The Gender Gap

Anyone who tells you there's no difference between boys and girls, has obviously never raised both. My girls aren't girly girls, at least not all the time. They can be very rough and tumble and enjoy a lot of things with Daddy, that I have to admit I really don't understand.

Jack isn't always the classic definition of "all boy" either. As evidenced by various blackmail photos I have taken, and am saving for when he's a teenager. He enjoys glitter, pink, and stands in line to have his nails painted right along with the girls (Much to Daddy's chagrin, it's my payback for the times I have to listen to my girls speak geek to me. "You know mom, when Luke was on the ice planet Hoth...").

But when it comes down to it, they are different. I love when I get glimpses into just how different their little brains really work.

We have been geocaching (if you don't know what I'm talking about, head over to www.groundspeak.com and check it out). It's a great family activity, and I'd like the kids to be able to remember as much as possible about it as they get older, so I've been keeping a journal of our time together. Each time we find a cache I interview the kids about it. I want them to be able to read about it later through their own eyes.

This has provided a great example of the differences between a little boy brain, and a little girl brain. Here is the interview from our find on Saturday.

"What do you want to tell me about the treasure?"

Elianna: "The treasure was the airplanes! There was a little box with a lid on it. It had stickers, marble and 2 things I don't know."

Libby: "It was hanging on a tree. It was so exciting to find it. I got it out of the tree! I got some stickers, train stickers. We thought it was a box in the tree, but it wasn't, it looked like a jam jar!"

Danya: "I love how it's like a treasure hunt, because if we change the GPS to a map it really looks like a treasure hunt. I really like that we brought our dog because of the clue about huskies."

Notice how the girls all use a lot of words, I'm not even sure I captured all that they said because they spoke so fast. I know I didn't get all that Elianna said, she wouldn't slow down for a second. The cache was hidden right by our airport in Lachute and she talked about the airplanes and what everything looked like before even getting to the "treasure" part!

Then I called in Jack. I asked him the same question I asked the girls. His response?

"It was in the tree, that's all I know"

That was literally all I could get out of him. He later told his grandparents that he got a toy soldier out of it, but he wouldn't elaborate at all for me. He's already the strong silent type!