Oh no its a girl?

[GUNWOUNDS]

What do you guys think?

Do daughters cause divorce?

By Steven E. Landsburg

    If you want to stay married, three of the most ominous words you'll ever hear are "It's a girl." All over the world, boys hold marriages together, and girls break them up.

In the United States, the parents of a girl are nearly 5 percent more likely to divorce than the parents of a boy. The more daughters, the bigger the effect: The parents of three girls are almost 10 percent more likely to divorce than the parents of three boys. In Mexico and Colombia the gap is wider; in Kenya it's wider still. In Vietnam, it's huge:  Parents of a girl are 25 percent more likely to divorce than parents of a boy.

Ever since the economists Gordon Dahl (at the University of Rochester) and Enrico Moretti (at UCLA) established these facts a few months ago, they and their colleagues (and not a few of their colleagues' friends and families) have been spinning hypotheses about what's behind the numbers.

Children of divorce usually stay with the mother, so the question comes down to this: Why do fathers stick around for sons when they won't stick around for daughters? (Or alternatively, why do mothers stay married so their sons can have a father when they won't do the same for their daughters?) Do fathers prefer the company of sons? Do parents think a boy needs a male role model? Do they worry that boys cope less successfully with the emotional consequences of divorce? Or do they believe that an emotionally devastated daughter is somehow less of a tragedy than an emotionally devastated son?

Dahl and Moretti make the extremely helpful observation that all theories fall into one of two categories: Either sons improve the quality of married life (say by being more available for an evening game of catch) or sons exacerbate the pain of divorce (say by falling apart emotionally when the father leaves). Theories of the first sort suggest that a boy child is a blessing; theories of the second sort suggest that the same boy child is a curse

[Dragoon Knight]

[sarcasm] News just in... shares in slugs, snails and puppy dog's tails have just shot through the roof, while stocks in sugar, spice and everything nice have plummeted! [/sarcasm]

[Anathema]

Well, actually my parents hoped I'd be a girl :-

[bryorama]

Too bad for you, Earthnuker.  :P My parents thought the same for me.  :-

[Dante]

[sarcasm] News just in... shares in slugs, snails and puppy dog's tails have just shot through the roof, while stocks in sugar, spice and everything nice have plummeted! [/sarcasm]

Nice one.  ;D

I think the most telling piece of the article is

So, what's the bottom line? Dahl and Moretti are quick to acknowledge that they've found no smoking guns; if you're sufficiently clever you can probably concoct alternative explanations for everything they've observed.

There are many alternative explanations, one of which being 'dumb luck.'

[lowzeewee]

Well, actually my parents hoped I'd be a girl :-

Well but you are...

Those MCPs...MCP=Male Chauvinist Pigs ;D

[Barbarossa]

I'm not sure but I have heard that to alot of those ppl women are viewed as less use-full than boys. :-

[thomas]

that article may be off but it's true that girls cost more than boys

[GUNWOUNDS]

technology exists today (or close to it) to allow one to force the sex of a child one way or the other in vitro.

if this becomes popular we will definately see the people's true biases come out.