I know this may be a shock to some who have not had children for the past 5 or 10 years or so, however did you know that there are actually infant and toddler milestones that you are supposed to be hitting with children? I know completely insane right. I know that some of you reading this also need to hear this too… STOP STRESSING!

When you have a baby especially in this day and age there are many many many milestones that you are supposed to be hitting. Some of them could be something as simple as your baby finding you from across the room or even turning their head towards your voice. Then you have more advanced ones like when they are old enough to say hold their head and or crawl and then standing and walking too. To be completely honest trying to keep up with all of them is exhausting.

The fact is, your child may never hit the milestones when studies or whatever says that they are supposed to. Is this a good marker to keep track of things may they have some sort of disability in the future? Sure. At the end of the day though there is no singular test or milestones that will be hit by everyone at the same time. Sometimes you may have a child who hits them all perfectly, even advanced, than you may have another one that is a bit behind in hitting them but is still hitting them. If they are hitting them even at their own pace there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with that.

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My first son was a bit of a late bloomer. He took a while to really say words. However his comprehension to things has been phonemonal. He also was a late bloomer when it came to walking too. However he flies by now when he runs around the room. My current son even though he is not even close to being a year old seems to be doing milestones also relatively quickly in comparison. I swear as soon as he was outside of my body he was trying to hold his head up for multiple reasons. Not to mention his growth is seemingly off the charts as he is growing like a weed!

I think it is important to note, when we were all children the milestones that children had to hit may not have been as known. Most of us turned out pretty alright even without those markers. Dare I even say raising kids was more relaxed in a sense because we were not comparing our kids as much as we do now, thanks to media and the advances in that for part of the reason for the shift now. Sure, they are a great thing for us to use when it comes to diagnosing certain things in children or infants. I think there were also some people who also may have gone untreated by this too.

I will mention this, having a second child I am far less worried about the milestones as I was with my first. I feel like the mentioning of this constantly can also cause even more anxiety and worry in a parent that if their little one may not be hitting them bang on like they are “supposed” to on paper that they immediately panic. I know, I was totally worried if my first son was missing a milestone here and there. You know what though? He eventually did hit all of them!

One problem now a days with parenting is that everything needs to be so technical. From these silly little milestones to even how they play. From the montesseri or whatever have you way of learning. Isn’t that what we are supposed to do anyways as parents? Why does there need to be certain ways for us to help our children learn? Not everything in parenting needs to be so thought out and done. Honestly the best thing you can do as a parent is just to go with the flow. Am I saying that routine or structure is bad? No. Of course not! But there can be some relaxation in the process. If you are a bit off schedule one day or if you have the TV on a little bit when you want to try to get something done, there is nothing wrong with that either.

As parents we find ourselves stressing about anything and everything, and even though as we have more kids we find ourselves becoming more relaxed there is enough stressors that we really don’t need to add anything else. If your child is missing milestones a lot or maybe is far behind than obviously there is some cause for concern though but in the grand scheme of things it is completely okay for us to let things happen naturally. As I mentioned my first son has been a late bloomer in terms of talking, however now at 2 years old I swear every day he repeats a new word that I had no idea he would. The fact is, none of his doctors ever seemed alarmed by this, we as his parents were the ones who were more stressed.

Before you focus on milestones, know that you are a great parent. You are doing everything you feel right in their lives and if milestones take a bit longer than Jimmy down the road that is completely normal and okay. We need to enjoy the life we have created and watch them grow instead of trying to fit them into this timeline of when things should or shouldn’t be happening. A cause for concern should happen when the time comes, and if a doctor whom you hopefully trust, isn’t concerned than you really shouldn’t be either!