Daughters Are Better Than Sons? Financially, it seems so.

My wife, Melissa, and I have three children: two daughters and a son. The girls are the oldest and youngest of our kids with our son in the middle. When we were pregnant with our first child, I remember being concerned not with what the sex of the baby would turn out to be, but that he or she would arrive healthy. But once we had our first little girl that feeling of neutrality went out the window. She was so lively and fun that I began to reason that having an entire house full of daughters one day wouldn’t be so bad (at least until the teenage, dad-hating years set in). Now that we have two girls and a boy, I can safely say that they each bring their own daily joys and challenges to us, regardless of gender.

Based on a survey I recently came across, however, maybe I was on to something with my initial intuition related to daughters. It turns out, according to a survey conducted by Harris Poll for Yodlee, that daughters are a better financial “deal” than sons. Here are some interesting findings:

After age 18, daughters are less likely than sons to move back home or need a financial “helping hand” from their parents.
Of those 34-45 years old, 35% of men still get parental financial help, while only 18% of their female peers do.
32% of men ages 35-44 are still rooming with their parents, while only 9% of women that age are. The most commonly cited reason from sons was unemployment (or underemployment), while women most often listed “taking care of their parents.”
Daughters easily outperform sons when it comes to supporting aging parents. Sons are almost twice as likely as daughters to say that they will not back up their parents emotionally by doing things like calling or visiting. Close to 60% of daughters provide that support while less than half of sons do.
Women are more likely to care for their aging parents, assist with personal needs and help with chores, errands and transportation.

If our son, Mason, ever reads this, I hope he realizes that these aren’t my predictions about his future but rather some current stats from an interesting survey. Who knows, maybe he’ll buck the trend? And perhaps his growing up between two sisters will cause their “daughterly traits” to rub off on him!