It’s a worn out debate with real staying power: Is it harder to raise boys or girls? Paula Spencer at CNN.com resurrects this timeless parental debate and suggests that boys may be tougher than girls.
I was contacted by Houston’s KTRH news radio for a comment this morning and my view was painfully simple: there is no answer. For every parent who gushes about the ease and self-sufficiency of their daughter there’s another who curses their daughter’s high maintenance. The same can be said for boys. While gender may temper things, difficulty is ultimately child-driven and dependent on temperament and personality. The association of difficulty with a particular sex is a random event and seems to go both ways. And the role of parental disposition shouldn’t be overlooked. We’re half of the relationship that we share with our kids.
While we can’t deny the obvious differences between the sexes, their contribution to issues of rearing difficulty is overdone.