Consider this: If you had no kids and could theoretically only have one, would you want a boy, a girl — or would the gender not even matter?
Depending on how you answered, you might be surprised by the results of a recent Gallup poll that asked the same question. Or you may not.
The Gallup polling agency recently asked 1,020 Americans whether they’d prefer to have a girl or a boy if they could only choose one.
Forty percent said they would want a boy, 28 percent said they would choose a girl, and the remaining participants didn’t mind either way or weren’t exactly sure.
Surprised? What may be even more startling is that back in 1941, Americans who were asked a similar question had nearly the same results: 38 percent preferring a boy, 24 percent wanted a girl, and the rest had no preference. Throughout the years, the same question has been posed at least eight times and the answers remain relatively the same (and what does this say in 2015 about the value of women and the women’s movement?).
I have two girls and a boy. Back when I was pregnant with my first daughter, I immediately felt that I didn’t care at all if the baby would be a boy or a girl. And I felt the same way with each subsequent pregnancy. The idea that gender would greatly impact the value of the baby was absurd. My husband felt the same way; never feeling pressured to have a son.
Even President Obama said himself that he is fully blessed with his two girls and has no plans to try for another to see if it might be a boy. Yet, I know many men who not only want a son, but they want a firstborn son to be the protector and a daughter second. Some say they want to carry on the family name, which is nonsensical because many women choose to retain their maiden names when marrying. Others simply want a son because they want to raise a boy who is like them, just as a woman might want a daughter, and that is understandable.
Yet, I still can’t see a family truly needing a son to arrive ahead of a daughter, or even instead of one. My two older girls will teach my son how to be a caring man, and a sensitive husband. They are the oldest in our family and just as capable, creative, and smart as a male child might be. And they can take care of themselves — and each other.
Did you want a boy to be the first child in your family? Did the baby’s gender even matter?
Danielle Sullivan, a mom of three, has worked as a writer and editor in the parenting world for more than 10 years. Sullivan also writes about pets and parenting for Disney’s Babbl
