A Boy First - Couples Says

Some parents secretly hope they'll have a son as their first child because having a boy is considered to be "less hard work", a new survey shows.

"What the survey does highlight is the fact that gender preference is still an issue that many couples face when they discover they are having a child," the Daily Mail quoted Mark Pearson, chairman of CouponCodes4u, as saying.

Coupon and money-saving website CouponCodes4u surveyed 2129 newly-weds about the preferred sex of their first-born child and found that for 47 percent, having a little boy was their first choice.

And 63 percent of those who wanted a son first were men.

According to the study, a smaller 32 percent said they had no preference either way, while an even smaller 21 percent said they hoped their firstborn was a little girl. Of that percentage who hoped for a female child, only 11 percent were men.

The respondents' reasons for wanting a boy varied. For 45 percent of the sample, boys were considered "less hard work" than girls, while 19 percent said they wanted a boy to carry the family name down through the generations. A third said that they wanted boys to because they were more adept at caring for their younger siblings.

 

Interestingly, the Daily Mail reported that the respondents who hoped for a girl as their first child said they believed girls were "better role models" to their younger siblings.

But despite the gender preference, almost all (95 percent) of the newlyweds agreed that having a healthy baby was actually the most important thing.

Do you agree, are boys "less work" than girls? Have your say below!