Obviously all of us know boys and girls are different. In school, you hear a lot about nature verses nurture. I was always convinced it was probably about half and half. But after having two girls and then a boy (soon to be 2 boys) I am realizing there is a LOT of nature involved. When our girls were young, we did not want them just having girl toys. We bought them pretend tool set, doctor sets, cars, trucks, dolls, animals and lots of books. They would play with everything but the majority of their time (even at the age of 2) was spent with their dolls and animals. They dolls and animals would play games and even have simple conversations together or sing together. Fast forward several years to the birth of our son. Of course we wanted him to have the tools and cars and books. But we did get him a doll and animals too. And a doctor kit and pretend foods and kitchen items. Not to mention the fact that because of his sisters he knows exactly what Polly Pockets and Barbies are. However, without a bit of prompting on my part (and I am being 100% honest) he will 99% of the time choose his cars and tools. He walks around pretending to fix everything from dolls to tables. He loves to play with his cars and trucks. His cars will sometimes ride with us in the car because he cannot stand to put them down. Right now he is wandering around driving his cars on my legs, his car track, the windows and the couch. And let's not forget what happens if you actually SEE a tractor or hear a siren. My husband and I talk all the time about the astounding differences in raising boys verses girls.
What about you? Do you agree, disagree or somewhere in-between?
My family. My blog. Just a blog about the 6 of us, trying to live a Godly lifestyle in this crazy world.
5 comments:
I was at the offroad derby race Tuesday night - and there was a little boy about Professor's age sitting with the family in front of me.
No ... cancel that ... NOT sitting.
He stood up on the seat the ENTIRE time. He was SO excited. When a car would roll over, he'd be jumping up and down. He was in boy-heaven. :)
Trinka
I've noticed a HUGE difference just working with the girls at Church and then coming back home to the boys. It's crazy how it seems like we're programed (for lack of a better word) one way or the other :)
I've mentioned it many times on my blog: Read "Why Gender Matters" by Dr. Sax. It blew my mind, and I thought I was well educated about gender before I read the book [smile].
~Luke
I know we made all different toys available to our girls and boy. The girls seem to gravitate toward "girl" toys and the boy toward the "boy" toys. It seems to be hard wired.
I loved this post! I grew up in an all-boy family and my mom tells so many stories about how different we all were as kids, even in the womb! I always gravitated toward the dolls and stuffed animals even though there was plenty of boy-toys to go around.
When Ezra was born all of his furnishings and toys were gender-neutral, just for sake of cost. But about the time he turned 1 he would start gravitating toward boy things while we were shopping, without me even prompting. Balls, cars, trucks (especially the REAL ones!)... he fell in love with Thomas the Tank Engine and Cars. lol
What amazes me isn't so much the fascination with the toys but HOW he plays with them. Like we never sat down and said "watch mommy make the car go!" he just sat down one day and started doing it (complete with sound effects!) And pretend shooting guns with random objects...we don't even watch that much voilent TV so I have no idea how that one came about but he just picks stuff up and starts shooting and making sound effects. This morning in the car he was making car noises and saying "here I COME!!!" lol
So i definitely think that this stuff is more NATURE than nurture, but it's such a blessing and opportunity to be able to nurture our children's God-given gender!!!
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