From the moment babies are born, they already have certain milestones they have to hit. Which is when I think my stress began, at the time of my own birth. They need to have their first poop within 24 hours, crawl by ___, walk by ___, say 10 words by ____. I mean, I get it, medical reasons and all, but was it always like this? Were moms always overwhelmed when their kid didn’t meet a certain milestone at the time they should have? Or is this just me? I just like to think times used to be much simpler. I like to think that milestones weren’t always there in the stone manner that we view them today.
I can remember being a lot younger and setting milestones for myself. For instance, I remember being about 5 years old and holding hands with my best friend, and us saying “okay if we can run at the same speed across the playground then we’re meant to be best friends.” Or when I turned 16, I set out the following: I want to have a career by 21, married by 22, own a house by 24, pregnant with our first at 25 and have all of our children before the age of 30 (because in my mind 30 year olds don’t have children – haha). I mean, lets all be honest with each other for a second, I just turned 28 and I still don’t know “what I want to be when I’m older.” Is this just me or is this happening to everyone?! When did we just start letting life control us? Then when certain things don’t happen, you feel like you’ve just let yourself down. No? Just me? Oh okay.
So what if Kori and I didn’t run at the same speed in elementary school, we’re still friends to this day. Sure, maybe I was a little bummed to not be married much less dating someone at 22, but in reality, I’m glad my life waited for my husband.
I feel like milestones are a great thing to strive for, and I want our children to always have those … just without them being set in stone. Why not eliminate unnecessary stress?Because Lord knows that’s why I have so many gray hairs. Maybe it’s the Moana soundtrack giving me all the feels, or maybe it’s the fact that I’ve turned 28. I’ve decided to just let it go. Let. It. All. Go. Just to let life happen … because the best things in life have always seemed to happen unexpectedly.
Oh, and PS. Maverick just learned how to walk. We finally hit this milestone at 16 months, which is sometimes considered late. But guess who’s not worrying?
