No Boys Allowed?

…No boys allowed? Really?

I remembered something I read on Facebook a few months back, today and it really grated on me. A woman I barely knew (friend of a friend), commented after her 20 week scan that she was, “relieved she was having another girl”. It startled me a little.

Surely, we should all hope (if we are lucky enough to be able to conceive or even want children in the first place) to have a healthy baby, whatever the sex. That’s the purpose of the 20 week scan after all. To assess the unborn babies’ health and offer diagnosis of any problems. Offering gender where requested and possible is an additional bonus thanks to the advancement of technology.

Maybe the aforementioned woman was relieved because it meant costs would be kept down with a second same sex child (sharing of clothes and the like) although having met her and seen her environment, she appeared to be a very wealthy woman.

Maybe knowing girls having had one daughter,  she was scared of ‘the other’. It just seemed from that word ‘relieved’ that a boy to her and her husband would be anathema. Why? I’ve heard several women state they would like girls and suprised themselves when they had boys in how happy they were/in love with their child they found themselves and couldn’t imagine anything else.

I get it, we’re women, we worry we won’t know how to connect with boys or understand them but you know what, we do.  You love your child, whatever the sex and frankly boys are fabulous. It’s about time someone stuck up for the male sex.

P.S. I’m sure girls are fabulous too.  I’d have been happy with either but was made up to have a boy.

P.P.S. I also realise culturally there can be pressure to produce one sex over the other. I think this is wrong and welcome the changes to the Monarchy and hope it becomes law that the eldest daughter can reign. Let’s see.

Rant over.

Photograph ©Peter Broadbent.