Boys!!

We had 2 kids, one of each, and now have two grandchildren, one of each. My observation would be that boys and girls are most certainly different, neither better than the other, just different and that difference brings a whole heap of pleasure and of course challenges :-)

Dear Gransnet will you allow a grandpapa to edit your thoughts together just as you said them? Am I lucky or what? In the last 24 hours I have hugged 5 out of my 6 grandchildren.(3 boys 3 girls) One is in Japan.

I do like reading Gransnet. Grandmas who are never biased (are they?) are certainly direct in their beliefs when comparing boys and girls But what happened to the sisterhood Gransnet? Quote ...

Boys hurl themselves around and are very loud - and my umbrella stand with a selection of sticks and crutches is like a magnet to them - they run around "machine-gunning" each other with them!

Girls communicate with words, boys with actions.

Girls bitch for ages, boys thump each other and forget it!!
My grandson never stops moving and at bedtime moves faster and louder.

Grand-daughter has been throwing herself around all afternoon, doing somersaults, handstands, - look at this.

My two grandsons came for bonfire night. One is 16 the other 12. Still kicking each other under the table. What is it about boys fireworks and fire!!!!????

The farting is appalling at times!

I only had daughters and the arrival of grandsons came as a shock!!

With no prompting, any available item is a gun. They rough and tumble are loud and rumbuctious . The word 'bum' or ' fart' can have them rolling on the floor in fits of giggles.

Our eldest grandchild is a girl, a dainty little girl. Then the Boy arrived! So different to the girls, such a wonderful thumping great noisy child. Out of the blue he will decide to be a fire engine, sirens going full blast. His favourite words are bum, fart and poo. He loves rough play and we can only go so far before we are shattered.

Boys! mine spent much of their early years exploding and fighting dark forces, or acting out disastrous train journeys with Thomas and Gordon these invariably ended up with derailments of the engines and carriages in ditches, only Bertie the Bus remained unscathed. I blame The Reverend Awdry.

I have always loved the boisterousness of boys - I can identify with them in a way that I can't with girls
For several years I taught 14 to 16 year olds who had been excluded from school for behavioural problems, and believe me I'd much rather have naughty boys than girls. With most boys what you see is what you get and they will let you know how they feel quite clearly: girls on the other hand can be much more subtle and manipulative.

As a teacher I have to say boys are easier than girls in the long run. What you see is what you get with boys. They are usually very loyal and affectionate. On the other hand girls can be bitchy and underhand. It has to be down to their hormones. I blame testosterone and Oestrogen …boys have a lot more fun and they don't see the need to scream non stop while they are having it!"

A wonderful read Gransnet. Oh Happy Daze Gpapa

Boys, I had 2 of my own, and one way or another ended up parenting 23 over the years..much less complex than girls I thought......HOWEVER, nothing prepared me for having my hair dryer supercharged into a flame thrower or the 'cake eating machine, designed to save us the trouble of chewing cake (?) made from my record turntable.....or the hours having to watch as a muddy blur went by once in a while at various sporty things........bless them.

Got a GS now he is huge at 10 months we call him Big Ted he is scrumptious...........

The boys are much less complicated than the girls but they are all fascinating! All our boys enjoy the rough and tumble and getting daddy on the floor under a heap of them but they are all totally different characters with many different facets to their personalities.

Vive la difference!

I had three sons and now one DGS and a DGD - Even though she is a tomboy, I am having to learn a lot about little girls - I can't believe I was once one myself!

Oh give me boys every time!
They're just so much less complicated than girls

The gun thing is certainly right. Having my sons in the late 70s I was absolutely determined they would not play with guns and so everyone was forbidden to buy them a toy gun. What happened? Everything else was used as a gun and they ran around 'shooting' each other.
One other thing I noticed was that generally little girls play with toys as they are meant to be played with: little boys will turn things upside down, inside out, dismantle them and imagine they're all sorts of things.

My goodness apart from running around with GUNS they shouldn't be running around in your home full stop. Where are there parents to let them behave like that it's your home.

I had 3 sons so it was a shock to find out how much my 2 GD's scream. I looked after them in the school holidays so a garden full of little girls all with full on screams for no reason often had me running to see if anything was wrong. The GS like play fight so heart in my mouth as they jump off slides walls and whatever they can climb up.

As another ex teacher I really agree with Dragonfly. A class with naughty boys is pretty bad but a few truly nasty girls is worst as they gang up on you and bear grudges. With boys the slate is clean the next day.

Oh give me boys every time! If they disagree they thump each other & are best then friends again. No screaming at the top of their voices for no apparent reason ( WHY do all girls DO this?? I'm sure I never did). No tantrums. No sulks. No manipulative behaviour.No trying to wheedle their way round you when you have said 'no' - prior to tantrum!
Or is this just my DGDs??. I have 4 GS & 2 GD & I had 2 sons. I thought the elder GD was just a very annoying child (& she IS!) but now younger one is going the same way. The boys are no trouble as long as they know the rules- which they try to bend of course but no sulking & crying.
I love them all to bits but I know which ones I enjoy more!!

My DD was a very easy child, it came very hard on us to have a hyperactive DS. I had to apologise constantly for his rowdy behaviour. At school, if he wanted to say something to his friend he just used to get up from his desk and go over. One teacher called us in when he was 7 saying she thought he had sexual problems - can you imagine that at 7!!! Turns out they didn't get on so DS used to wind her up. I would have loved to have had more children but wouldn't take the chance of having another like him!

When my DD had 2 DGS in just over a year I was concerned, thinking they would be like DS BUT what a difference - they are angels and best of friends. I would have loved to have had more boys like them. I was always being told by DM 'oh, he's a typical boy'. Lie hell he was! The one thing that sorted him out, when he was 12, was when we bought him a Spectrum computer, back in the 80's. He was immediately engrossed in computing and is, today, one of the top computer 'nerds' in Australia (something to do with Clouds!) He's married with 2 dogs and I think won't have a family as his and his wife's careers have taken off. I think he's secretly worried about any sons of his being like he was!

I have also seen some pretty awful girls sulking and itching so I'll stick with boys from now on, craftycat

I mean Bitching!!

I'm so glad to read this thread, as it's what I've thought about mine - 2 boys, lively and noisy but soon forget any quarrels. 2 girls - much more complicated.
I grew up in a female dominated extended family, and always felt I didn't understand males. Even Dad was very quiet because he had 5 sisters. But now I realise that these differences are normal.

I too agree that boys are much easier to read than girls, my grandsons all love to kick a ball about but also love wildlife finding great pleasure in exploring garden and pond. Tantrums have been very few and sulking non existant. My granddaughters on the other hand are beautiful and wilful and live life at a pitch of excitement. They need to be constantly 'doing something'.Tantrums are something to behold going on and on and on.........

Two sons and one daughter, now five grandsons and one grand-daughter. Definitely different in childhood but in adolescence DD was dreadful, sulked, answered back and always knew better than anyone else. I smile when the mothers of my grandsons can't believe how noisy and full of energy they are. As is my GD who also flings herself around the room but without the noise! Love them all and the boys are very affectionate - the oldest in particular is very good at picking up on other people's emotions.

Give me boys every time less trouble with my 4 than my sisters had with their 2 girls each. All depends how you bring them up. you stay calm then they will, you shout and holler they will copy. Also worked 20 years in childcare always works to lower your voice than raise it.

I don't have a preference. Vive la difference!

Little arms wrapped around your legs, neck and waist looking for cuddles...lovely!

Snap Funnygran! I also had 2 sons and a daughter and now have five grandsons and one grandaughter! 3 of the GS are in one family and you certainly know when they have arrived - but in a good way.

The two little boys who live next door to me, probably about 8&6 often get very noisy when they out playing but they are just energetic little boys and are always very polite.
You cannot really complain about them.

I had 3 sons and now have 1 GD and 1 GS. My sons were active but they didn't run around people's houses unless they were sure they had permission (or were egged on by my dad who thought it was his duty as GP to make them as noisy as possible) My Gs and GD both adore Thomas the Tank Engine but I have noticed they play very differently with the railway. GD's engines talk to each other a lot, GS's engines go round the track sometimes bumping each other, losing their trucks or stopping at stations.
My neighbours have a DD and a DS. When DS was 18 he had a party, I was warned in advance but there was very little noise and no trouble. One Saturday I heard loud screaming and the neighbour came round to apologise, their daughter(16) was having a party and the girls were just arriving. The dad looked in total shock!

We had two boys, and if anyone has watched Friday Night Dinner on TV, with Tamsin Greig, you'll recognise "your" boys, they never grow up, so funny though.

I'm glad I had DD because we are pretty much on the same wavelength and talk (A lot!) all the time, but I do enjoy my three little hooligan DGS's

I raised three sons and helped raise most of their friends so it was a real boy environment. Then I had a grandson and everything was so familiar. Now I have two grand daughters and it's amazing. I only wish my dh had lived to see them I think he secretly always wanted a girl.