Do mums tend to 'baby' their sons more than daughters?

[sandyballs]

I don't have boys, I have twin girls (8), but it has struck me in the past, and particularly today, that mums seems to do much more for their boys than mums do for girls.

My girls had a swimming lesson this evening and two boys in their group just stood there whilst their mums stripped them down completely and held out their trunks for them to put on! And after swimming they dried them completely and put all their clothes on. These boys don't have any special needs, I just found it astonishing. They were 7/8 year olds

Why is it an issue to you how other mothers bring up their children. Surely you have enough to be concerned in bringing up your own children. Its not as if you or your children are affected.

My son at the age of seven years old is vicously independent, but he still had help dressing at five years old.

The happiest and most confident children are allowed to develop at a pace that suits them.

reallytired, sandy is just asking a question. She is not judging you or your ds.

Both my dcs, dd 5 and ds 2 want to be babied. But I do baby ds more, because he is, well, my youngest and last.

Yes OP.

And mums tend to have a more complicated relationship with their daughters - perhaps because we identify our daughters as similar to ourselves, including the bits of ourselves we don't like?

All my friends have let their sons get away with much more for much longer than their daughters. They tend to ascribe the different treatment to other reasons but it happens too many times to be a cooincidence I think.

No I have 2 boys,1 girl 5,5 and 4. Have always treated them all the same. As my 2 boys were 15 months when dd came along and are twins they've had to fend for themselves a lot from day 1. Having said that they're both totally different.

Twin 2 is the 1st child in his class changed for PE. Everything is neatly folded,socks tucked neatly in shoes etc. Twin 1 can normally be found under the table with his pants on his head and his clothes strewn round the classroom.

Re swimming I often resort to changing all 3 of mine if needs be after swimming lessons. The reasons being as follows:-the changing room is boiling, I've just sat through an hour of pure tedium watching them all swim,we're all tired and hungry,the changing room is tiny and over crowded and to be perfectly frank if I had to sit there for a further half hour watching them all change at a leisurely pace I would end up self combusting.

I may well be doing this for years to come for sanity's sake.I'm suspecting the mum you saw shares the same feelings as myself re after school swimmimg lessons-you get in,you get out asap any which way possible.

Swimming lessons are a special case imho, the very fact I'm enduring them means I've got the moral high ground so dressing perfectly capable children is totally OK. At all other times they do the lot themselves.