Marriages are ‘more likely to last’ if you have a boy – here’s why

Confessing a bigger emotional bond with one sex over another is just not cool- however, the gender of the child can have a huge impact on the dynamics of a family - or even effect if that family will stay together or not.

That's according to the Economist which suggests that research shows that having a boy could be better for your relationship. The University of California, Berkley teamed up with the US census data to examine the impact of gender on family dynamics and he findings were very interesting. In addition to the data showing that couples were more likely to have a son were more likely to stay together but they were more likely to propose if they found out their partner was expecting a boy AND they were less prone to divorce. Part of the reason for this might be that men contributed more to childcare when they had sons, and such cooperation was more likely to keep a marriage on track (listen up boys) But why do dads seem to favour sons? Interestingly, a recent analy­sis of anonymous search data found that Americans ask “Is my son gifted?” more than twice as often as “Is my daughter gifted?”, even though young girls are more likely than boys to be enrolled in gifted programmes in school. Part of the appeal can be described as the "mini-me phenomenon" as parents hope to create someone who is both similar to and better than themselves. It also allows the opportunity to write wrongs they may have done in their life and grant their own child opportunities they themselves lacked. This obviously applies to both mums and dads, but it seems dads are inclined to feel it much stronger. Another reason for this preference, according to author, Sean Grover is that men find it takes longer to connect with their children. Once you get past the bravado, they often feel at a sense of loss when it comes to instinctively knowing what to do whereas mum's usually get bonded over essential things like nourishment. In this case men attach themselves to the idea that at least my boy will need me to throw a ball around - it gives them a sense of purpose. Ultimately parenting is a giant game of trial and error and not everyone get's it right. Boys or girls - it is tough going so all we can hope for is that we do the best we can and when the time comes, try to bite our tongue!