Gender Selection News

How do you explain all those Osmond boys?

Darling Marie was the only girl in a family with EIGHT sons.  Each of those sons went on to have large families of their own, having mostly boys -- Donny has 5 boys, and Alan has 8 boys.

I have several articles on this site dealing with the odds of having a boy or a girl.  Statistically, your odds of having a boy or a girl do not change, regardless of how many boys or girls you've previously given birth to.  And a statistical study has shown that having boys or girls doesn't run in the family.

But you have to wonder -- 8 boys and 1 girl? 

(Now I know you're saying, Maureen, there were only 6 Osmonds, being of course Wayne, Merrill, Jay, Donnie, Alan, and Little Jimmy.  There were actually two older brothers, Virl and Tom, who were born nearly deaf; a cruel twist of irony.)

Take a look at their children (in order of most boys):

• Alan: 8 boys
• Donny: 5 boys
• Virl: 5 boys, 2 girls
• Merrill: 4 boys, 2 girls
• Tom: 4 boys, 3 girls
• Jay: 3 boys
• Wayne: 3 boys, 2 girls
• Jimmy: 2 boys, 2 girls

Three sons had ONLY boys, the rest had more boys than girls, except Jimmy, who had 2 of each.  None had more girls than boys.  The total?  34 boys to 11 girls, or 75% boys.

(Marie also has 8 children, 5 of whom are adopted, but I couldn't find their genders.)

Usually, when I hear someone talking about how boys "run in the family," they're mentioning cases of 2 boys here, 3 or 4 boys there.  But this is a sample of 45 kids!

Alan's sons perform together as the "Osmonds 2nd Generation", and the 4 youngest sons have recorded albums as "The Osmond Boys". Where do I buy a lunchbox?!

• Why do some families have all boys or all girls?
• The odds of having a boy or a girl
• Does having boys or girls run in the family?
  Chance Magazine (PDF)

Published Aug 18 2005, 08:19 AM by Maureen

About Maureen

In 1999, my two sons were 4 and 2 years old, and we were ready to have another baby. I hoped to have a daughter, and I turned to the Internet to search for ways of increasing the odds of conceiving a girl. I discovered the iVillage Gender Determination Board. On the board, I found information about at-home and high-tech sex selection methods, but more importantly, I discovered I wasn't alone. I was one among a legion of mothers who longed desperately for a daughter, keeping it a secret so others wouldn't think, wrongly, that we loved our sons less, and feeling guilty becuse we're not supposed to care if a baby's a boy or a girl, "as long as it's healthy". There were, of course, also mothers hoping just as much to add a son to their all-girl family.

After a lot of research and soul-searching, my husband I decided to try MicroSort. In the fall of 2000, I became pregnant on our first MicroSort attempt, by IUI. At 20 weeks of pregnancy, we discovered we were having twins, a boy and a girl! We were thrilled to have a daughter at last, and a new son to cherish too.

During my journey to conceive a daughter, I was so grateful for the support and information volunteered by others on the boards; mothers who didn't even know me, but were willing to help me, hope for me, and cry along with me, when there was no one I could turn to "in real life". I know that without being able to talk personally with women who had tried MicroSort, I would have never gone through with this daunting, complex procedure; and that we would have never had a daughter as part of our family.

Now that my journey's finished, this Web site is just my way of giving some of that help back, to you.