Huh?

I was just talking to a friend about dead animals being hurled into places of worship in Malaysia when she suddenly brought up the topic of how another friend used to be ill-treated by her father for not being born a boy.

Lily (actually her real name, 'cos I can't really stand her "Look at me! Look at me!" behaviour), is the fourth daughter born into a family made out of the dad, mum and three elder sisters.

On the day she was born, Lily's dad refused to look at her and her mother. He had expected Lily to have been born a boy. He had so wanted a son to carry on the family name in the many generations to come (it's a Chinese thing).

Perhaps due to the feeling of sheer neglect, Lily soon grew up and is now more successful than her other sisters.

Now, what perplexes me here is not why Lily wasn't born a boy. It's why Lily's dad couldn't even understand the most basic theory of reproduction in the field of biology.

Everyone knows that Mother X + Father Y = Boy and Mother X + Father X = Girl. The contributing factor from the mother's side will always be "X". It's the contributing factor from the father's side that's a bit unpredictable when it comes to determining the baby's gender.

If you end up getting all girls in your family, don't blame the mother and child.

And had you ended up getting twins or triplets, don't congratulate yourself too much either. This "strange" phenomenon wasn't entirely caused by you. Go figure, old man...