When
my first child was born (my daughter Emma), I read every single pregnancy and
mother and baby magazine going to make sure I was prepared for this life changing
event! One thing that I picked up on though, in almost every magazine I read,
was the issue of milestones and what your baby should be doing by a certain
age. I had also signed up to the Bounty and Boots Parenting emails and these
too would often say 'You are now in week such and such, and your baby should
now be doing this......'. As a new mum, I would often be concerned if Emma
wasn't doing things by the time they had suggested, and actually ended up
calling the health visitor a couple of times. I also had friends who had babies
around the same time as me, and so there would often be talk of "My baby
is crawling already, is yours?" or
"My baby can walk now, has your child started yet?" More often
than not, my answers to these kind of questions was no!
Of course now that I am a mum of 3, I have learnt that every
baby is different and develops at completely different times, when they are
good and ready. Emma didnt start walking until she was 20 months old, yet my
son Ben, started at 10 months. The fact that it took Emma a little longer,
hasn't had any effect on her and looking back, I wish that I hadn't paid any
attention to anyone else or any magazine articles that I read.
My youngest Riley, is now 18 months old and he has just started walking independently last week. I hadn't really thought much of the concerns that I had with Emma for quite some time, until I recently saw many articles about Prince George taking his first steps. This seemed to attract many differing opinions about when babies should be walking, and although the majority seem to agree that babies will develop naturally at their own pace, I was shocked to see that there are also many who think all babies should be walking by the age of 1, or that babies that walk later have had less encouragement from their parents.
Do you think babies should be able to do things by a certain
time, or do you agree that babies should be left to develop their skills at
their own pace? I would love to hear people's opinions on this, so please feel
free to comment below.
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