(Liberal disclaimer: should either or both of my children-born-with-penises feel more comfortable as girls, I will fully support them, and depending on how our financial investments go, we might even help pay for any operations they wish to have.)
While we did sort of want a daughter - and the ladies in my husband's family are practically donning widow's weeds for lack of a princess to dote upon - I have to admit to a few reasons why I'm happy we get to have two boys:
(Liberal disclaimer: a lot of these are non-politically correct on purpose for the sake of humor.)
- I will never have to defend letting her play with Disney Princesses
- No crying tantrums when she wakes up with her hair in a knotted, tangled mess
- My husband doesn't have to reverse his stance on gun ownership for her dating years
- I get to retain my title as Queen of the Household
- No one in this house will ever steal my tampons
- Three words we can all happily live without: Teenage Girl PMS
- The uppance for my 14-year old obsession with New Kids on the Block will now never come
- I never have to take anyone shopping for a training bra
- I've just DOUBLED my chances of having a child of mine play for the Yankees
- My husband now has TWO strapping young men to pass on the near-extinct family name Lopez
- Boys love their mommies
The biggest downside right now? My husband and I can only agree on one boy's name, and we already used it for our first son.
The second biggest downside? Now I won't get the Skywalker Family costume I've always wanted to do. Maybe that's the biggest downside, actually.
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| "Oh, woe is me!" |
During my last pregnancy, when people asked if I was having a boy or a girl and I'd tell them, I got the dumbest reactions.
Pregnancy is generally a time when everyone but the pregnant woman says asinine things. I think that preggos should be allowed to punch people. Or taser them. Whether strangers in elevators told me I looked like I was "about to give birth" (at 7 months along) or co-workers shouted, "Waddle waddle waddle!" as I waddled by, what on earth makes people think it's OK to say these things to a pregnant lady?
But the worst reactions of all came in response to my declaration that we were having a boy. OTHER MOTHERS would tell me, "Oh, good. I mean, I love my daughters, but boys are better."
Yes, someone actually said that to me.
Possibly my own mother may have confirmed this statement, though I was high on post-natal hormones, sleep deprivation, and Percocet, and she now denies it.
Forget for a second that I am someone's daughter, and let's talk about how insensitive that remark is. What if we were having a girl? Would these women then gasp, clutch their pearls, and scream, "Oh dear god in heaven, someone help me get this poor girl-bearing woman to the nearest back alley abortionist!" I get that they were trying to be nice, but a simple, "Oh, how wonderful, boys are such a joy!" would have been fine. Really.
Do we really still live in a time when people prefer boys to girls? What is this, China? Do people really still believe that all girls all the time are always manipulative, evil, back-stabbing, overly dramatic creatures? Just because I was that way?
As a feminist I did look forward to raising a strong-willed, outspoken, kick-ass young womym who would some day grow up to be the first Jewish-Cuban female President of the United States.
Instead, I get to raise two strong-willed, outspoken, kick-ass young men who will become part of the solution and not part of the problem, will respect women as human beings, will follow their father's example and self-identify as feminist and LGBTQ allies, and will never ever ever leave me.
So let it be written. So let it be done.
