Just like every other parent of a new child, I cant help but compare my baby's development against that of other children her age. I couldn't have been prouder when she could turn herself over or sit up a good month before the other babies we know. Her babbling talk that sounds for all the world like coherent sentences in a language I just don't know, is more than enough to convince me she's as bright as they come. Now that she is learning our language through the parrot method, every word she has managed to say is announced to every friend and relative I come in contact with. So what if she was late walking on her own?
The doctors made a big deal about it, saying she's a loose jointed baby and we have to force her to walk. Now anyone who has ever babysat, parented or even seen very small children on the loose in public knows that anything a baby doesn't want to do, they cannot be forced to do. The toddlers first line of defense, the wet noodle strategy, is completely incompatible with forced walking. I know it will do neither of us any good to spend a few hours trying to make an already loose baby who's purposefully getting looser, stand and walk.
Its not as if she cant walk, I had seen her take steps when she thought no one was looking, she walked just fine holding my hand and with her hand against the wall, that was no problem. Most likely the main problem was she would rather be carried and she knows neither mommy nor daddy and not even big sister who at only 8 herself, tends toward the lugging a sack of potatoes carry, will refuse her. Is she spoiled? At a year and a half with only carrying and walking at issue, I don't think so, you cant hold a baby enough.
So my thinking was that shed walk when she wanted to and I'm not going to turn into a despot over it, so what if she prefers crawling? That's no big deal especially considering she right on track with everything else. My thinking, but not my husbands, he held this little lagging of the highest concern as if something was wrong with her. He's the worrier and when the worrier worries, action must be taken.
And with that, walking practice commenced. For the next half an hour, we walked around the living room, through the kitchen around the table and back in the living room to repeat the circuit with her holding onto my hand. Then it was another half an hour of walk to daddy.. come on sweety, walk to daddy.. while she crawled from me to my husband and back again. All I could think was that she must be very confused and probably thought we had gone nuts.
Finally she did take a couple steps toward her father, the only time I have heard him cheer so enthusiastically was while he was sitting in front of the TV watching a game. Needless to say, after a few times of the taking a couple steps followed by an pair of ecstatic parents, she took off walking like shed been doing it for months. I was so unbelievably smug nodding at Len I told you there was nothing wrong with her, she could walk if she wanted to.
Now she does an equal amount of crawling and walking, both with a good amount of proficiency. Exercise in point, when worried about a child's development, encourage, don't push and know that they'll do what they're ready to do when they want to do it.