Gah - hey, everyone (general everyone, not this board -- I know yall are better than that!), please let kids be kids and not worry if they're acting "boy" or "girl"! Although this is something I've noticed for years, recently it's happened a lot more, and it drives me crazy every time! I have 2 DDs. I get so many comments from people telling me about how different my life would be if I had boys instead of girls (sometimes positive, sometimes negative, sometimes neutral). It drives me crazy. Things like "oh, you're so lucky they're girls. Two boys would have been so much crazier than two girls!" or, "oh geez, 2 girls. You're unlucky...teenage years would be so much easier if you'd had boys!"

First - 2 girls is a very common family configuration. How is it notable enough to even comment? It's not like I have 10 kids that all ended up same gender, or something truly uncommon like that.

Second - I'm lucky to have 2 children, period! It wouldn't have mattered if they were girls or boys or non-binary, for that matter, I'd still be lucky to have them.

Third - I don't disagree that there are traits more common in boys vs. girls and vice versa. But that doesn't make it okay to apply that stereotype to any one particular child or family -- every kid should get to be who they are without someone making comments about how they might be different if they were another gender. Is there really nothing more interesting to talk about, people??? I would love to talk to you about the things that my my children or other children fabulous unique humans.....but I have zero interest in cataloging my kids' behavior by if it's "girl behavior" or "boy behavior".

I think this has recently come up a lot more in my life because after many girl cousins, the first boy cousin came along awhile back. As he grows, it's like people just can't help but make comparisons. While I get it (kind of....) it just totally rubs me the wrong way. It's almost always throwaway comments, and it's not like it's a single person doing most of it that I can have a conversation with. It just has seemed to come up so randomly but frequently lately -- person at a grocery store, grandparent, parent of a kid's friend, etc. In the grand scheme of things there are way bigger issues and I've just ignored it for years, but today I had enough and just had to complain! Thanks for letting me vent!