My wife and I take pride in the fact that we try to raise both of our children the same and don't buy into the "raising boys versus raising girls" argument. However, this past weekend revealed an ugly truth — in case you didn't know, boys are different than girls are, no matter how you attempt to raise them.

Consider the fact that both kids were participants in birthday parties 24 hours apart. Let's look at the party my daughter planned and participated in first.

She was the host of a "Princess" party consisting of six young ladies, ages 4 through 7, at our house on Friday. A rundown of the activities is enough to make the youngest of men cringe, and please remember my daughter planned everything. She's 5.

The event kicked off with the Princess Parade, where the girls pranced around in their fancy dresses, crowns, scepters, fancy shoes and background music. The princesses strolled throughout our home with their "followers" (moms and grandparents) urging them to wave, smile and basically gallivant throughout their kingdom.

Soon after, the tiny figures of royalty grew weary and needed refreshments. Finger sandwiches were served along with fresh fruit, crisp veggies with dip and Jell-O jigglers. The princesses' beverages included juice boxes, water and some sodas.

After tiring of eating, activities were necessary, so the girls pulled out lip gloss and nail polish. Within 20 minutes, each of them was busy drying their freshly painted fingernails and toenails.

Somehow I managed to maintain my sanity by occasionally disappearing downstairs to check e-mails, faxes, etc. Otherwise I'm certain that I would've been nothing more than the court jester or servant boy.

Now let's take a look at my son, or "wildthing," as he's becoming known as around our house.

He attended a party the day before that included a potato sack race, swimming, a balloon toss and a tire swing.

Food consisted of pizza, potato chips, soda, popcorn and a token tray of fruit that went untouched by the party-goers. (The exception, of course, was the parents who were attempting to set a good example for their kids.)

Wildthing skinned the cheese off of his pizza, ate the crust and then managed to squeeze about a pound and a half of popcorn into his cheeks between bites of really good homemade ice cream cake. Did you know that you actually can drink a can of soda while jumping up and down in a potato sack?

To be fair, this party had about a dozen or so boys and three brave girls. The girls kind of stuck together and munched fruit and popcorn while the boys busted balloons, pushed and shoved each other and (gasp) ran around the edge of the pool despite repeated warnings that they might slip and get hurt. Somehow they managed to avoid any trips to the ER.

Now I'd like to be able say that with age comes maturity and a commonality between the sexes, but I cannot lie to you. Some 30 years older than our kids, my wife and I find ourselves preparing quite differently for an upcoming vacation.

Packing for the trip, the pronounced differences between men and women again shouts louder than the winner of a hot dog eating contest when I emerge from our bedroom armed with a plastic bag containing my "stuff" for the trip as my wife attempts to sit on the third bag of luggage containing her "stuff."

I can only imagine how my son and daughter have packed.