I Don't Think I was Prepared for Boys

Okay, so I have two older daughters from a previous marriage. The eldest was always very well-behaved, while her little sister could certainly be a bit of a mess. And before I had children of my own, I was a child development major and worked in a daycare center. Still, I had no idea what I was in for with boys of my own who would not be sent home to their parents at the end of the day.

My sons are sweet, they really are. A good deal of the time, they will even freely admit that they are mama's boys. But they have little to no patience what-so-ever, love the word 'no', and are the tiniest wrecking crew I've ever seen. The thing I was least prepared for was the sheer amount of sibling rivalry.

The girls always worked together as an inseparable team. To be fair, the boys are a team as well... just a team that winds up smacking each other most of the time and occasionally needs to go to separate corners. I thought there wouldn't be too much of a difference between the genders at this age, but unless my memory is missing some key moments, there is a huge difference in how these little guys behave in comparison to their sisters. Hell, the 4-year-old often has so much extra energy he feels the need to run up and punch my butt in rapid, Rocky-like fashion while I'm doing the dishes!

I'm getting used to the differences now, it has been four years since my first little man was born after all. But when I was pregnant with him, more than one parent claimed there was little to no difference between the sexes when it came to child-rearing. I think those parents are lying. ;)

If you have had both boys and girls - have you noticed any differences in the way they behave? Which gender was more all-over-the-place? Is it just me?