“BOYS WILL BE BOYS”
My response: Yeah, sure. But who decides what kind of boy your boy will be?

“YOU KNOW HOW BOYS ARE”
My response: I suppose I do. It’s my job to know. But do you, really? Why don’t you tell me how YOU THINK boys are.

“IT IS JUST SO TOUGH TO MAKE BOYS DO SOMETHING”
My response: You mean YOU find it tough to make YOUR boys do something..

“GIRLS ARE RELATIVELY EASIER TO MANAGE”
My response: Try observing parents of girls and boys you think are well brought up. Spot the differences in parental attitudes and practices. Then repeat the exercise with parents of children you think aren’t being brought up well. Learn anything about ease of parenting? Also try talking to parents who have both Catherine and Bianca as offsprings! (Shakespearean reference is purely for effect.)

Above are some of the lines parents use very often as a justification for their inadequate CARE of their sons. It is bandied about to appear as a proven theory. Having heard it being uttered and defended with rigour by adults of all ages and professional competencies, including medical doctors, teachers, engineers, etc., a myth buster write-up has been in the offing for a long while.

The truth is your genetic pool and your nurturing determines your children’s behaviour irrespective of their gender, at least till approximately the age of eight or till hormonal changes kick in. The qualities you see in your son or daughter, in their early childhood, are likely to have been the same had he or she been of the opposite sex. And this is the psychological fact.

In the preadolescent phase, they will act in ways that are reflective of parental or societal expectations and the consequences of their early upbringing. This is how you, as adults, become responsible for your child’s behaviour irrespective of gender and why the role of family and parents is paramount.

Of course, here we discount the children – boys and girls- with developmental concerns and mind you, these too are, statistically, equally likely in male and female children. Hyperactivity is as likely in a boy as a girl; inattentiveness is so too, so is any delay in developmental milestones, aggressive behaviour or learning disability.

Adults’ responsibilities need to be fulfilled. There is no short cut to raising children. It is work.