[Sleeper]

Being relatively new to the parenting world (one 2yrs old and one on the way), being an information junky and being involved in the preschool nursery department, I have observed some of this first hand.

I was brought up in the "Free to Be You and Me" gender-identical environment of the 80's, where we were taught that boys and girls were the same and our environment made us different. I believed this until recently, after having kids. I noticed that young children, boys and girls, were very different. In activity, attention span, interests, behavior, there were patterns in both genders. We have a son, but some friends of ours have girls, with whom we are very close. When they play together, the girls show no interest in the cars or blocks, and my son's interest in "girl stuff" is relegated to turning the toy shopping cart into a race car. I shop a lot for the family, especially since my wife is getting close to her delivery date, so it's not that he doesn't know what it is for. He just prefers to turn it into a car.

I have not read the book mentioned, but I did read "Brining Up Boys" by James Dobson, and he brings up similar situations and several studies showing that there are fundamental differences in how we are wired.

That being said, I don't believe that the difference is bad. If I had girls, I would still teach them to fish, change the oil in a car and use power tools. Now, however, I wouldn't expect them to be something they're not. I have known the "tom boy" (I also believe that girls can be athletic without being a tom boy) type, and there has always been an underlying reason for their behavior. They all had family situations that were not good. Coincedence? Maybe, but I don't believe so.

Sorry for the long winded post, but I have to lean toward the nature side of this arguement. I believe that we are wired differently, and abnormal environmental circumstances bend the rules of normality.

Regardless, an excellent thread and a nice break from Team A & B and their fouls during shots while fading out of bounds with the time expiring at the end of the game when the mascot opens fire with a super soaker and shorts out the scoreboard.