Ryan Reynolds is ready to dispel the myth that raising boys is more chaotic than raising girls.
“It’s absolute mayhem. You’re just every day, clinging by the skin of your teeth,” he said in a Wednesday Today. Reynolds and his wife, actress Blake Lively, are proud parents to daughters James, 6, Inez, 5, and Betty, age two.
The youngest of four boys himself, Reynolds had initially assumed that raising girls would be quieter than the childhood he remembers, one that saw his brothers ganging up on him and roughhousing and loud noises were commonplace.
As he previously told Entertainment Weekly, “It’s intense when you’re the youngest of four boys,” a sentiment he reiterated in his interview with Today. “So I was always afraid I would have boys,” he told the outlet. “Now that I have girls, I realized I should not have been afraid. I should have wanted boys as well. They’re just as rough.”
Reynolds speaks the truth: No matter their gender, children bring chaos to any home, especially when there’s more than one of them. However, there are some differences that researchers note between dads like Reynolds, who are raising girls, and those who are raising boys. For example, studies have shown that dads tend to be more physical and rowdy with male children and fathers of toddler daughters have also been shown to be more attentive than dads with toddler sons.
Of course, some kids don’t fit the gender binary, and that’s okay, too. Children need their dads no matter their gender or how much “mayhem” they cause, and Reynolds knows this.
Earlier this week, Reynolds said that acting has allowed him to be present with his kids, as he and Lively tend to alternate parenting duties when they are shooting movies so that the whole family can travel together, instead of trying to split time between two sets.
Having just finished Free Guy, as well as The Adam Project, and his new project with The Rock’s production company, Red Notice, Reynolds says he’s ready to slow down his workflow and just enjoy the so-called mayhem of being a girl dad for a while. As he recently told Entertainment Tonight, “For me, it’s really about getting some quality time with my kids before they’re teenagers who loathe me.”
These celebrity moms make us all feel better when they share the highs and lows of parenting.
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