Oct. 1, 2006
My son can’t crawl. He can get from one side of the room to another in a matter of seconds, but it’s not by normal knees-and-hands crawling. Instead, he sort of leans sideways and reaches while putting his butt in the air and then flops forward, bonking his head on the way down. It’s not pretty. Not at all.
Joey’s inability to crawl doesn’t bother me much. Sure, I get a bit competitive every once in awhile and try to tempt him forward on his hands and knees, but in the whole scheme of things, I have much bigger things to worry about. He’s happy. He’s healthy. It’s not like he’s seven and still can’t crawl. He’s eight months old for gosh sakes! What is bothering me are the people who seem to think that it’s their duty to inform me of all of the things that could possibly be wrong with my son since he’s not crawling yet. Here are just a few (of the many) things that people have told me lately:
- If he doesn’t learn to crawl before he can stand, then he’ll never be able to read or write because he won’t understand sequencing.
- If he never crawls, he’ll have to have physical therapy on his legs and be in casts for years when he’s older because he’ll never learn to walk flat-footed.
- If he can’t crawl before he’s nine months old, it’s a sign that he’ll probably have a learning disability in math.
- If he doesn’t crawl before he’s eight months old, his arms are too week and I should get him in to see a therapist immediately because it could signal a physical disability.
When people tell me things like this, I want to scream. He’s a baby. His pediatrician doesn’t see a problem. He’s right on track with the rest of his milestones. Crawling has nothing to do with reading. Or writing. Or math. Sure, in the next few years, Joey could face any number of these issues. He could struggle with learning to read. He could need physical therapy for one reason or another. He might not be good at math. But right now, I think that these issues should be the farthest away from my mind and it drives me crazy that people feel the need to say things like this. As if I don’t have enough to worry about as it is, these people think I should worry about his future ability to do long division and read Hamlet.
Joey’s inability to crawl doesn’t bother me much. Sure, I get a bit competitive every once in awhile and try to tempt him forward on his hands and knees, but in the whole scheme of things, I have much bigger things to worry about. He’s happy. He’s healthy. It’s not like he’s seven and still can’t crawl. He’s eight months old for gosh sakes! What is bothering me are the people who seem to think that it’s their duty to inform me of all of the things that could possibly be wrong with my son since he’s not crawling yet. Here are just a few (of the many) things that people have told me lately:
- If he doesn’t learn to crawl before he can stand, then he’ll never be able to read or write because he won’t understand sequencing.
- If he never crawls, he’ll have to have physical therapy on his legs and be in casts for years when he’s older because he’ll never learn to walk flat-footed.
- If he can’t crawl before he’s nine months old, it’s a sign that he’ll probably have a learning disability in math.
- If he doesn’t crawl before he’s eight months old, his arms are too week and I should get him in to see a therapist immediately because it could signal a physical disability.
When people tell me things like this, I want to scream. He’s a baby. His pediatrician doesn’t see a problem. He’s right on track with the rest of his milestones. Crawling has nothing to do with reading. Or writing. Or math. Sure, in the next few years, Joey could face any number of these issues. He could struggle with learning to read. He could need physical therapy for one reason or another. He might not be good at math. But right now, I think that these issues should be the farthest away from my mind and it drives me crazy that people feel the need to say things like this. As if I don’t have enough to worry about as it is, these people think I should worry about his future ability to do long division and read Hamlet.
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