Mamas' boys and daddys' girls

For most of my life my mother has been a single parent raising four children, two boys and two girls, on her own. Though she will never admit to having a favorite child (I don't know many parents who would ever admit to something like that) she did expect different things from my sister and I then she did from my brothers. Whenever we would bring this to her attention she would always say something along the lines of, you are all individuals and have different needs. Now, that I am a parent of 2 (soon to be four), I understand that comment a little better, however, I've also said that I would not treat my girl different from my boys just because she is a girl. Since, we did not grow up with a father in the home, I would have to say that each of us have a very special connection with our mother. Even though we are all adults living miles away from home, I would have to say that we all still depend on her in our own ways. With that being said, I am not at all a daddy's girl and though my brothers will never admit to being mama's boys... I would have to say (very quietly) that they are.

Now, that I am a parent of both a boy and a girl, and my children are very lucky to have a great father who is very involved in their upbringing, I have noticed different bonds being formed. My husband often accuses me of babying Remy, and I accuse him of doing the same to Jackie. For the most part the rules are the same for both children, but since there is an age difference there are some things that Jackie is not allowed to do and likewise for Remy. What I have noticed is that the stereotype exists within my own home. Let me list some examples:

• Remy bats his eyes at me when he wants something and does a long drawn out pl-eeeea-ssssse. It melts my heart and I usually give in.
• When Bryan comes home from work Jackie immediately starts to whine to be picked up, and of course it works.
• I can't stand to hear Remy cry so I often jump in to figure out the problem and try to calm him down.
• If I do something that makes Jackie cry, she always runs to Bryan for comfort or to get what I told her she couldn't have.

 I find these things funny, because it's not like we set out to treat our children in these ways, we just sort of fell into it. None of this means that we don't do special things with the other child, because we do, I think it is just that our children have figured out who is more likely to give in to what they want. With me I am weak to Remy's charm and with Bry, Jackie is his baby girl (and after we found out that the twins were both boys, he was ecstatic that she would remain the only girl.) Though some think of the terms mama's boy and daddy's girl as being somewhat negative, I don't, I think of them as a special bond between a parent and child.