I have been reading Christiane Northrup’s book Mother-Daughter Wisdom. The author is an OB-GYN, or obstetrician-gynecologist. Through her job, she has experienced and witnessed many baby deliveries.
In her book, she talks about the gender preference in previous generation when baby boys were valued than baby girls. She shared one of her patent’s story. The patient had her daughter for her first baby. When she gave birth to her second baby and they found out the baby was again a girl, the first thing came out of her mouth to her husband was “I’m sorry, honey.”
The author is right on saying our old society, the male‐dominated society, values baby boys more than baby girls. The old society indeed had considered boys as the priority gender over the girls.
I was a bit surprised that was common in America, the country of freedom.
From my personal experiences, I can easily imagine the situation of the old society, the male‐dominated society.
I was born to a unique family.
The recent ancestors of my paternal family was a famous samurai family. They were the leader of the area. Their castle still exists in our hometown area.
The older ancestors of my paternal family is the historical celebrity; Mr. Sugawara-no-Michizane. My paternal grandmother passed down the fact to my mom on her death bed. He was well known for his brilliant intelligence. He helped the government for their political issues. After he passed away, people have built many shrines all over Japan to enshrine him as a God of learning. The shrines are well known as Tenjin-san.
Because of such great heritage of the family, my paternal family valued a baby boy to pass down their family name.
My parents luckily had their first baby as a boy.
In those days parents didn’t know the baby’s sex until they are born. When my mom gave birth to my brother as their first baby, she instantly knew her son would be taken away to her husband’s family, not physically but mentally. And her intuition was right. My brother was highly valued by my paternal family and relatives.
That made a clear sense to me, about the reason why I jumped into my mom’s tummy when my brother was only 4 months old.
My mom’s OB-GYN recommended her to abort me, which was a common procedure in those days when the next baby has come too soon. My mom refused the doctor’s recommendation and decided to have me.
While I was in her tummy, my mom would often talk to me to come out as a baby girl. My mom thought her husband’s family would not care for a baby girl.
Having listened to her wish, as my own desire as well, I was born as a girl.
While I grew up, I never got anybody’s expectation for my future life plan, especially from my paternal side family. My brother on the other hand, grew up with a huge expectation from our paternal family and relatives to become a successful man.
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To be honest, when I was small, I had a complicated feeling and emotion toward the fact. I often wondered why being born as a boy and a girl is so different. I often felt jealous to my brother for being born as a boy.
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Now that I grew old, I finally accept the fact. I chose to be born as a girl myself.
I consider myself as lucky to be born as a girl. It was actually wonderful to be able to live my life, stress-free and expectation-free from anybody.
In my personal opinion, being born as a girl is not bad at all. It’s great actually. There are so many benefits be born as a girl, and I am enjoying it and loving it.
♬ Any feedback? (^^♪
three wisdom 