Gallup showed that if Americans were to have only one child, 40% would prefer a boy while 28% would prefer a girl.

The younger generation aged 18-29 are the most likely to prefer a boy at 54% vs a girl at 27%.







Americans Prefer Boys to Girls, Just as They Did in 1941

My parents were the weirdos in 1955, they were agreed to have only one child, and they wanted a girl. They got it!

I find it appalling today that when a girl is born, some idiot makes a remark like "maybe next time" as if the birth of a girl is some failure.

I guess I'm lucky because both times I got what I wanted. A lot of it just has to do with traditions and namesakes, I think. Baby girls usually don't grow up to carry on the family name. That sort of thing.

Who cares what people want. As long as they don't do anything unethical to get what they want, I don't see the issue.

The whole thing pisses me off, what, are we suddenly the new China? Would these parents be happy if they could legally kill their girls to make room for boys being the first born and maybe only children?

Supernova wrote:

Would these parents be happy if they could legally kill their girls to make room for boys being the first born and maybe only children?

Can't they already, if they really wanted to?

I know I would totally prefer a boy if I could have only one child.

Well why are the girls treated like the leftovers, the rejects, because they get pregnant insteaed of impregnating someone? Because when they go through puberty they get emotional whereas the boys just get horny and destory things?

Chris wrote:

I guess I'm lucky because both times I got what I wanted. A lot of it just has to do with traditions and namesakes, I think. Baby girls usually don't grow up to carry on the family name. That sort of thing.

That's probably one of the biggest reasons why. Gotta uphold that mighty patriarchal family name, and a married daughter no longer represents her birth family, she and her children "belong" to her husbands.

Except today, more women aren't taking their husbands' names, and even in the 40s there were a lot of women who at least worked under their own names, not their husbands', I sure as hell wouldn't, so that idea goes out the window, so what's the next reason?

My Mom and I wanted a girl SOOOOO much when my sister-in-law was pregnant. We all thought the baby was a boy. When I found out she was a girl, I couldn't have been happier. I'd have loved a boy just as much, but for the first one, we both really wanted a girl.

It stops mattering after you have one of each.

Supernova wrote:

Well why are the girls treated like the leftovers, the rejects, because they get pregnant insteaed of impregnating someone? Because when they go through puberty they get emotional whereas the boys just get horny and destory things?

Heck if I know. When you stop seeing a child as the gift that he/she is, you end up in some strange places.

NY is right. It's ludacris to get your bowels in an uproar because people express a preference.

Alan Smithee wrote:

NY is right. It's ludacris to get your bowels in an uproar because people express a preference.

Yet almost every single American does it.

I prefer boys, is it really all that awful?

I think a big question is WHY are boys preferred? Because on the surface it just looks like the girls are being punished for being born girls, like 'oh, we didn't want you but we'll take you anyway' or at least that's what the more civilized parents do about it, others...there was a case on TLC once about feral children, one was a girl in Russia, her parents had wanted a boy so they threw her away and she was raised by dogs. And I knew this girl whose parents had wanted a boy and they left her body scarred severely as her punishment for not being born a boy. Oddly enough you never hear about psycho parents treating their boys that way for not being born girls.

*sighs*

Preferring to have one gender over another is ok, if you just want that gender because you feel it is easier to raise, or you just want to be the parent of one gender over another.

But preferring one over the other because someone feels "boys are better than girls" is abhorrent.

I know of a woman who apologized to her husband while she was on the delivery table, for having a girl instead of the boy he wanted! That is where it must end.

Indeeeeeed! And I can't figure out....I can get why fathers want boys, that typical stuff, but I can't get why mothers would want boys more than girls...my own mother has pointed out it's harder with boys because you as a mother have never been one and do not understand what it's like to be them and can't understand a lot of the stuff they're going through. So why would mothers want more children that they have a lesser chance of relating to?

One reason I'd want girls is because they need somebody to relate to them and nobody can be bothered with that because sabes que, they get emotional and they're whiners...so ignore them completely and praise the boys for not having a care in the world?

I remember what it was like not having anybody in my corner, my sisters were grown, married and gone, I was just raised with a brother, nobody got what was wrong with me, everybody complained I was always in a bad mood, why didn't I smile more? Why wasn't I happy? Blah blah blah. I remember that so I would never put my daughters through that because I still remember what it was like, so if I had daughters who when they hit their spurting point, were like I was at that age, they'd have somebody who knew EXACTLY what they were going through and they wouldn't be treated like 'oh nobody has this problem except YOU, why are you so annoying when everyone else is normal?'

If you bring another factor into it, boys are more prone to autism, ADHD, and a whole host of other things that are real chances parents take when they have a kid.

People tell me they would prefer to have boys because they don't get pregnant, but they are more likely to get into legal scrapes.

Any way you look it it, having a kid means you are taking on huge challenges.