When Mama Knows Best

Do you ever feel like your timing is out of sync? Or your kid’s timing is out of sync? There seem to be set rules for everything in our society: babies should walk by 12 months, toddlers should know 100 words, 5-year olds should go to kindergarten (unless they’re boys and then, maybe six is okay), 15-year olds should be learning to drive, 18-year olds should be planning to leave the nest.

But what if you and your kid aren’t on that plan?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately with my own teenagers. I’ll skip the details, but let me just say that I’m not sure who decided 15 was the right age to teach a boy to drive. I’m quite certain it would have been easier at age 12 (when they still thought you knew something) or maybe… 26?

When I look back, both my kids and I have been out of sync many times. My babies learned to walk at 10 months (“early! that’s amazing! what did you do?!?”) and 16 months (“that’s a little late. have you thought about having him evaluated?”) They were both completely fine – and, contrary to popular belief, the younger one walked later despite having an older brother to model it for him. That same kid didn’t know how to jump at the age of 3 – a discovery I made in Gymboree class. Was there something wrong with him? Nope. He was just content with 2 feet on the ground. He’s now a long distance runner who has just added javelin to his repertoire. I started 1st grade a month after I turned 5, graduated when I was 16 and finished college before I was (legally) allowed in a bar.

I’m thinking April the giraffe is feeling this way right about now after 2 weeks of live streaming the impending birth of her baby. All in due time.

Everyone is different.

And that’s what keeps life interesting. Sometimes you just know your kids better than anyone else.