Raising Boys and Girls: Which is Easier - Essay Example

Raising Boys and Girls Parenting plays an important role in raising good citizens and well rounded human beings (Yeatman, 2004, Pg. 404). However, parents may find that raising one particular gender is easier than the other. In fact, it seems that it is the individual child and the parenting method which will truly define whether a child is easy to raise or difficult to raise but on the whole it appears that girls are easier to raise than boys. There are three compelling reasons for this and the first is expert opinion which supports the argument, the second is the attention seeking nature of boys and the third is emotional vulnerability of boys.

This can be shown to be true with evidence gathered from various sources as well as personal experience with the four children that I have. Looking at it from an expert’s perspective, DiGeronimo (2005, pg. 249) notes that, “There’s no doubt that girls, far more often than little boys, stop misbehaving when the mother says “no” without having to be told twice”. In essence, parents would find that girls are more likely to accept the rules given to them and this would make the process of raising them easier for the individual parent.

Additionally, DiGeronimo (2005, pg. 249) further states that, “There is a theory that says this is because little boys are so starved for attention (since they are left alone to be independent so often) that they devise mischievous ways to get their parents’ full attention”. Essentially, while this attention seeking behavior may look good to uncles, aunts and friends of the parents who may think that the young boy is full of energy, the parents are simply driven out of their minds while they try to keep up with the little boy (Gioia, 2008, Pg. 1). On the other hand, the little girl becomes easier to raise since she generally becomes more docile and accepting of the rules that have been put down for her.

While these were just a few advantages baby girls have over baby boys, the situation becomes very clear when we look at the difficulties of raising baby boys over baby girls. The problems with raising boys are discussed at length by Erwin (2006, Pg. 5) who gives a whole list of reasons why it is difficult to raise boys as compared to girls. In her expert opinion created with a survey of parents across the country, she describes how boys are fussier babies who cry more easily and have a harder time in calming themselves as compared to girls.

In fact, as children, boys appear to be more emotionally vulnerable than girls and are often unable to understand parental anger or the emotional state of their parents. Moreover, boys remain impulsive till late childhood and have difficulties in learning self-control. Finally, boys will choose to engage in competitive play such as athletic sports, games of tag and other such activities far more often than girls who would prefer to engage in cooperative activities. It is not surprising that even the prospect of having a boy sends a shock through the expecting mother’s mental system (Buchanan, 2008, Pg. 1) In my personal experience, I have four children of which two are boys and two are girls.

I have found that the opinions given by the experts are certainly true since it has been easier to raise girls than the boys who seek more attention and are emotional very vulnerable as compared to the girls. The girls were always much calmer than their brothers who seem to have so much energy that the parents can barely keep up. Therefore, with my personal experience as well as the volume of expert opinion collected about raising boys and girls, it becomes easy to conclude that raising girls is far easier than raising boys.

Works Cited Buchanan, A. “Its a Boy.” LiterartMama.com. 2008. LiteraryMama.com. 25 Mar. 2008 DiGeronimo, T. Baby Girls: An Owners Manual, New York: Perigee, 2005 Erwin, C. The Everything Parents Guide to Raising Boys, Cincinnati: Adams, 2006. Gioia, C. “Is it easier to raise girls or boys?” Helium.com. 2008. Helium.com. 24 Mar. 2008 Yeatman, A. “Right, the State and the Conception of the Person.” Citizenship Studies 8.4 (2004): 403-417.