Boy vs Girl

I am so super lucky. I have a boy AND a girl. And my boy is older which means she will have lots of his nice older friends to go out with when she reaches going out age (about 30) and vice versa. If I had planned it, I couldn't have planned it better.

Of course, hand me down clothes are a bit difficult - she absolutely point blank refuses to wear anything he has worn, and she's only two. And he's so rough on his toys that by the time she is capable of playing with them, they usually have one wheel sadly dangling and a gasping 'wheesh' where there used to be a cheery 'parp! parp!' But apart from that, having one of each gender is a beautiful thing. Lucky, lucky.

Pre-baby I had sometimes given the 'Nature, Nurture' debate a mild think or two, and had decided that if you bring your boys up to be a bit girly, they will have soft hands and wear pink shirts. And if you bring your girls up to be a bit boysey, they will have short hair and play hockey.  Now I've had the evidence placed in front of me (or rather, yanked out of me) I can say fairly definitely that my boy is most definitely a bloke, and my girl is extremely girly, and I don't think my ham-handed parenting has had much to do with it at all.

My boy is loud and rough. He likes being naked and farting. He can tell the difference between all major types of machinery and he picks his scabs. Right now he is watching Bob the Builder with the air of someone who is about to be examined on it.
Whereas my daughter, who has just toddled into the room, has made straight for my Mango Bodybutter, taking a fingerful and inhaling the sweet scent with pleasure before smearing it carefully into her little hands and arms. She then demanded to play with my bangles and told me she was feeling pretty today.

I don't think I am overtly encouraging them to play out gender specific roles although no doubt I am giving off unconscious signals. But then again, when they're teenytiny babies the only real difference between them is the wiping technique required when changing nappies (the boys rule this one hands down). So which then, came first - my nurture, or their nature?

I think I'm going to wonder about this for the rest of their lives. Lucky.