Sunday, May 30, 2010

Introducing a theme: Boys and girls

Sometimes i feel like i’m the only active Mormon guy around whose family is done with childbearing and has only daughters, no sons.* Having all daughters, though, has had the result of me being intensely aware of differences in the treatment of girls and boys in church culture and programs.** I have a few thoughts on the subject, and i’ve been wanting to see what happens if i devote a series of four or five posts to a theme—so the next few posts will be on that subject.

We’ll see if it works out well.

* And no, we didn’t keep “trying” to have a son until we gave up. Actually, i only wanted daughters, even before Jeanne and i started having kids—and i can produce witnesses to that fact. The assumption that all daughters was some sort of a disappointment isn’t a Mormon thing, though—i get that from all directions.

** Me being me, that would have probably been the case anyway, actually. Having all daughters and no sons certainly makes it more personal, though.

1 comment:

Heather the Mama Duk said...

You already know my (strong) opinion on this subject. I think it might actually be worse having a girl and a boy only 19 months apart. The difference in treatment is even more glaringly obvious and leads to a LOT of hurt feelings on the part of the girl. Most people (women included) are clueless and think it is silly that a girl in the 8-11 age range would feel like they were being shortchanged. Ani has no problem voicing her opinion about the unfairness to anyone who will listen... including her friends who are soon to turn 8 so I daresay all the little girls in our ward will soon see it as no fair just like my daughter does.