Parents Reveal Their Biggest Surprises About Raising Kids Of The Opposite Gender

Parenting is tough enough, but there is a definite gender gap, having kids of the opposite sex. Boys are gross, girls and loud, and everyone can agree that teenagers are usually awful.

Mnazuzofof asked parents of Reddit: Dads, what surprises you about raising girls? Moms, what surprises you about raising boys?

Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.


Sounds like me in the shower.

Crying for no reason. My 10 year old daughter was in the shower and I heard her crying. I went in and asked her what was wrong.

"I don't know," she said. I just stood there like a dumba** staring at her for a few seconds trying to figure out how to respond. I finally said, "I'm gonna go get your mom."

I_Enjoy_Sitting

That was my dad's experience too! He grew up with sisters, but his dad was very no-nonsense and wouldn't tolerate crying. My mom is very level headed and rarely emotional. And then of course he ends up with an emotional wreck of a daughter as soon as I hit puberty.

I remember coming home from school, putting some toast in the toaster, and just bursting into tears. The conversation went something like this:

"Did you burn the toast?"

"No" (sobbing)

"...did something happen at school?"

"No" (more sobbing)

"Why are you crying?"

"I don't know" (sobbing increases, and Dad just slowly backs out of the room).

Anytime I got emotional he would just disappear and go get my mom. He literally had never dealt with someone who would cry for no logical reason (meaning there was no problem for him to fix and make it better), and he was visibly uncomfortable and out of his element.

hufflepuffinthebuff

Ah the sex talk.

As a mom of both a boy and a girl...when I had the sex Ed talk with my daughter she was cringing and just wanted it to stop. Years later went to gave same convo with son. Told him if he had any questions I'd be more than happy to answer all of them. And boy did he! He STILL asks! Just last week (in front of three friends) son asks " mom , tell me again, what does a douche do". Dying inside.

Jlacosse6082

This reminded me how the "girls are more mature" stereotype got totally destroyed way back in sex-ed at my school.

The whole time, almost all the girls were bright red and giggling to each other and snorting and saying "oh my god" every few seconds whereas us boys just acted like it was any old class (meaning there was the odd joke, but it was usually a throwaway line about a funny shaped penis or something). We'd ask questions, take part in discussions, fill out the worksheets with diagrams and presentations and the whole time the majority of the girls in the room just laughed at everything we had to say. Our teacher spent about 40% of every class sighing, furrowing her brows and saying "Girls! Please...".

Xx_Venom_Fox_xX

Girls are full of surprises, if you're a guy raising them.

Three things have surprised me about my daughters.

  1. How early they form opinions on what they want to wear and what is cute. 14 months!
  2. How much they talk. It's a constant stream of data pouring out of them.
  3. How much of a challenge long hair is.

lowpenalty

I have a boy and didn't expect him to have so strong opinions about what he likes to wear at 16 months of age either. He turned two in September and it only gets worse. I would have expected that behaviour from a girl, as I've been told numerous times by my mom that I, as a toddler, was extremely picky over clothes, would only wear dresses and threw tantrums over having to wear pants. It would seem my son takes after me. And my mom is laughing at me so hard.

MachaMitia

This poor mom, she had no idea.

"Just learn to knock and wait. You will save yourself and him a great deal of embarrassment."

Watching my wife, who did not grow up around boys, learn and understand that boys are dirty, smelly, and gross is hilarious. I don't think she knew about pee on the seat or the floor. She didn't know they will make a gun out of everything even if they don't watch violent shows. And she is absolutely astounded to learn that "The groceries I just bought yesterday are gone!"

Once while our first born baby was in the tub playing with his penis she said "When do you think he will stop doing that?"

"I'll let you know." I said.

HomburgPokes

"When do you think he will stop doing that?"

When he's dead

KingOfWickerPeople

Boys are lazy.

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.

vivekoboy

The only surefire way to motivate a teenage boy is with a teenage girl.

WonderfulMap3

You can tell when boys really start being into girls when all the sudden hygiene is a priority.

son: I need new shirts and some deodorant.

parent: what's her name?

spookyghoststuff

Yes, yes it is.

Two-year-old boy who is potty training. I am amazed that he can be sitting perfectly on the potty, with his anatomy pointing down, and then pee all the way across the room from that position. Like, f*ck, is this why guys hold their weiners when they pee?

5RabbitsInALongCoat

Yes.

crass_cupcake

Imagine that it is like a water hose, if you crank up the water, it "straightens" real fast.

Apollow_FR

And sometimes it's splits into two beams both going in completely different directions than where you aimed.

Rikukun

I hate when I goes 90 f*cking degrees onto my foot somehow!!!

krixman100

Girls can be just as gritty as boys.

My daughter is five, and the amount of poop/fart/pee/vagina jokes is shocking... like college frat house/army barracks level.

cubs_070816

My 6-year-old keeps changing my Netflix login to really hurtful things like 'fart head', 'bum folds' and my least favorite 'fart accident'. I come in from work and she's got hiccups (laughing hysterically gives her hiccups) she hands me the remote so I can watch my shows and then waits for me to see. ;(

teksti-tv666

Sorry to be insensitive but your daughter is right, this is hilarious lol.

ketchupchipcaptain

Penises are fragile.

I was unprepared for "penis injury". Everything else has been fairly smooth, but I honestly had no idea what to do, say, or even think when my poor 4yo dropped the heavy toilet seat on himself. There was horrible bruising, and he cried when he peed for about a week. And he knew I had no idea what it felt like so all my sympathy and offers of hugs were met with "you don't know!". No, sorry son, I really don't.

bopeepsheep

When my son was two he hurt his penis somehow, nothing serious. He turned to his mother and asked her to kiss it to make it better. She had to tell him no of course, but he didn't understand and was mad at her for a few days. First time I found out he can hold a grudge.

cranfordio

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That's why these types of jobs have such high turnover.

Redditor Psychological-Name15 wanted the customer service reps out there to give us some truths, so they asked:

"Customer service workers of Reddit, what secret can you reveal from your former company?"

I want to know about the inner workings of Comcast!!

I loathe them!

Oh Dear

Jennifer Lopez Smh GIF by American IdolGiphy

I used to work in tech support for Citi Bank. The people working there are not intelligent. My favorite interaction went like this..."

"Banker - How do I type the upside down I?"

"Me - Ma'am, that's an exclamation point."

slappy_mcslapenstein

The Crappy People

"In every CS job I’ve ever had: we will bend over backward to help a nice person. We will expedite any complaint, give maximum compensation, and harass other areas of the business for you."

"We will do the absolute bare minimum to help a shi**y person and if you’re really bad, we will do everything in our power to make sure you get nothing but what you’re legally entitled to and it will be a process to get that."

11catsinahumansuit

"I don’t work in CS but 100% the same for us in IT a nice person will get new stuff while a shi**y person will get questionable secondhand crap that will take 12 months to fix! I will make sure that you wait as long as humanely possible to have anything fixed!"

Sharp-Demand-6614

Go to Holiday Inn

"If you ask for a supervisor calling Marriott you will just get another person who is not a supervisor, but say they are."

cryptnificent

"Yep. I've seen this done numerous times across multiple industries. Usually, it only involves an actual sup if it's a genuine problem or if they want to make a point."

"The last job I had was in towing junk cars. Two of the inside buyers, one male, and one female, would bounce that sup card around constantly. Idk how no one ever put it together. We'd get repeat callers and repeat sellers so I don't know."

ItsBobFromLumbridge

Heartless

"Worked at a contracted call center for Centrelink. The manager told us to deny as many emergency payments as possible and they would back us no matter what. They were actively working towards a culture that despised the callers and churned staff to get heartless right-wingers who hated the poor."

Rizza1122

"I feel ya. My best mate is a quadriplegic. Centrelink denied his disability pension because he wasn’t disabled enough."

Less-Storage

Go to Home Depot

You Are Dumb Patrick Star GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy

"I worked at Lowes. I didn't know anything about anything in the electrical department yet that's where they put me without any training."

Eattherich187

Not training people is not just a Lowes thing.

There are too many unqualified people doing too many things.

Switcharoo

Drag Race What GIF by TAZOGiphy

"Can confirm it's an unwritten policy for deli departments in Coles Supermarkets to change the written expiry dates on their tickets so they can sell out-of-code products at full price."

REDDIT

A Little Sunshine

"I worked at a call center for the billing department of a major internet and cable service provider. We were authorized to give up to $90 credit per customer on their bill but only as a last resort. Always remember to be nice to all customer service workers. You never know just how much they can help with a friendly attitude."

Axel_Dunce

"Former call center employee here. Highly accurate. Use your manners, and well fix your issue. Anything else, just makes us want to take longer, and you won't get a credit. Just because we are authorized, doesn't mean you'll get the credit for being an a**hat. haha. I've been verbally abused a few times for asking them not to swear at me. Lol."

Ok-Ad-7247

LELU

"I worked for a major telco company for many years in something called a ‘LELU’ which stands for Law Enforcement Liaison Unit. This 'unit' is pretty self-explanatory, but it essentially is a team who worked directly with the police/FEDS to monitor people's information for things such as obtaining communications history of call logs, SMS loss, etc."

"However, most importantly, the software we used, we as agents could directly see all your SMS texts, including MMS and their explicit imagery of whatever you were sending. This would include sexting, naked images, family photos, and everything. There were instances where people abused this position by stalking or 'monitoring' their SO’s comings and going’s."

MidniteMischief

Cookies!!

"I worked at a cafe chain called 'The Cookie Man,' 95% of their cookies arrived in cardboard boxes layered with bubble wrap. The last 5% arrived as pre-made dough that we would bake on-site to make the place smell like fresh cookies."

"I also worked at a cupcake shop. It's literally just packet mix that you add eggs and oil to before baking/piping pre-made icing onto. Don't waste your money on these places, 90% of these chain shops are the same and most are severely underpaying their workers (this is for Australia btw). Just purchase some packet mix from the supermarket and call it a day."

Frequent-Selection91

Look in the Back

"I was a Store Manager for a very large grocery chain and I can tell you that 95% of the time when customers complain to the manager, we may be professional and show empathy, and even resolve the problem."

"But then we usually just make fun of or talk crap about the person who complained to the other employees. And when a customer is really rude when we go 'look in the back' for something, we legit just stand around and talk to other employees, and make zero effort to look for the item."

A_Womans_Thoughts

From the Box

Kaitlin Olson Brunch GIF by The MickGiphy

"I once worked at 'the area's premiere day spa'; the mimosas were made with Sunny D and not real orange juice, and the wines came out of a box."

SailorVenus23

Sunny D and champagne?!?!

What in the name of Lucifer?

Who does that?!

Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.