A Husband Raised Around Girls: The Pros and Cons

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My husband has three sisters, all of whom are younger than him. I was raised with one older brother, so the younger sister concept wasn’t completely foreign to me, but I was exposed to the other side of it when I married my husband. I’d just like to put this out there now – older brothers of younger sisters have a tough job. I’m not saying older brothers necessarily have a duty to protect their sisters, but us little sisters do take a toll on our older brothers. In the time I’ve been married to my husband, there have been some distinct instances when I can tell this guy was raised around girls- here are some of the pros and cons.

raised around girls

Pros

He’s an amazing dad to our daughter. When we found out we were having a little girl, I thought I’d naturally have the upper hand, being a former little girl, myself. As it turns out, this child is a mystery to me. Why is she SO loud? Is she really going to wear that princess nightgown forever? Is playing tea party for four hours straight, normal? I do not have the answers to these questions, but my husband does. You see, I don’t remember being a two-year-old girl, but my husband remembers his sisters being two-year-old girls. Let me tell you, that’s some valuable knowledge. P.S. Turns out, little girls are just incredibly loud and scream for no reason sometimes.

Most things I do aren’t that surprising to him. I sometimes take extra time getting ready, I get irritable when I’m hungry and I laugh too loudly in public places, but that isn’t a new experience for my husband. I’m not saying he necessarily appreciates all (or any) of these, but it isn’t new information to him.

My products aren’t a complete mystery. I’m not just talking about “that time of the month” products. My makeup, hair products and jewelry aren’t foreign objects to him. Although he may think three of my lipsticks are the exact same color (they aren’t), he accepts that I think I NEED them.

He knows how to clean. I think this could go either way with a guy who was raised around girls, depending on the household. In my husband’s house when he was growing up, he was expected to contribute around the house, just like his sisters. I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I haven’t vacuumed since I married my husband. He also does a mean job on the bathroom and kitchen.

Cons

He’s really good at tuning me out. Okay, I’m one of those women that likes the idea of bucking gender stereotypes, but I’m definitely a talker. Get me going on a subject I’m knowledgeable and/or passionate about, and I could go on for hours. One of my main hobbies is keeping up with the makeup industry. I’ll talk to (more like at) my husband for fifteen minutes about the latest controversy with a brand’s eye shadow palette. Does he hear me? No. He learned from a young age how to weed out unnecessary listening time.

He doesn’t feel bad for me when I’m mildly injured or sick. Maybe this goes back to the talking thing. When I’m not feeling well or I crash on my bike, I talk about my ailments a little too much, perhaps. Let me just go on a tangent here and say the main reason I mention most of my physical discomforts is so that if I die suddenly, my husband can tell the coroner, “Well, she DID say she had a cramp in the middle toe of her right foot yesterday. Maybe that’s what killed her.” Then he won’t get accused of poisoning me. (I know, I’ve watched too much 48 Hours.) He saw his sisters fall, get knocked over and get sick all the time growing up. Why waste sympathy on a discomfort that can be remedied with some over-the-counter modern medicine?

Obviously, I love my husband dearly. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the best husband and father for our little family.

Do you have a husband who was raised around girls? Or all boys, and you can still relate? What do YOU find to be the pros/cons?

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Sara
Sara was born in Colorado Springs, and lived here her entire life until she attended college at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. There, she earned her degree in Journalism and Political Science. Sara met her husband, Luke, in the summer of 2008 while working at Wag N Wash Healthy Pet Center, although they didn't start dating until 2011 - after Sara had graduated from college and Luke had joined the Air Force. They married in 2012, when Luke was stationed in a small town in West Texas. Shortly after moving to the Lone Star State, Sara started her career in local television. She did everything from running the cameras, to producing the five o'clock news, to creating marketing campaigns for local businesses. Sara's daughter Cora was born in 2013, and Sara got her first taste of being a full-time working mom while living over 600 miles from her own parents. Luke's Air Force enlistment ended in the summer of 2015, so they high-tailed it back to Colorado Springs. Now, Sara lives near Old Colorado City and works in the marketing department of a law firm in Downtown Colorado Springs. She loves spending time with her family, cooking, biking, photography and playing with makeup (that’ll happen after working in television in Texas).

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