Mother Talkers

Boy explosion?

by coobert

Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 10:48:24 AM PDT

In my middle-of-the-night feeding stupor last night, it occurred to me that I know 12 people who have either had or are going to have babies between August 2007 and May 2008 (including me), and of those 12 people, 10 are having boys.  TEN!  

I'm no statistician (not even sure I can spell it), but that looks to me like quite an unfortunate ratio or boys to girls.  Suddenly I have become concerned that in about 20 years dueling is going to come back into vogue and my two little boys will have to fight to the death to get a girl.  Unless they are gay, of course, in which case this might work out to their advantage.  But assuming they're not.

So I wonder whether this phenomenon is just a crazy coincidence or whether anyone else has noticed such a trend?

Poll

The fact that boys seem to be outnumbering girls 6 to 1 means

61%54 votes
5%5 votes
3%3 votes
9%8 votes
15%14 votes
4%4 votes

| 88 votes | Vote | Results

Tags: boys, gender (all tags)

Permalink | 32 comments

  • We have a lot of boys (0 / 0)

    being born in the area, too. They are NOT gonna have a problem. They're all wonderful.

    by tarantula on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 11:28:20 AM PDT

  • I have heard (0 / 0)

    lots of people make similar remarks, but nationally the boy-girl ratio seems to be pretty much the same from year to year :)

    Katherine

    by pat of butter in a sea of grits on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 12:13:03 PM PDT

  • Funny thing (0 / 0)

    When my firstborn son was born, everyone I knew was having boys.  Yet now that he has started nursery school, all of the classes are 10 children with 7 girls and 3 boys apiece.  My friends and I must have been out of the loop that year.

    by music teacher on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 12:40:21 PM PDT

  • Really, relax (0 / 0)

    It evens out in the end.  

    Historically, more boys are born then girls, but there tend to be more women then men in the population (men die earlier)

    There was a problem in China, when the first introduced the 1 child per family decree.  Many families were deciding that if they could only have one child, it would be a boy, and a few years from now, there will be lots of unattached men in China.  But even there, the ratio is 117/100

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    by Caldreaming on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 02:05:32 PM PDT

  • We've had this problem, too (0 / 0)

    We had b/g twins in 2000.  My daughter was the only girl in our circle of friends.  Even when we switched circles of friends, there are still no girls her age.  She hates that so many social events that she attends are so boy heavy.  I'm sure that will change in a few years, but for now, she'd like some female companionship!

    by Elizabeth on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 04:19:44 PM PDT

  • Don't worry... (0 / 0)

    It's just a blip in the stats for your particular group. Our parents' group here just got over having their second round of babies. Out of 20 kids born, 17 were girls. It all evens out.

    by aussieyank on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 04:21:50 PM PDT

  • When my three year old was born (0 / 0)

    all the babies in her playgroup of seventeen were girls except for two. But this year when we started preschool there are seven girls in a class of twenty-four, which seems to be a similar story for other preschools in our area as well.

    We thought it was such a girl-heavy year. Apparently not!

    by jwill on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 04:36:45 PM PDT

  • I'm seeing the opposite. (0 / 0)

    The last five pregnant women I know who had babies last year all had girls.  

    by tessajp on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 04:45:39 PM PDT

  • Pretty small sample size (0 / 0)

    Get it up to 100 babies (or better yet 1000 or more) and see 6:1 and then you can worry.

    Right now, my bf just had a baby in Nov, and my SIL is due later this month. The first is a girl, and the second is expected to be a girl.

    If you flip a coin 10 times, it's not inconceivable to get 10 heads or 10 tails. Onl getting all of one or the other multiple times would suggest an unfair coin :)

    -Cheryl

    by cbfly on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 04:55:35 PM PDT

  • I can't speak for now... (0 / 0)

    However, I can say that when I was having my babies, it was much the same.  When I had the first three, all girls, no one I knew was having boys.  After the birth of my third girl, the cycle started changing, and we all had boys...no girls.  Makes little sense statistically, but its a pattern that seems to repeat.  Go figure.  I have no explanation.

    by tjb22 on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 08:16:54 PM PDT

  • Whatever happened (0 / 0)

    ... to the old wives' tale that girls were born to parents who had sex a lot, and boys were born to those who didn't have sex as often?  LOL

    by Shell on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 10:07:16 PM PDT

  • Boys everywhere here, too (0 / 0)

    Last year six of my friends (including me) had babies and I was the only one who had a girl.  But so far this year I only know of two people pregnant and they are both having girls so maybe the pendulum is swinging back . . .

    www.camperky.com

    by camper on Sun Jan 06, 2008 at 07:10:42 AM PDT

  • Yesterday my sister had identical twins: girls (0 / 0)

    I have one nephew (first grandchild on both sides of his family) who will turn 7 in April. He has been disappointed so often now: he has 1 little sister, there are 2 nieces on my BIL's side, my DD and now the two new  nieces my other sister had yesterday (cutest babies ever, by the way (except for DD, of course) - and I had so forgotten how small newborns are!!)

    I am due with #2 mid-April. We don't know for sure whether it is a boy or a girl (though DH both had the impression it's a boy from one ultrasound...), but in way I hope for my nephew that he will finally get his much hoped for male cousin. One other chance: BIL's SIL (are you still with me?) is also pregnant, but BIL thinks he picked up hints that that will be another girl.

    So I guess my family is doing its part to straighten out the imbalance... :-)

    Pure coincidence, is my vote.

    by SwissClogs on Sun Jan 06, 2008 at 08:04:07 AM PDT

    • congratulations to your sister! (0 / 0)

      I wish her much luck. Are they her first children? How is she and how are your nieces?

      by Rachel on Sun Jan 06, 2008 at 09:06:53 PM PDT

      [ Parent ]

      • Thanks for asking (0 / 0)

        All three are well, we went to see them yesterday. The  birth was induced at 37 weeks (which is considered full term for twins here) and went very smoothly. The whole thing took about half the time I needed for DD (who was facing the wrong way - a star gazer, we say). #2 came out in a single push! The babies were moved from incubators to a cot yesterday and seemed to be doing fine. My sister was up and about within 24 hours (OK walking behind a wheel chair, just in case) and is feeling quite well. It looks like they will all be home within a week.

        And yes, the twins are her first children, so the shock to the system will be huge! I'm sure they will be fine though.

        Totally off-topic: is the bad weather in Eastern Oz passing by on you folks? Are you getting cooler temperatures? There is some talk of torrential rains in NSW and QLD (both north of you, right?) in the news here.

        by SwissClogs on Mon Jan 07, 2008 at 12:22:08 AM PDT

        [ Parent ]

        • Just stinking hot over here... (0 / 0)

          Another 110 degree day today...

          by aussieyank on Mon Jan 07, 2008 at 04:55:40 AM PDT

          [ Parent ]

        • sadly (0 / 0)

          we in Victoria (Melbourne for me) haven't seen a drop of the rain in NSW and QLD. We've had really hot weather (it was 42 degrees on New Year's Eve, and will be 40+ again Thursday and Friday), alternating with cooler, more humane weather on the other days, but no rain. The one upside to the misery is that the Murray/Darling Basin, the rich river basin for two major rivers in Southeast Australia, is filling up tremendously; it had entered a state of dryness associated with crisis levels (imagine if the Mississippi Basin or the Nile Basin was all but dry...).

          For clarity, I live in Melbourne and Aussieyank lives in Perth. Sadly, opposite sides of the continent, although I believe Aussieyank is making time in her busy schedule to arrange for some kind of families meeting when she's in Melbourne over Easter. Can't wait!

          by Rachel on Mon Jan 07, 2008 at 06:43:34 PM PDT

          [ Parent ]

          • Yup! (0 / 0)

            We'll be there! We're trying to decide if we'll be in Melbourne the entire time, or if we'll head to the Yarra Valley for a few days as well.... But we'll certainly see you guys!

            by aussieyank on Mon Jan 07, 2008 at 11:46:35 PM PDT

            [ Parent ]

          • Ah, a shame, no rain (0 / 0)

            I did remember Melbourne and Perth, but my geography of Australia is embarrassing. So when I read Eastern Oz, I had to check google maps (love it, by the way) first to find out that Melbourne is actually in Vic on the south coast (I probably would have put it roughly where Sydney is, and would then have had trouble placing Sydney, because I know they are quite far apart). Anyway, I did learn a couple of things from looking at the maps, so I guess that's good.

            A shame neither you or Aussieyank is not getting any rain these days - although I guess it's good that you don't get torrential rain. So cool that you two will meet up soon!

            by SwissClogs on Tue Jan 08, 2008 at 02:56:42 AM PDT

            [ Parent ]

  • 11 kids for the Children's Sermon today at church (0 / 0)

    My daughter was the only girl.  10 boys - half of those were 4 year olds.  You should hear the noise they make when they run around.  :)

    On the other hand girls outnumber the boys in the 4K class that my Little Boy is in, so it's right that it evens out somehow.

    Jen

    by MrsPastor on Sun Jan 06, 2008 at 11:19:58 AM PDT

  • All Girls, Except for me (0 / 0)

    All of my friends and family that have had/or are having babies in 2007-2008 are having girls. Four of us had boys the first time around and 2 had girls. So far, babypear is the only boy in round 2. Sigh, looks like he'll have lots of girlfriends ;)

    Jen in NJ

    by littlepear on Sun Jan 06, 2008 at 07:42:47 PM PDT

  • Boys and girls (0 / 0)

    Of my close friends, 100% of us have had boys the first time around. Some of us are now on round two and so far it's been 100% girls.

    by minnmom on Mon Jan 07, 2008 at 07:43:01 AM PDT

Permalink | 32 comments