Let’s Compare Our Children
Your Child:
6 months old
Weighs 18lbs
Wears a Size 12mo clothes
Has 4 teeth
Sleeps 6 hours at night
Rolls Over and Can Sit up
My Child
7 months old
Weighs 120lbs
Wears a size 32 x 32 pants
Studying Dentistry at UNC
Sleeps 12 hours at night and when he wakes up makes breakfast and serves it to me in bed.
Training to run the Boston Marathon and Climb Mt. Everest.
In all fairness none of those things about my child are true, except he is 7 months old.
The other day I was reading Andrea’s blog post, If You Want To Time Travel, Have a Baby. Andrea’s baby, Calvin, in one month younger than Noah so I love to read the updates on his milestones and growth. And often time I compare Noah’s development to Calvin’s. But you know what Noah and Calvin are completely different babies. While Calvin is a master of eating solid foods Noah is Mr. Picky and only eats breast milk. Yet Noah has been rolling over for months and Calvin is just getting the hang of this crazy rolling business. And you know what I realized? Both of these babies are 100% on track to be awesome little dudes.
I also realized that I compare my children to other kids to validate my parenting.
Ouch.
Like there is some way I can force Noah to crawl sooner or grow taller. Noah is right on track with Noah’s developmental plan.
Fact: If my child excels in one area of his development it probably has little to nothing to do with me.
Fact: If my child excels in one area of his development it probably has little to nothing to do with me.
My job as mom is to provide a safe and encouraging environment so my children can grow and develop into the best versions of themselves they can be. The. End.
My friend Paige said it best,
“I ask myself 3 questions…
Is my child safe?
Are they fed?
Do they have on relatively clean pants?
If I can answer yes to all 3, A+ mom!”
So I’m going to stop comparing my kid to yours. But I’ll still read updates about how fat your baby is or what their coolest new trick is because childhood development completely fascinates me.
