments “Quit eating that soap!” and “Stop eating the lotion!” were directed at him. He thinks it’s funny to pull his sister’s hair and yank her off a chair while pulling it–apparently her cries of pain are funny, too. He’s obsessed with all trains, airplanes, trucks, tractors, pivots, toads, and now snakes. To him it’s funny to let the dogs inside the house. He, however, hates being inside and will run fast and far once out the back door.

“Do you see a difference between raising a girl and raising a boy?” I think the facts speak for themselves. And I still ask myself “What was I thinking???”

About the author: Jill Kimle

Jill is a farm wife from the Kenesaw area with two BUSY children under the age of 5. She will admit to being in her upper 30's, and if you ask her specific age, she won't shy away from telling it. ("My kids will look at me in ten years and think I'm pretty old!")