Boys are lazy?

[talon]

I was talking to a good friend the other day who has a son and recently a daughter. We were having a chat about our babies and I mentioned that DS (who is bottlefed) was not holding his bottle yet whereas her DD was very independent and would hold her own bottle and try and feed herself with a spoon (she is a month younger then DS).

My friend said that boys are a bit lazy and want mum to do everything for them (like grown men she reckons :D ). She wasn't being rude or anything - it was just her observation between her son and now her daughter.

Just wondering if anyone else can provide some insight? Is this true, in general.

[Ky]

I don't think they are lazy, they just seem to develop different skills at different times!

They do really need their Mum and seem to depend on her quite a lot until they are around the age of 7 or 8 when they seem to start spending more time taking notice of Dad!

As for the generalisation that boys are lazy ... have they ever seen a little boy play??? I think that girls expend their enregy in a constant flow over the years and boys just save theirs for sudden bursts of frenetic activity!!! Saying this, my son has been going non stop from 6 weeks of age when he started shuffling around the room on his back! Mind you, so did his sister at about the same time!

I looked back through their Well Child Tamariki Ora Health Books (NZ equivalent to the Blue book) and they seemed to have reached their milestones (except for talking and really fine motor skills) at around the same ages. The fine motor skills seem to take a bit longer with boys, hence the bashing of toys whereas little girls are more likely to "play" properly with them.

[Baby Girl]

My DD1 (I know a girl) didn't hold her own bottle until about 11 months and even then she would rather sit with me and have me hold it for her. Whereas my DD2 is keen to try and hold hers now. So each child is different regardless of gender.

A couple of my friends have boys about 2 months older than my DD1 and she seemed to be doing all the new things at about the same time as them so in effect she was doing them 2 months earlier.

I think that boys develop later as a general rule. Look at older 'boys', they mature later when they are grown too!!

[Lallas' Mum]

I must agree with Kyra - boys play fast and hard. My eldest son is always bouncing off walls. He even moves alot through the night when he is asleep. His female cousins can't keep up with his energy levels. He was walking at 9 months and is pretty independant.

As for fine motor skills - I have been told by heaps of childcare workers that he has excellent fine motor skills.

So I guess it just comes down to the individual child. But a general comment that keeps coming up is that little boys tend to play louder, faster and rougher than little girls. That being said I have seen my two year gently patting his "baby" (stuffed dog) to sleep many a times.:rolleyes:

[Sarie]

I think every kid is different, gender doesn't really have anything to do with it. I have two boys and while Nathan was around 11.5 months when he started holding his own bottle, PJ was about 7 months.
Nathan walked at 10 months and it looks like PJ will walk a bit earlier.
I have also heard the comment boys will be boys or he's such a boy. But while my boys do go for a bit of rough and tumble, they also like nothing better than snuggles.
We breed persians and pomeranians and Nathan is wonderful and gentle with the pups and kittens. Something I can't say for two of his female cousins. One of whom is some what accident prone when it comes to baby chicks...

[nemosmum]

Yep I agree bubs development is very individual. DS was holding a sipper cup by about 5 months, was crawling at 6 months and hasnt stopped since!
That said he is the biggest MUMMAS BOY ever.............loves his mummy and I cant blame him ;)

[Kamaikia]

One of my best mates has a girl who is 3 days younger than my son and they are different in everything they do - neither is lazy, just developing different things at different speeds. We often compare and have a laugh at them both.
Her daughter has beat my son with the rolling, crawling, walking etc, but my son's speech is well ahead, he has been holding his own bottle forever - he daughter can't yet - socially he is more advanced (I think this is due to the fact that I'm always out and about and she is a homebody.
My boys is a bit of a sook at times though - he certainly loves his mum - whereas her little girl will sit happily for hours playing alone - my dream child :)
I count myself lucky in some ways that my boy is slower - she runs around after her girl alot more than me because he is still crawling - there are benefits to some laziness :)

[Busymumof3]

I don't think it is generally with boys being lazy...my son crawled at 5mths and walked on his own at 9mths and was holding his own bottle before 6 months. He is very active and not at all lazy.