So one thing I have noticed that is a trend nowadays, mainly among men but definitely with a few women, is the idea of 'gender preference' when having a baby. Now don't get me wrong, having a preference at least a little bit is natural (for me, I would love to have a boy and a girl when I do have children), but it shouldn't be consuming or a focal point of the pregnancy.

Now before I get jumped on, I want to tell a little story to get to my point. I had a Latin teacher in high school, nice enough guy, who was having a baby with his wife. Literally every day since he had given the students the announcement, he complained about having a boy. All he wanted was to have a boy. He needed to have a boy. If he didn't have a boy, he said, he would cry. He said that as long as he got his boy, he didn't care about any other children they had as long as he got his boy. All through that time, a little bit spiteful part of me wished he'd have a girl, just to piss him off, because this talk was driving me crazy. He got his boy.

It's so frustrating to me today that there seems to be a culture of wanting to have one gender over another, mainly boys. I have heard so many people say 'we just kept having kids until we gave him his boy!' or 'my dad doesn't really do much with me because he wishes I was a boy.' It drives me crazy. It also drives me up a wall to hear people be like, 'yeah, I want a boy because I can play football with him and he's lower maintenance than a girl.' Why couldn't you share your love of football with a girl (like my dad shared his love of ice hockey with me?) My dad never said no to me (in terms of my dreams and goals, he definitely said no when I asked for a horse for my fifth birthday). I was allowed to do 'boy' things, like build rockets and participate in speech and debate (and thanks to my parents, I was nationally ranked). Why do we have to gender everything so much? Where is this mental block where you physically cannot do things with one gender or another? And the idea of boys requiring little to no effort to raise - stop. stop. stop. Women say this too. Stop. Boys need just as much love and care and guidance as girls do. Society says that men cannot show emotion and women can, that's why girls are more emotional. Boys need just as much guidance from their dads and their moms as girls do - that's how you raise a successful, HVM. How do I know this works? Because I see it. I have friends from both kinds of families. I have guy friends from HV families who are amazing people - kind, caring, and not out there to get in your pants. I have also known guy 'friends' who are so ill-adjusted that they're so desperate to lose their virginity they'll sleep with a passed out girl.

And to the women who think in this way - if your son cannot cook or do his own laundry, sorry, you AND your husband have failed. I hate those posts that are like 'I sent my husband to the store and he couldn't even find mushrooms or diapers so came home with ice cream! Haha he's so cute!' No. It's not cute, it's pathetic. I'd say the same if a man posted the same about his wife. Grow up, be a functional adult. Not being able to change a diaper or feed a baby is absolutely pathetic. Be an adult and take care of yourself, welcome to the real world, kiddo.

I just want to leave one more thing. I am a student of medicine. I have spent a lot of time in the hospital, namely on the pedes floor. What I have seen there is devastating. When your child gets cancer, or is sick, or can't breathe, it doesn't fucking matter if they're a boy or a girl, purple, pink, or an alien. You want your baby to live. People forget that so often in today's world of show and tell, where we have to have this idea of a perfect family. Love both your sons and daughters, treat them equally.

Sorry for the rant but super tired of this! This! Is! Why! We! Have! LVM!