Developmental Milestones

After about 10 years in the workforce I have grown accustom to reaching goals, competing, and the pressure to perform. Being a stay-at-home mom has created a whole new set of challenges. Thanks to our society, there is a great deal of pressure for your child to be the first to reach a developmental milestone. I will admit that at the beginning I was slightly obsessed with when my daughter should be hitting the milestones and how she fared compared to her peers. After driving myself crazy, I finally realized that my daughter is going to develop at her own rate.

It is a good idea to know approximately when your child should be reaching certain developmental milestones in case there is a problem, but as I have learned these should only be used as guidelines. Here are some websites that provide information on developmental milestones:

http://www.pbs.org/wholechild/abc/index.html
http://www.babycenter.com/baby-development
http://www.parents.com/baby/development/

My advice is to let your child develop at their own pace. Spend as much time playing with your child as possible and make everything a learning experience.