All in Good Time

Veteran's Day 2013 was a big day at our house. Shay had the day off, so Cayben decided he wanted his dad to teach him how to ride a bike. He learned with relative ease and now rides like a champ.

Embrie enjoyed riding her glide bike as well.

And Solee, Shay and I enjoyed just watching.

Cayben learning to ride a bike got me thinking about the timelines we put on our children. Cayben will be seven in a few short months. Back in my day, most of my contemporaries and I learned to ride bikes around age five or six. Nowadays kids are riding bikes at age four, or even age three. I guess you could consider Cayben "late" at developing this skill. He also hasn't lost any teeth yet. He's "slow" in that area as well.

There have been many areas Cayben has been deemed an "early developer". He was "quick" to walk and talk.

Does anyone else find all these timelines we put on our children's development a little disconcerting? I guess it's not the timelines that really bother me. I understand that there are normal ranges of development that are important factors in assessing children's health. It's the constant push to make our children do things sooner and better that bothers me.

Maybe it's because peoples' lives are so public and we tend to compare. I'm so guilty of this when it comes to my children. I find myself worrying. Even now I try to push out the thoughts that I'm failing as a parent because my 16-month-old daughter doesn't talk.

Or at church there is a little girl in my daughters class, so I'm guessing she's four, that reads very well. After hearing her read I had the thought, "I need to push my kids harder." I'm their educator. Where am I failing? Why can't they read like that yet?

Why does it matter when they learn to talk? Why does it matter when they learn to read? Why can't we just let our kids enjoy this fantastic time of life called childhood and let them develop on their own timeline?

This doesn't mean I don't believe in teaching our children or encouraging them to learn something. It simply means I think kids should get to guide there own lives as much as possible.

It's something for me to learn over and over again. I pushed my young, barely 3-year-old son to play soccer and to learn to read. He hated both. Still does to this day. He chose to do karate and developed an interest in math on his own and loves both. When Embrie was potty training I constantly demanded of her to try and go to the bathroom. "Let's try and go potty again!" Every. Thirty. Minutes. When I told my 2-year-old girl that I was done asking if she needed to go potty and told her to let me know when she wanted to go, she quit pooping her pants that very day.

My mind often wanders back to the country song, Let Them Be Little, because I need the reminder.

Rant finished!