Do mothers of girls enjoy their children more?

[ilikesunshine]

Just wondering... I have two dss and spend a lot of time wondering whether life would have been easier with girls. Any experiences to make me feel better about having boys?

My mother hated having a daughter. Brother was very much the golden child.

Girls MUCH harder work...

nope, dd is at a friends house today.

ds 1&2 are home.

the house is tranquil and peaceful and we've all been in great form. the boys are happy and playing nicely and except for ds2 crying for feeds there's been no weeping or whinging or screaming and shouting at all.

when dd gets home that will all change

don't get me wrong, i love her i really do... but she breaks my heart most days and utterly exhausts me.

Ilikesunshine I completely get where you are coming from as I have 2 friends with DD's who seem to definitely find parenting much easier than I do with 2 DS's.

But I think it is because their DD's are the quiet types who will sit and play by themselves for hours, do colouring and not destroy the house bit by bit!! I know not all girls are like this so I think they have just been 'lucky' that they have.

But they don't understand why I find it so hard - my DS1 is a 'spirited' boy who rarely plays by himself and when he is bored, will deliberately cause chaos/hurt his baby brother etc - which means me and DH seem to constantly have to be his entertainers or else suffer the consequences. Sometimes I would love to swap places with my friends just so they could see how difficult it is for me!!

I enjoy my 3 girls very much at the moment, but they aren't all easy or gentle, one is a demanding argumentative hellraiser. Noone would have ever called her easy. As my uncle said, when he stayed for a week last year, "Well, at least she won't need assertiveness training".

And I like to think that I'd have enjoyed boys too, it's the personalities I am enjoying - 3 totally different personalities - not the gender.

No sea of pink here, 2/3 loathe pink glittery princessy stuff. thank goodness.

Hmm, interesting... Dss are 4 and 2, and are both very hard work in very different ways - sibling rivalry is alive and well in this house! I think it is all about individual personality as to whether they're hard or easy. Also, I think I have always wanted a little girl, so definitely idealise them - plus friends with girls always seem so much happier and relaxed than me!

I know kind of what you mean as I have 2 boys aged just 5 and 2.5 and my friends that have girls do seem to have the quiet type that just take themselves off to play or read and stay still for hours at a time! My boys although not particuarly boisterous seem to need non stop attention from me and if I leave them for a second are fighting! However, they are very loving (as mum I am definitely the favorite)and fun and they are my world really. I am not too worried about not having a girl but sometimes I think it is a shame as me and my mum are close. We have thought of having a third and trying for a girl but I feel that my boys need so much attention already that it wouldn't be fair on anyone!

Well out of my circle of mummy friends the girls seem to be harder work than the boys. Most of the mothers of girls I know have complained at some point about the lack of choice in clothes and shoes if you don't want everything to be pink and/or glittery.

I am pg again with number 2 and whilst it is early days and I have to state that I will be genuinely thrilled with either flavour I would secretly like another scrumptious, boisterous little boy.

I have 3 DSs and 2 DDs. My boys are more rowdy but my girls are moodier. Teenage girls can be awful. I haven't enjoyed either sex more, they are all just my children.

I found having several under 5 was pretty hard work. life is a lot easier since dd3 turned 5. That's why these days I merrily post about enjoying my dc so much - I wasn't saying that 4 years ago.

What an odd OP.
nO way - imo girls can be a lot tricksier.

ilikesunshine Yep, when mine were 4 and 2, I couldn't leave them alone for more than 5 minutes without someone getting pinched or bitten .

Things are much more harmonious now they are 6 and 8.

I am really enjoying life with them now, as we can do so much together as a family.

Hold tight, it will get better !

I have a DD of 4 and a DS of 6 and and can safely say that my DS is far more laid back, easy going, compliant etc than DD. She is willful, stroppy, whingy in the extreme when tired, unco-operative and manipulative....If I let her be! I really enjoy parenting them both, with DD there's never and dull moment and with DS things are calm and peaceful. Both have had these personalities since the second they were born and their births themselves were a refelction of how they were going to be. I love, love, love them both so much and wouldn't ever wish that I had any other combination of children!

My ds is a lot more straightforward than my dd, but it's personality not gender.

I have a friend with two boys and every time my dd does anything even vaguely civilised (wants to wash her hands, or wants a ponytail, or asks for a drink of water) my friend exclaims about it in amazement and says that "a boy would NEVER do that". She fixates on it. The reality is that sometimes her boys do nice things my dd wouldn't think of doing, and most of the time my dd is screaming around the garden destroying things, snatching, hitting and refusing to share with the rest of them.

I have two boys and have always enjoyed having boys. They are 10 and 11 now.

But also now I work in secondary school, and when you see teenage girls day-in-day-out, it makes you delighted to have boys!

They're manipulative moody, secretive, stroppy, over-dramatic......in short they're wonderful. But I can't see that they're in anyway 'more enjoyable' than boys. What an odd thing to say.

I adore having 3 girls, I can't see that I would feel differently about having boys or a mixture.

Mine are pink and sparkly BTW, even though I didn't encourage it in any way - it just kind of happened once they started school and met pink princesses.

Huffwardly That's EXACTLY the trap I used to fall into when worrying about my two DSs. MN has definitely educated me!

I didn't enjoy DD1 at all She was awkward and defiant and her good moments were reserved for daddy...

By contrast my 3 DSs were a walk in the park.

What a strange OP-I love the ones I have got-I can't imagine wondering if it would be easier with girls.

My life would certainly be easier if we only had two dds not 3. The easy laid-back uncompetitive two. Not the one in the middle.

But I love the stroppy argumentative difficult one, she's most like me

I enjoy them all in different ways, but one is far far harder work. and quite possibly always will be.

I think it comes down to personalities, irrelevent of gender. I have 2 dds and 1 ds, the 2 girls are totally different in their personalities, but can both be a pain in the bum at times .

Ds is a bit more of a whirl wind, and certainly sometimes more challenging than the girls ever were at his age (he's 3) but I actually find I have a lot more patience and tolerance for him. I think this is due to the fact that I am older and have learnt from past experience.

They can all be noisy, cheeky, rude and violent towards eachother. But they are all also loving, affectionate, caring and fun!

I enjoy spending time with all of them, sometimes I don't, it depends what mood we're all in.

I agree with blissa. There is a mum at the local playground who is swoony, moony, loony in love with her son. It's really sweet. She has all these special little songs she's made up for the various bits of playground equipment.

He's still a baby, this is not some strapping 16-year-old we're talking about, by the way. That would be weird.

Much more about personality than genger IMO.

Age makes a big difference as well as personality. 4 and 2 can be a hard, hard stage and when you're in one of those, it feels exhausting and never-ending. I have 2 DSs now 7 and 3, completely different in nature. One is emotionally hard work (I struggle to 'get' him) and the other is physically hard work, but they are both loving and hugely rewarding in their different ways. But there was definitely a stage when they were younger when I felt worn out, taken-for-granted, bullied and shouted at (by a 2 yr old!) every day. It gets better!