Parenting: It’s not a contest. Competitive parenting is unhealthy, illogical, and ridiculous. All children develop at their own rate, and comparing one to another simply adds stress to family life and potentially harms the child.
This is especially true if your kid is behind, and so I stuck with this mantra one night last week. It started when I checked out the archives of a friend’s blog to see what their son looked like at Simon’s age. And there it was, a description of him rolling over front to back and back to front. Then I checked out the photo album of yet another friend’s kid. They had a photo of her rolling over. Oh boy.
Simon, bless his heart, has done this only twice. And only in one direction. Is he behind? Delayed? Losing? These are the questions I brought to Matt. Bless his heart, Matt understands me and has a sick competitive streak himself. “Well,” he offered, “he might be a bit behind. But he’s verbally ahead of the game. He’ll beat them at talking.” This unhealty, illogical, and ridiculous point cheered me up for a bit.
Then something interesting happened. Simon had been propped up in bed for this unhealthy, illogical, and ridiculous conversation. He started to lean to the side, as he often does, only this time came off the pilow and rolled over onto his belly. Interesting–and not at all what he had in mind!
Somewhat upset, he then squirmed his way into a 1/2 roll with his upper body lifted onto his arms and looked up at us for help. We offered none, but cheered him on like madmen.
A few seconds later, Simon strained to heave himself over the rest of the way and get back to his prefered face-up position.
So there it was. A back to tummy and tummy to back roll in order. He’s on track! (sort of) He’s not behind! (much) We can put this unhealty, illogical, and ridiculous contest behind us. At least until we start noticing when other kids sit up, walk, talk, and get potty-trained.