Girls are not soft boys

There is such a big difference between girls and boys. I know I'm stating the obvious here, but since I'm so much more familiar with little boy behavior, I find little girls fascinating when I happen to spend some time with them. My friend just had a baby a couple weeks ago, so we had her 3 year old daughter Sidney over to play with Dallin this morning so my friend could have a break. It's the first time we've had Sidney over for a play date, although she and Dallin know each other from church and primary presidency meetings. She came over wearing a cute little brown and white dress and pig tails. Dallin, wearing old hand-me-down jeans and a football shirt, told her, "You look like a girl in that dress." Then she proceeded to choose all of their activities. "We're going outside now." Dallin and Brennan dutifully obeyed. "We're playing in your bedroom now." Again, they followed her happily. This went on for an hour. The boys didn't mind one bit. They were thrilled to have such a cute little friend over. Then something very interesting happened. I had arranged for another friend's kids to come over to play also. She has a girl who is almost 5 and a boy who is almost 3. As soon as they arrived, her daughter took over. She started calling all the shots, and Sidney went along with it. She barely spoke another word the rest of the time she was here. It was like she had been dethroned by the oldest girl in the group. There was no fighting or struggling for power. Everyone just understood this is how it is done. And all the boys just went along with it.