With China’s (erstwhile) One-Child Policy, I am curious to see what the breakdown would be in a more Westernized polling sample survey.
If I had to choose, I think I would rather have a daughter than a son. But I have no experience of being a parent (yet) and I would be interested in hearing how Doper parents chime in. (And of course all non-parent votes and opinions are desired, too)
A daughter. I would have given the same answer before I actually had two. (but certainly not a strong preference. A son would have been great too)
Not sure. They both have redeeming qualities. My daughters have costed more. My Son-of-a-wrek lives close by so he is very helpful at times.
Don’t care.
BTW since you invoke China, AIUI the policy was actually one birthing, so I’d like fraternal twins: a boy and a girl. 
If I had to chose I’d flip a coin.
As a parent, that’s the LAST thing you worry about.
I have no preference at all. I chose daughter only because that’s how it worked out IRL.
I always thought I would want a daughter. For 37 years, I thought I would want a daughter. Then, I was pregnant, and found out I was having a son. From that moment on, I didn’t want anything else. It was weird. I actually felt sorry for people expecting girls. A boy was definitely the thing to have.
Now, I can’t imagine my son as a daughter, but if I got pregnant again (oy, at my age!) I wouldn’t care.
When I was younger, I thought a woman would have an easier time parenting a girl, but I realize now that it really doesn’t make much difference. (People say boys are more trouble as little kids, and girls are more trouble as teens; my son has been pretty easy so far, though.)
I’m not voting in the poll. I’d like to keep the son I have, thank you very much, but if I were back 11 years ago, and you told me I was having a daughter instead of a son, I imagine that whatever hormonal thing I was going through would kick in again, and I’d think a daughter was just the greatest thing in the world.
I wanted a daughter and we kept at it until I got one. She’s now a teen. Anybody want her??? Her brothers were so much easier.
I’d leave it to chance. I have one of each and get a completely different type of profound smack in the face from each.
I would’ve said boy before I had kids. I wanted a mini me I could fix things with because still about me. That changed.
A boy or a girl.
Just, please, not a Pink Princess or a Delicate Prince. We’d be complete aliens for each other. I’m sure that, given Mother Nature’s sense of humor, if I’d had only one child it would be either a Pink Princess or a Delicate Prince.
You don’t get to pick.
How about a transgender child?
A puppy …
My only kid is a daughter. I’ve babysat for various boys.
I keep getting told that daughters are easier to raise than sons up to some point, after which holy crap, watch out. And, hey, for the sake of argument, I’ll even grant that. But my experience with little boys has led me to conclude that no son of mine would last long enough for that to matter, because they take breaks from ramming their heads into stuff just to play games of “Is This Climbable” and “Is That Edible”.
I can bodyguard ‘em from their suicidal little brains for a couple of hours, tops.
Never actually wanted children, but I said daughter, as a female I would do better with a girl than a boy having gone through what she would be going through.
As parents to be we never wanted to find out and would’ve been delighted wth whatever we got. We’ve had one of each and even now, knowing what we know, I can’t say that I’d knowingly go one way or the other
The personality of the child is so much larger of a factor.
My first choice: healthy.
Truly can’t answer- I’ve known too many boys and girls with essentially overlapping characteristics that there is nothing inherently “boyish” or “girlish” that would drive me to want one versus the other.
If I had to answer- I guess I’d say a girl because in Orthodox/Conservative Jewish tradition the children of Jewish women are automatically Jewish but the children of Jewish men are not. She’d never have to worry if her kids would be accepted as being Jewish or not.
From my experience - our son was MUCH easier to raise than our daughter. I’m talking tween and teen years. UGH - would never want to go through that again. As babies and little kids, they were both easy.
But if we had two different kids, it might have worked out the opposite. Personalities differ too much to be able to say which is truly easier.
Today our daughter is a great mom and a great daughter. She will still include a little note in almost every Mother’s Day card - “I’m so sorry for what I put you through”. It always makes me smile.