Every Baby is Different

“Every baby is just different,” I feel like I find myself saying that to people a lot since I’ve had our son. Everyone and their brother (literally) wants to tell me about what their child did and when they did it. It’s like I need to start whipping out a yardstick to compare our kids all the time. It gets a little frustrating.

My son slept through the night at six weeks, you should really get your son checked out!
First off, I don’t believe you at all. Second, there’s nothing wrong with my child, he’s just hungry AND stubborn.

My son start walking at 6 months old…your boy isn’t even crawling yet?
Nope, and I’m quite pleased with that. If he’s fourteen years old and still rolling around on the floor to get to things, I’ll let you know and get your doctor’s name then.

We started our boy on finger foods at 6 months…your boy is still eating purees?
Yes, and he hasn’t choked on purees yet. I don’t feel he’s ready for finger foods yet and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let my kid choke on a green bean because someone tried making me feel like a bad mother for not giving him finger foods.

Our kids never slept in our rooms…and you let him sleep in your bed? (Horrified face).
Yes, he sleeps in our room. And yes, on occasion, he sleeps in our bed. I don’t feel like this requires a visit from Child Protective Services, so please, let’s not make a big deal out of this.

He’s not babbling yet? Our kids were always babbling by 6 months old.
Nope, he has his occasional “ba ba ba” but it’s not a regular thing. Part of me feels like I should be worried but the other part of me says that all kids are different, I don’t need to worry.

Sometimes I think it's funny when people try to play this "my kid is better than yours" game. Most of the time I just find it ridiculously annoying. Babies are babies. There's not a whole lot that you can do to really force them into doing things they're not ready for. Unfortunately their logic and reasoning skills aren't that well developed...well maybe your kids' reasoning skills are well developed; my boy just isn't there yet.