I think it does help to have kids of different genders. One thing that worries me about my two is that I see DD shying away from areas where she has talent (e.g. math) that she sees as DS' talent domain. Maybe he is more "mathy" than she is, but she is still quite talented! I'd hate for her to stop developing a talent area just because of him. What I see is that they are sort of claiming different areas: DD declares her interests to be literature, art, athletics and DS is interested in math, science, music. Maybe that's just how they work this kind of thing out. Maybe by claiming different areas they avoid comparisons. Or maybe they really do have affinities for different things regardless of talent.
