Boy - Girl Differences

To me this picture of my youngest son taken over a year ago, says a thousand words about the difference between boys and girls because my daughter never ransacked the cabinets as a crawler, but my boys emptied them several times each day! My littlest guy took it to a whole new level by actually crawling all the way into the cabinets!

I realize my conclusions on this subject are going to be extremely stereotypical, but they are very scientific, based on my daily research with my 1 daughter and 2 sons, my observations as a preschool teacher at my church, and experiences like this past weekend when on Saturday morning I was the swim team mom for 16 five & six year old boys, responsible for taking care of them during their swim meet and ushering them to and from their races and then juxtaposed with Sunday when I was the backstage mom for 10 three year old girls during their dance recital! Without further explanation, I give you my 13 random thoughts about the differences between little girls and little boys:

1. With baby boys, you must baby-proof nearly every cabinet to save your sanity of replacing their contents multiple times each day. With baby girls, you can just lock down the truly dangerous stuff!
2. When chaperoning a group of boys, you will have to break up the occasional pushing and shoving, but there will be no tears. When chaperoning a group of girls, there will be tears and whining, but you won't have to worry about them being too rough with each other!
3. Boys cannot find anything, even if given specific directions down to what cabinet said item resides in. Girls can not only find their own things but also the things their dads and brothers loose!
4. Little boys like clothes with sports-type designs on them. Little girls like clothes with animals on them.
5. If given free reign with markers, a two-year old boy will color on the walls and furniture, while a two-year old girl will decorate herself, coloring all up and down her arms and legs!
6. Girls understand the concept of "clean", boys do not understand why you are bothered that they threw their snack wrapper on the floor.
7. With boys there is one constant mood every day, all day, that is occasionally interrupted with brief outbursts, but these never last more than a few minutes. You always know what to expect. With girls, the moods can last hours. You never know what you're going to get -- sparkly, happy girl or whiny, clingy girl.
8. When you take your toddler daughter with you to watch her older brother's baseball game, you will sit on the bleachers and she will be right next to you the entire time. When you take your toddler son with you to watch his older brother's baseball game, don't even bother sitting, because you will be chasing him all over the ballfields!
9. If forced to wait in a group, say before their turn at a swim race, 5 & 6 year old boys will make rude sounds with their underarms, while 5 & 6 year old girls will make up cheers and chants!
10. At a preschool birthday party, it will not matter to a boy who is sitting next to him, but to the preschool girl, feelings can be deeply wounded over someone not sitting next to her!
11. When attempting to entertain a group of boys, say on a large blanket at a swim meet, the biggest hit will be the matchbox car track with cars they can race against each other. When attempting to entertain a group of girls, say backstage at a dance recital, the biggest hit will be the pages you rip from a Strawberry Shortcake coloring book for them to color.
12. Girls at age three and a half can sit through a 10 minute Sunday school lesson. Boys at that age can sit for about 90 seconds and then they are off and running around the room!
13. Matt 19:4b, "He who created them from the beginning made them male and female," and I'm so thankful for both the little boys and little girls I'm blessed to share life with. Their differences sure help keep things interesting!

Find more Thankful Thursday at Spiritually Unequal Marriage, Thousand Words Thursday at Cheaper Than Therapy, and Thursday {Thirteen} at Happy to be @ Home.