Key differences between having a boy vs a girl

[Eqei]

Just found out we’re having a girl 🙏🏽 and we already have a wonderful toddler boy..

I come from a mixed family, my husband does not. And I really want to prepare him (he’s asked too!) on what the key differences are between having boys and girls.

we’re honestly so blessed to be being getting one of each, never thought it would happen for us (we have had a real challenge with fertility and pregnancies).

would love to hear from you all on what you think are the key tips, differences and anything relevant!

I came here to say this!

Also, something I love about having a little girl, is that should she ever go on to have babies of her own, you will have (in some way) helped to form that baby.

Baby girls are born with all the eggs they'll ever have in their ovaries (i.e you grew them for her, when she was in your tummy!). If she has babies, she'll use the eggs you grew.

It's not the same with boys, because even though they are born with testes, they aren't born with all the sperm cells that they'll ever have.

I didn’t mind what I had. Had DD first then DS. DD was so much easier, many tears over son in KS1 whereas DD was a model student. Ups and downs with both over the years but nothing major. DS was smellier when puberty started. I adore both of them. DS says DD is my favourite and DD says DS is. They’re both early 20s now.

Yes!! I’m very conscious of this! Thank you.

That’s so lovely, thank you

Totally! They're awful really. Girl friendships are savage. Jealousy, bitchy & just terrible. The boys fall
out then all good, the girls fall out & it’s all “why are you her friend, you’re meant to be my friend”.

Honestly though, shopping trips, girls days, coffee & cake mummy & daughter days are so cute & lovely!

I have one that's an introvert and another who is an extrovert. But that's their personalities rather than their sex.

100%!
ah I didn’t even think that far ahead about the mum&daughter days out.. 🥹

They were similar as babies. But once talking, the boys were quieter and my girl did not stop talking, she would fall asleep mid sentence when put to bed.

I have mum and son days out as well as mum and daughter days out.

Both of them loathe shopping. Both of them love cake.

Gosh another thing (sorry! I’m on a roll!) is that I’m super conscious about being body confident around them all.

they pick up on so much. I once looked in the mirror and said “urgh” when I saw how (I felt) I looked. My 3yo daughter said “mummy, why did you say urgh?” and I obviously passed it off but I hate (HATE) that I may have subconsciously influenced my girls. I’m now fully confident about me and my body around my kids. So be aware of how you vocalise eg makeup or how you feel about you

@Eqei

I'm a lover of white baby grows so did that with both of mine. When I was out and about people did refer to my DD as a boy but that didn't bother me. DS was out of grows a lot quicker however, not sure why!

I have found that dads have a soft spot for baby girls, could be something you notice, another beautiful bond that forms.

You may get a little bit of mum guilt when second comes along because the first now doesn't have the undivided attention. I think this is quite common but if not, on the arrival of your second make the first feel involved, maybe with a gift or something sentimental.

I think it's good you're thinking ahead but it's definitely about going from one to two rather than gender.

People will treat your girl as if she's behaving better than your boy! It's so odd but true, drives me nuts. My son is not more naughty than she is.

Boys clothes are less colourful than girls! Much prefer the girl outfits.

Not all girls adore princesses.... My family have learnt that the hard way, daughter will tell them if they try to play princesses with her 😂

I know everyone is saying that they are the same and I do get that point. From what I have seen in general, & obviously it is not always the case, girls tend to be calmer & happy to sit & craft etc where boys tend to be more active & on the go all the time with a shorter attention span.
I do also see differences from 1st child to 2nd child irrespective of gender. 1st tends to worry more & 2nd more carefree. Again I know that isn’t always the case but it seems to fit with quite a few families I know. I think it may come from parents being more relaxed with the 2nd child.

Changing their nappy is a bit different owing to the different genitalia.

Mine are only 6 and 2 granted, but so far that's it.

@bunnypenny dont apologise - keep going. So helpful!! And that’s such great advice.

@scaredpuppy me too!! If I could I would keep my kids on white baby grows forever 🤣🤣. I already have mom guilt 😔 but I’m sure it’ll be ok.

@BritishMuseumStaff thank you - good to know. I actually dread the in-laws treating them differently because they are very judgey when it comes to boys/girls and gender roles whereas I like to try and instil some equality. I was also a real tomboy so it’ll be interesting to see if dd is girly or not 😅

@Walking12345 thank you. That’s really helpful

I think some of the stereotypes I’ve heard that are probably somewhat true IME is that toddler/little boys are more relaxed, slower to develop and don’t pay as much attention to the world around them. DD was more interested in mimicking me and could tell me where household objects were by the time she was at nursery, for example. At 3 DS ate soap😂

However, within our family lots of the generalisations already mentioned are totally dispelled; DS is the circumspect, sensitive listener and DD is the daredevil who doesn’t mind a bit of conflict. I’d also say puberty with DD has been a bit tasty, whereas with DS I barely noticed, he just got tall and developed a deep voice.

I currently have two girls and a boy with another boy on the way. I found my girls much more independent. Although my second girl loved cuddles she was still more willing than my son to learn and do things on her own. My son prefers being taken care of. His preschool teachers said the girls loved babying the boys and the boys loved letting them (putting their shoes on them etc). But it very well could be down to their individual personalities and my son was born premature but those are differences I've noticed.

Honestly? None. Ds is slightly more sporty, and dd is slightly more arty, but I don't think it's to do with gender, more genetics. Ds is a better cook, dd is better with a soldering iron. In terms of raising them, yes different parenting skills needed for both, but that's down to their individual personalities rather than M/F.

My boy is 12 and loves to go out for coffee & cake trips (well hot chocolate for him!) with me, trips to the theatre and that sort of thing. So I wouldn’t just assume that’s only ‘girly’ stuff and only include your daughter in things like that, as you may miss out on really good bonding time with your son. Unfortunately I see a lot of people with one of each who do this.

My little boy was very timid, well behaved and placid. Hates football, wants to be a geophysicist and enjoys chess. His best day involves reading his Kindle and eating toast.

My little girl is insane. Bounces off the walls - loves football, diggers, trucks and being outdoors at all times

Both brilliant children who are doing well

Just enjoy them OP

One has a penis.
The other doesn't.

It affects when you change their nappies.

It affects what aisle in the shops every buys stuff for your kids from.

Hmmm. Yeah...

... Just sexism generally OP.

I had a boy then a girl. So we had a lot of vehicles. I used to find my daughter tucking them into bed. We then had a third, a boy. The toy pram was a fave of his; it was used as a racer.

There are differences - yes there are outliers. To the people that say there aren’t look up what a bell curve is.

Generally boys a more tiring and physical in the early years. I found my daughter the easiest to handle physically. Now she is getting older I am finding her friendships with her peers a bit more tricky to navigate than the boys.

I dunno, now that we've got 3 there are things that I think are boy/girl and things that are just personality.

Like all 3 have been absolute whirlwinds of energy, but you could tell DS's was powered by something different. They all love jumping off stuff, or on stuff, or at stuff, but with DS it was just more... like full on.

Ive had more friendship drama out of DS. DD1 (the teen) has always pragmatic and chilled about friendships, which does her well now she's at a girls school. Some of DS's (boy)"friends" have been really cruel and displayed a level of bitchiness thay far surpassed DD1s (girl) friends. He's found that really tough and it's tested me more than I expected.

DD2 doesn't get that she's younger than the others. She rode a bike the youngest, was the first to master the skateboard, was the neatest eater of the three. Was the slowest to talk though.

My two girls are as different from each other as they are from their brother, is what I'm getting at.

I have one of each. I didn't notice much difference, and each child is unique.

I used to find toddler DS pushing the cars around in DD1's dolly pram - I love that kids are creative and resourceful 😂