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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To not give him a son

277 replies

headlingfortrouble · 14/11/2020 22:04

Name changed for this.
I have 2 beautiful daughters with my husband and he would desperately like to have a son.

I know he really wanted a boy last time and was disappointed when we had another girl although to be honest although I didn't mind as long as we had a healthy child I was glad we had 2 girls close in age as they are great together.

Anyway dh keeps saying he wants a son and we should try one more time but I know he only wants a son and although he says he will love another girl regardless I have said NO based on him only wanting another child because it's one more shot at it being a boy.
He says I'm being unfair and denying him the chance of a son if I don't agree to trying one more time who is being unreasonable here?

OP posts:
Nsky · 14/11/2020 22:05

Both of you, you could have a few more girls.
Why the need/ want fir a boy?

StrictlyAFemaleFemale · 14/11/2020 22:06

Neither of you are bu.

Why exactly is he so fixated on having a boy?

TidyOmlette · 14/11/2020 22:07

Sadly some men have this need for a son, and some women for a daughter.

I have two girls, I would have liked a son but there’s never a guarantee and we could have 10 girls before a boy. If you tried once more and it was a girl would he be happy to give up? Probably not

LadyTiredWinterBottom2 · 14/11/2020 22:08

Awkward. I can see both sides. Do you want another child? It's your body. When you know the answer then deal with the what if it's not a boy with him. Why does he desperately want a son?

beavisandbutthead · 14/11/2020 22:08

Remind him that it is his sperm that decides the sex of his DC and that given you have two girls already your not willing to put yourself in a position of being dissappointed that he cannot produce boys....

borntohula · 14/11/2020 22:08

Is he Henry the Eighth? I think it's really unfair to guilt trip you for saying no to another pregnancy/baby and if he was disappointed about your second, I find it hard to believe he wouldn't be about a third. Also, no one should pressure their partner into having a baby, ever!? He is being unreasonable.

M0rT · 14/11/2020 22:08

He is.
You have two healthy children and presumably that was the plan.
So why risk your health and the health of any new baby for a lower than 50% chance of a son?
Particularly since personality isn't dictated by genitalia. Your potential son could be completely disinterested in what your DH imagines he would be doing with a son.

GaryTheDemon · 14/11/2020 22:08

My friend is one of 8 girls and they are all acutely aware they aren’t the wanted boy. Very sad.

headlingfortrouble · 14/11/2020 22:08

He says he doesn't know why it means so much to him, just that he really wants a son.

OP posts:
Nottherealslimshady · 14/11/2020 22:09

Mother nature denied him a son, you're not some baby machine rolling out kids till a boy turns up.

AnneLovesGilbert · 14/11/2020 22:09

Of ffs. He doesn’t sound mature enough to have any children. How dare he suggest putting you through pregnancy and childbirth knowing he’ll only be happy if the baby has a penis. I hope your second daughter doesn’t know her dad wishes she’d been a boy.

wellthatsunusual · 14/11/2020 22:09

I'm with you, I wouldn't want to deliberately conceive a child with a man who had such a strong preference for a son (or a daughter, of it was reversed). The stakes are too high.

Love51 · 14/11/2020 22:09

How is it both of them? How can she be unreasonable to not want to get pregnant?

feellikeanalien · 14/11/2020 22:10

A friend of mine has five girls. Just saying OP!

BIWI · 14/11/2020 22:10

So what would happen if you get pregnant again, and it turns out to be another girl? Will he want you to keep going until you get the boy?

TotoroPotoro · 14/11/2020 22:10

My second thought on giving birth to DC2 was "thank fuck he's a boy" as I knew DH really wanted a boy.

I couldn't cope with having a third. He knows and supports this. If DC2 had been another (much loved) girl, DH would have had to get over it to be quite frank.

AnneLovesGilbert · 14/11/2020 22:11

I can’t believe people have sympathy for him. Ridiculous.

Pebbledashery · 14/11/2020 22:12

@borntohula sorry but Henry the Eighth made me laugh.
I don't think you're being unreasonable OP. It's your body. You're the one who has to do all the graft making the baby and making sure they are healthy.

Hardbackwriter · 14/11/2020 22:12

Awkward. I can see both sides.

I honestly can't see the side of the person who wants to have a child just because they hope it would be of a particular sex and I struggle to see why anyone would?

You're absolutely right, OP - don't bring another child into the world to 'give him a son'. It's not just the possibility of him being disappointed in a third daughter and her realising - though that's obviously a real and sad possibility. It's also that if he does have a son he'll have an impossible weight of expectation on him. People like this also have a fixed idea of what it would be like to have a child of a particular sex (is he imagining football and pub trips?) but children are people, not stereotypes.

designercornishbird · 14/11/2020 22:13

Who is he? Henry the 8th??

headlingfortrouble · 14/11/2020 22:14

No he has said he wants to try one last time and if it's a girl he'll accept it wasn't meant to be. He's been saying this for a long time and I just don't hear the end of it.

OP posts:
designercornishbird · 14/11/2020 22:14

Haha just seen Henry has already been mentioned by a PP Grin

TestingTestingWonTooFree · 14/11/2020 22:16

I think this is insulting to your existing children who aren’t good enough. Presumably he wants a stereotype of a boy.

NataliaOsipova · 14/11/2020 22:16

Is he Henry the Eighth?

😂😂😂

borntohula · 14/11/2020 22:17

@Pebbledashery it's the whole 'giving him a son' thing. It's his own sperm that determines the sex of their babies!

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