Boys vs Girls

Well, isn't that the age old question?

I recently read an article on which gender is harder to raise, boys or girls. This article talked about many different aspects of raising your children, from communication, to discipline, to safety. It talked about how, statistically boys were more difficult in this certain area, and girls in that, and blah, blah, blah.

You get the idea.

Articles like this irritate me immensely. Why I read them, I'll never understand. I have never thought it fair to classify children whether or not they are hard to raise. First of all, isn't child rearing supposed to be hard? I really don't ever remembering dropping off a baby girl on my doorstep and telling me she'd be all sweetness and sunshine all the time. No one ever said that when you have a child, things are going to get easier. That is part of the sacrifice that we, as parents, are willing to make. But to actually label a child as harder to raise than another, seems too harsh to me.

Every one's idea of what is hard is different. For some, the world of fairytale and make believe that I live in must seem easy. Two little girls, all sweetness and sunshine, long brown hair and chocolate eyes. Dressed in pretty dresses and matching bows. Perfect. Lovely. Easy. However, we have been through more major injuries than most little boys I know. We make mud puddles on "rock mountain" in our backyard. Both boy dominated worlds, or so you will read. And the communication? Well, lets just say that whoever says a little girl is easier to communicate and reason with hasn't had the experience of talking to one since, little girls are midget adolescent girls waiting to be unleashed.

And my view of boys is probably a bit tainted too. They don't all love their mama's best or play ball well with the other boys. Boys are not any easier than girls, that much I know is true. But as a whole, do I think one sex is harder than the other? Nope. Not one bit. Because to say that gives many new parents a negative view and attitude on the challenge of raising their children. "The expert says my son will be hard to discipline, so I can't do this or that because that is just hard for him." "My daughter will hard to talk to when she is older, so I should just expect that."

Each child comes with his or her own set of inborn challenges that we, as parents, have to learn how to handle. And while one child may present more challenges than another, we have to turn our entire heart and mind into being up for the challenge. The prize is raising happy, successful, competent adults, and knowing that we shaped that adult into who they are. The hoops we have to jump through along the way are part of the process. Sometimes we miss and knock a hoop down. Sometime we fall though one. We hop up, dust ourselves off and keep on jumping.

So, should it be Boys vs Girls? No. As a mother of girls, I will do my very best to make sure my daughters are happy, confident, and successful. I will show them how to be assertive, how to make their own way in the world and how prepare themselves to be good wives and mothers someday. And I would hope that the mommies of boys would do the same. Because in the end, boys and girls work and live side by side. And as adults, we must deal with both boys and girls, men and women. And as we all know as well, it is the quality of character in the individual person that makes them easy or difficult to work with or be with.

Not that they are a boy or a girl.