Difference in maturity between boys and girls, during 0-5 years?

[Anonymous]

I'm wondering if anyone has noticed a difference in maturity between boys and girls during the early years. I have one of each and both have been more or less the same in some respects. Boy was a little faster on the gross motor and girl on the verbal, but not a large lag between them -- like 2-3 months. Where I really notice the difference is with emotional independence. The girl separated easily from us at an early age. The boy, less so.

If you have a boy and girl, have you noticed anything like this? Or do you think it's just individual temperament? Do you think boys have a more difficult time adapting to first transition to preschool, etc.? (If there are any preschool teachers here, I'd love to hear your thoughts!)

[Anonymous]

I think those things are very individual, though in general boys tend to be a little slower on the verbal side. But things like separation issues and such are more individual temperament related, rather than boys vs girls, in my limited experience.

[Anonymous]

I don't know as I have two boys. I noticed my friends with girls, 3 different moms had girls that transitioned easier into preschool. They seem to parent easier. But I can't speak for all girls and boys.

[Anonymous]

I think you need to stop comparing kids as it has nothing to do with gender and many other factor. Enjoy and parent the kids you have, not the ones you think you should have.

[Anonymous]

Both were equal in gross motor skill (all 9 months). The boys spoke later and noticed later. I can’t explain it but my sons didn’t pick up on emotional family sort of connections as quick. They just didn’t pick up on things like that as soon as my daughter.

Sadly my daughter picked up on appearances so much earlier. At 2 she was commenting on how pretty people were and comparing people. I was hoping to shield her for several years.

[Anonymous]

I have 3 boys and they have all been different in terms of language development, adapting to change, etc. IMO it’s likely more based in personality than sex. Fwiw, I also had one potty train easily and early, and was trained day & night immediately vs another who took much longer to stay dry at night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you need to stop comparing kids as it has nothing to do with gender and many other factor. Enjoy and parent the kids you have, not the ones you think you should have.

If you're so accepting, then respond to the posts that are here, not the ones you think should have been posted.

[Anonymous]

I have b/g twins. The boy is more verbal. The girl has better gross motor skills. Girl is more independent and the boy a a bit more clingy.

[Anonymous]

OP, I think you'll find the differences to be more obvious in kindergarten, 1st, 2nd grade. By 3rd or 4th grade, they've mostly evened out (boys have mostly caught up).

[Anonymous]

OP reading child development books, seriously

[Anonymous]

read ^^^*

[Anonymous]

I have an 8th grade boy and they are much more immature than the girls st this age. No wonder the girls are more interested in older boys.

[Anonymous]

My 4 year old boy is just an entirely different person than his older sister. Both very verbal, but.....he is clingy, she is the definition of independent. He won’t listen, ever, her you have to tell once and she’ll never do whatever it was again. He comes up with 20 ways a day to injure himself, she’s much more cautious. She was swimming independently at his age, he’s not even close. She was a little adult at his age, he’s a total kid. I have no idea what he’s going to do in PK4 this fall, she was ready to go a year before she was old enough. Just really different kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 4 year old boy is just an entirely different person than his older sister. Both very verbal, but.....he is clingy, she is the definition of independent. He won’t listen, ever, her you have to tell once and she’ll never do whatever it was again. He comes up with 20 ways a day to injure himself, she’s much more cautious. She was swimming independently at his age, he’s not even close. She was a little adult at his age, he’s a total kid. I have no idea what he’s going to do in PK4 this fall, she was ready to go a year before she was old enough. Just really different kids.

FWIW this could describe so many 4 year old boys I know! Must be challenging but also fascinating to parent such different kids. What worked for one won’t work for the other. Sounds trite but when you think you have a system down and have to redo it all ... guess it’s all a journey.

[Anonymous]

Bell curves, yo.

I thought it interesting that my boys were both significantly more verbal, and verbal earlier than my girls. However, they were equivalent in terms of acquiring vocabulary that was actually useful. I mean, it was nice that Son#1 could name, e.g. six different types of construction vehicles before the age of one, but that was entirely useless as far as letting me know that he wanted "milk", which word he started saying ~15 months, approximately the same age his sister did.