Are you harder on your children who share your gender than you are on children who do not share your gender?

My son accuses me of treating him differently than I treat his sister, and of course, I do, but I think that’s because they are different people who need different things from me. Still, I wonder if mothers are harder on daughters than they are on their sons because they know the mistakes they made growing up and they want to protect their daughters. I wonder if men do the same thing with their sons.

And maybe we are easier on children who do not share our gender, perhaps because we don’t really know what it’s like to be that gender. Or maybe because we like the other gender better.

Do you think you are harder on children of your gender? How so? Do you have a theory as to why? Do you try very hard not to do that? Do you figure that’s your job—mothers to guide daughters and fathers to guide sons?