Are female children really difficult to raise?

In view of the claim that female children are generally difficult to raise, some Abuja residents agree with such claim, while others say bringing them up can be easy compared to males.

Mrs Cecilia Tijani, a civil servant told NAN that a female child could be easy to raise if the parents take time to understand her.

“The most important thing a female child wants is closeness from her parents.

“When you are close with your daughter, you know her more and the chance of being wayward is reduced.

“Children generally need attention and when this is not given, there is bound to be a wide distance between you and them.

“Some female children will even take the issue they are supposed to discuss with their parents outside and discuss with others and that is where they get useless advice that can mar their future,” she said.

Mrs Veronica Maiye, a teacher in Kubwa, told NAN that she did not see bringing up female children as a challenging task.

Speaking from her experience, she said: “God blessed me with five females and no male, to the glory of God three are married and in the process of raising them, I and my husband never witnessed any unnecessary difficulty.”

“The only challenge I could say we had was actually with the first female when she was attaining the puberty stage, then I was concentrating so much on my job rather than creating time for her.

“I later created more time for her and she got back on the right path with time,” she said.

Mr Gabriel Awomo, a father of two girls and one boy said he had never understood his daughters.

He said that he however really appreciated the fact that their mother was helping him out.

“The more I tried to get close to them, the farther we get away from each other, but I realized it was my fault because I have a special fondness for my male child and it is obvious.

“My wife does a lot of work on them, especially when they became teenagers; she was always educating them on relationship with the opposite sex.

“I guessed she was doing that for the fear of unwanted pregnancy,” he said.

Mrs Joy Johnson, a trader in Area 1, told NAN that it was difficult bringing up her female children.

According to her, her daughters are stubborn and they exhibit a lot of bad characters they learnt in school.

“I was always correcting them at home but they see me as being too harsh. Girls need to be handled with iron hands because they easily go wayward.

“They are easily influenced negatively by friends, so I watch the kind of friends I let them bring home,” she said.