Boys vs Girls

I am glad to have a boy and a girl.  There is one slight disadvantage to having opposite sex children though…the battle of the sexes.  My daughter wants to listen to girls sing and my son wants to listen to boys sing.  My son wants everything blue and black and my daughter only likes it if it is pink or purple.  My son even went as far yesterday to refuse to say hi to a nurse.  I knelt down to talk to him about being friendly and he adamantly exclaimed “I don’t like girls Mommy”.  Well what am I? 

One would think that I spend my days emphasizing the difference between girls and boys, that I don’t let my boy play with dolls and my daughter isn’t allowed to wear pants.  However the opposite is true.  I try really hard to allow my children to explore their own interests independent of their sex.  When they were younger, I bought mainly gender neutral toys.  I have never cared if my son played with dolls.  In fact I figured he would end up in ballet since he has always loved to dance.  When my son was little, what my daughter wanted most in the world was a penis.  She tried to grow one, she was so disappointed that she would never have one.  Fast forward to today when she only likes songs that are sung by girls and my 3 year old son won’t even talk to nurses that are girls. 

I guess this is an argument between nature vs nurture.  I have not knowingly nurtured this distinct preference for things of their own sex but their nature certainly prefers them.  My daughter loves Barbies and my son loves Transformers. 

Those of you with children of the same sex, enjoy the ability to listen to a song without an argument (at least not over what sex sings it).  Because when our music is on, at least one child is unhappy.  Sad when I look for the songs where they can’t tell if it is a girl or boy singing:)