Not according to what I see on my street. Most of the families have at least one of each. I think there are three families out of about 25 that have all one sex. One has twin boys. I had two boys, though, but that was a very long time ago!

detired, are the families that have at least one of each, mostly 2 children families, or do they have 3? My DD and I joke that maybe it's something in the water here, because the majority of all her friends with 2 or 3 kids have all children of the same sex, which is so different than the children from families she went to school with, when she was young.

I think what she is seeing is just a coincidence. Statistically, I don't believe it makes any difference AT ALL what sex your previous child (children) are. When a child is conceived, odds are 50-50 on its sex.

http://www.ingender.com/Gender-info/Odds-of-having-another-boy-or-girl.aspx

I have, between 2 different groups of running friends, 7 girlfriends and so including me, there are 8 of us.

The breakdown is - (initials are their names)

PN - 2 boys

JS - 2 boys

DC - 3 boys

KF - 3 boys (she has 5 grandsons and no granddaughters)

JW - 3 girls

KW- 2 girls and 1 boy

DK - 1 girl and 1 boy

me - 2 boys

They are all in their twenties. My 3 best neighbourhood friends all have boys.

Perhaps we just gravitate towards friends who have the same mix as we do - as a bonding element for a friendship.

On our block when my kids were young was:

Me 3B 1G

G 5B

J 6B 1G

M 2G

J 1B 1G

S 1B 1G

K 1B 1G

It was mostly a boy neighborhood, but we had a lake at the end of the street, G had 5B, so she had a dump truck drop a load of sand in her yard every other year.

One of my boys said to me one day "I hope my kids can grow up in a neighborhood like we did".

Kids were welcome in every house and sometimes in the morning I could tell by the amount of shoes next to the side door how many kids were sleeping at my house!!!

Sure miss those days. Kathy G in MI

I have noticed that trend as well among the kids at my children's elementary.

I have 4 girls

K has 3 boys

C has 2 girls

R has 3 girls

A has 2 boys 2 girls

A has 2 girls 1 boy

J has 2 girls

Mrs J has 3 girls

T has 2 girls

R has 3 boys

S has 5 boys

When strangers see me I frequently hear 4 girls huh? I know what that's like, I've got 5 boys, or 3 girls, etc.
Growing up I can only remember 3 kids in school who had only same sex siblings. 2 were boys who both had one brother and one was a girl with one sister.

It was also more common then to have only 2 kids, now 3 children families seem to be the most common.

The family I was born into...1 girl, 2 boys...our family...1 girl, 2 boys, my grandchildren..1 girl, 2 boys.. (from 2 families, 1 boy in one, 1 girl 1 boy in the other)

I haven't noticed a trend like that, and I can't think of one reason why one might develop--except that families today tend to be smaller than the ones I remember when I was growing up.

PS: My DH had three girls from his first marriage, and then he and I had two girls. And then we had a boy. A baby's sex is determined by the father--involuntarily, of course. :-)

Interesting! This is something I didn't notice when I was raising my daughters.

I have two sisters and a brother. One sister had a boy and a girl, I had two girls and my other sister had two boys.

I think Alisande makes a good point. How many children are you willing to have to get that boy or girl?

Sounds like my husband's family...3 boys, then a girl..no more after that.

Forty years ago, the ratio was stated as about 106 boys born to every 100 girls. That's about the same as in the quoted article above: 51% boys and 49% girls.

The exact reason why this is so is not known. Several postulates have been put forth, but none proven. I observe that girls live longer for various reasons and that by the time the children reach their 20s, the ratio has started to even out. In the first third of human life, the boys seem to manage to do away with themselves more often than girls. Wars and extreme activities maybe a factor. Others may argue that stupidity is a factor, but I think there are other underlying causes that nurtures stupid actions.

That is not to say that the ratio should hold in individual families. After all, its the dad who determines the sex. Yep, blame dear old dad. The sperm determines the sex. So, in any one family there could be a trend to mostly boys or mostly girls.

When examining many families, we'd like to think this is completely random except the statistics says, not quite. Its 106 boys to 100 girls.

Wasn't people wanting only the sex child they wanted and doing something about it??????

It imbalances the world like china only keeping boys most of them and now their sons have to intermarry due to that problem.

I was always told when over abundant of boys being born, it meant a war so wars balanced the world's population of alot of boys.

When I nannied it was mostly boys I looked after and only two girls in separate families I looked after.

Growing up in a neighbourhoold full of kids there were mixture of boys and girls, but mostly girls though.

kathy

Another of the many things I *think* I know: More males are born, but more females live past infancy. That may no longer be true where there is good medical care.

Something I have observed is that where in vitro is involved, more female children result. (I *think* that goes back to the constitutionally stronger female embryo.)

On to what is probably 'an old wives' tale': Shorter intercourse, Boy; Longer, Girl. This was supposedly because XY sperm deteriorates faster in higher temperature conditions.

Do we have a scientist among us who can sort all this out?

Science says there should be close odds of having a child of either sex, with each pregnancy. However, I'm now reading studies claiming that some factors might be skewing these odds. Scientists are now questioning whether some men are simply producing more female sperm and others more male sperm. Because the father's sperm is the sole determining factor, the 'randomness' will obviously be affected if men are producing much more of one than the other.

No one has yet proven why some men may be producing much more male or female sperm. But there is a city in Ontario (where I'm from) that noticed this trend over 15 years ago and thinks they have a good idea. Sarnia Ontario is known for having one of the world's most prolific petrochemical plants, among other pollutants. The First Nations Reserve is in the direct path of the prevailing winds carrying this air pollution. They have an uncommonly high rate of all girl families, but the entire city has a much higher than normal ratio of girl to boy births. When my niece (whose husband grew up there) completed her family with 4 girls, I began to wonder if the studies relating air pollution to the 'disappearing male' in Sarnia might not be more than coincidence.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/pollution-debate-born-of-chemical-valleys-girl-baby-boom/article18253243/

Other studies are less convinced of environmental causes, but theorize that the father's side of the family might simply have a genetic factor that predisposes a man to be an 'overproducer' of male or female sperm. If a man has all (or more) siblings of one sex, and his father and grandfather did also, (for that same sex) some believe the tendency will continue.

Where scientists have always maintained that each conception should be pretty even odds because most countries have a fairly equal ratio of male and female births, they are now considering that might no longer be the case. It's now being studied if perhaps just the overall ratio of male vs. female births is relatively balanced, rather than the ratio in individual families, who seem to be inexplicably having same sex children, more often than previous generations.

My DD's husband is from a 2 boy, 1 girl family and his father and grandfather are both from only 3 boy families. So DD says they'll be shocked if their eventually planned third child turns out to be girl, lol!

My parents had 5 girls (all in our 50s now), no boys. I'm sure they wanted a boy at some point, and I would have liked a brother or two. Sadly none of us siblings have a close relationship.

I'm the eldest of five, 3 girls, 2 boys. It's never been a secret that we were all accidental conceptions.

Several of my childhood neighbors had the nuclear family--one of each. We would have been the hooligans, but for the family across the street who had three very active, ornery boys. Other neighbors further along, on both ends of the street had three kids, combinations. And others had 3 boys and a girl--the next family to live in the house had 3 girls and a boy.

My n-laws had three boys. Mine were boy, girl, boy, girl, planned, and my elder daughter recently gave birth to my second grandchild--another boy. At this point she doesn't want to talk about a third one.

For what it's worth- I am the oldest of 7, --- 5 boys and 1 other girl (who was a middle child). My husband came from a HUGE family (two mothers) 8 boys and 8 girls.

He and I had 4 girls, the fourth one a "surprise" but a delight. Two daughters have children, one has 2 boys, one has 2 girls. Not much significance to these statistics, I fear.

When my kids were little (a boy and a girl) we lived on a suburban street where there were ALL boys but my daughter and one other little girl. One family had five boys, one four, three three...

I haven't really noticed the trend of more children of one sex. My children are mainly friends with other children who have siblings of the opposite sex.

There are supposedly a lot of different factors affecting children's sex like the mother's ph and how late in the cycle the baby is produced. Girls are produced later in the cycle and boys earlier. I think the boys are supposed to be faster swimmers, but the girls have better endurance.

I could see where genetically males would tend to produce more of a specific sex. I wouldn't rule out environmental factors either. There is a lot we don't know.

I am one of 4 sisters, no brothers. We were all born in the 60's and 70's. I have 2 boys, one sister has 2 girls and one has twins, a boy and a girl and the 4th sister has no children. I am not sure there is any science to it. I wasn't willing to keep trying to get a girl.

adella, after having a daughter, my niece tried that method of timing conception earlier in her ovulation period, to try for a son. She still ended up with 4 daughters, but has no regrets, lol!

I have no idea but I have noticed that most of the orphan possums I raise are males. ;)

My niece has 4 boys, which includes a set of identical twins.

Kathy, I am also 1 of four girls. Mom numbered us: I'm #3. lol No brothers either.

I knew a boy in my grammar school who had six older sisters. I remember his boasting about being able to 'iron his own blouses'.

chisue, my husbands aunt had a baby boy and she and her husband wanted one more boy. Six girls later, they finally gave up. lol