Raising a child is always full of surprises. No matter how prepared you are, it’s impossible to know exactly what to expect. Sometimes, you have certain revelations you never would have come to before having your own child.
Here, parents reveal the most surprising thing about raising a child of the opposite sex.
1/29. I was surprised that when my sons went through puberty that they got very emotional. I remember when I started having periods how bad my emotions were. I never thought boys would have the same level.
2/29. I was surprised at some of the really insane and stupid things our son did as a child.
The boy had no fear of death or danger whatsoever. I once caught him “practicing skydiving” by jumping from the second floor balcony into the bushes. That’s what he told me when I asked him what the hell he was doing jumping off the balcony. In a completely calm voice as if the answer should be obvious “I’m practicing my skydiving.”
3/29. My dad said the thing that surprised him about raising girls was the fact that they are even more gross than guys.
4/29. I’m mom to two boys, well, young men now. The answer is nothing.
Nothing surprises me anymore.
5/29. I have 5 daughters ranging from 7 to 23. The one thing that surprised me most is the amount of time they spend talking about boobs. Teenage girls talk about their boobs, their friends boobs, boobs of girls at school, boobs of girls they see when they go somewhere. Mine also don’t seem to care that I’m there when they do it, I don’t need to know about Sara from school and her lopsided boobs.
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6/29. I’m the father of two teenage girls.
The surprising things:
They are complete whirlwinds of mess everywhere. Disaster aftermath, bio & fire hazard level messes.
That there is no upper limit on the amount of make-up, lotions, polishes, product, and other ‘beauty’ items that is required.
The sheer amount of daily emotional drama has no equivalent in the male world.
The apparent genetic predisposition to sit in the sink in the bathroom and stare into the mirror.
That the word ‘Dad’ can be made multi-syllabic – “Daaa-aaaaaa-aaaad-uh!”
That they can crush my heart simply by looking at me.
7/29. I’m the father of a newborn baby girl. Folds. So many folds. Mostly filled with poop. Mostly.
8/29. As the mom of a teenage boy, I have been surprised at how seemingly impossible it is to motivate him to do ANYTHING. Schoolwork, chores, anything at all.
9/29. I don’t have kids, but every now and then I take care of some of my nephews, often for long stretches of time. What surprises me is how aggressively they play. Even watching my nieces and remembering myself playing growing up, sure there was running and screaming sometimes, but with the boys they will greet each other with a “playful” punch in the stomach. The younger one cracked a plastic chair over the older one just as he woke up from a nap. I rushed to punish him, but the older one just laughs and says “aww, you got me!” and gave him a quick nut shot. None of that looked fun to me.
10/29. Well I’m not a mom yet, but my sister is, and she had a little boy. The first time she witnessed her son & his wee baby erection, while changing the diaper she FREAKED. Called everyone for reassurance. She wasn’t aware that happened so young, no one had mentioned the fact that babies can get a hard on; and it just caught her off guard completely.
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11/29. Father of five girls here. (22, 20, 19, 17, and 16). Teen years suck. Moods, oh my god. Mom/daughter fights – vacate the premises. The oldest is getting married on Nov 16th. I can’t even think about it without tearing up.
12/29. As a Father of two girls(2 & 4) (and just had a boy),
The surprises:
Girls put their hands in their pants a ton more than I expected.
I can’t sleep when my wife is touching me, but have no problem with my girls sleeping all over me (often end up in our bed).
13/29. I’m the dad of a 2 year-old girl, and the thing that really surprised me is that she has no preference for stereotypical ‘girl’ toys/activities over ‘boy’ toys/activities.
She likes her tool bench as much as her princess castle.
She likes playing in the dirt as much as playing in her kitchen.
She likes helping me cook or change the oil in the cars as much as she likes helping my wife with the laundry or cleaning.
We do dress her in ‘girl’ clothes, but she will gladly wear her “muddy clothes” (t-shirt and jeans, just like her stunningly handsome father) all day if it’s just her and me playing outside. She’s such an awesome kid.
14/29. Not a parent but I know when my dad found himself standing in the little girl’s underwear section to buy my first bra he was pretty surprised.
He also tried to explain menstruation to me through the historical fun fact, “You know, in the Puritan times, women thought they were bleeding to death.”
15/29. As a father who raise a daughter, the farts man. I had no idea how gaseous girls could be. I mean, I knew the theory but the reality was on a whole other level.
One day when she was about five, I was driving and she was in the back seat (story continued on the next page…).
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She strikes up a conversation with me about farts. That day I learned that if a girl is sitting just right the farts can come out the front of the lap. She described this to me in great detail.
16/29. Everyone told me, that boys don’t talk as much as girls. Well, mine both started talking with a year and haven’t shut up since then. It’s amazing how eloquent they are, really, but sometimes I just want to hide somewhere.
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17/29. My 18 month old daughter is starting potty training. while she’s got her tiny butt hanging down into the potty, her urine stream somehow redirects itself up and out of the toilet. meanwhile the boy never misses even in the morning when, as he says, “his pee pee is awake.”
18/29. Dad of a 4 year old girl here: What surprised me most was how hard it is to punish her. She is just so damned cute. I just want to cave every single time she says please. I don’t, but man I really want to.
19/29. My daughter is 5.5yo. I raised two step sons when I was married. I would say the biggest difference so far is that my daughter is so much calmer and is generally happy to play quietly by herself. If my two boys were quiet for more than a few minutes I would start to panic.
20/29. I have a 5 year old daughter and I was not prepared to find out that girls will randomly climb onto the arm of a chair or couch and proceed to grind on it. The first time I thought she was just being goofy till my wife made her get down because apparently she was masturbating. SHE DOES IT ALL THE TIME. I didn’t even know it was a thing for them at this age.
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21/29. I have two girls and I severely underestimated the amount of glitter that would be in my house. Glitter: the herpes of craft supplies.
22/29. As a mother I’m surprised how cuddly my son is. I don’t mind!
23/29. As the father of two teenage daughters I am amazed at the trivial crap that they agonize over, and the important crap that they ignore.
24/29. Male here with one daughter and one son. I have the most girly, princess of a daughter. Love her to death, but I’m just surprised by her girliness. If I ever need a severe punishment for her, I’m going to take away all of her dresses and make her only wear pants for a week. That would be devastating to her.
This is what probably surprises me most about my daughter, can’t say whether it covers the spectrum of all daughters though.
25/29. Guy here with a 2 year old girl. My daughter loves dirt. Will not stay out of it. If we take her to the playground, she runs off the side and starts clawing into the earth like she wants to bury something. She digs holes in the pebbles some playgrounds have, too. But, as soon as we come inside, she politely asks to wash her hands. And then starts throwing the water around. When we take her off her stool and tell her to go into the living room so we can clean up, she runs off and comes back with a loaded nerf gun and does her best to prime and shoot us as we clean.
All that, and she could not care less about any toy we get her unless it is duplo, a wooden block or some sort of pirate toy.
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26/29. Out of all the things my son has done that have surprised me or confused me, I am going to be completely honest about the one that really freaked me out.
Baby boners. I thought something was wrong with him. I called the doctor thinking his penis needed surgery or something because that’s something that isn’t supposed to happen to a 3 month old. How naive I was.
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27/29. My mom told me that when she found out I was a boy, she had fears about me fooling around with other girls in high school.
Then high school came around. It turns out that she never had to worry about that during my high school years.
Or in my college years.
Or after my college years for that matter.
Raising me she said that was the biggest surprise, that I’d grow up to be a loser.
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28/29. Mom with girls here – one thing I NEVER knew about was that when baby girls are first born, they can sometimes have a little baby period from the hormones they get from their mothers. My oldest daughter had this at about 4 days old and it scared the shit out of me!
29/29. Dad here, 2 girls. I should have invested in toilet paper futures. The 3 females in my house are out to bankrupt me!