Can an exciting milestone of a baby’s first attempt at crawling turn out to leave our first-time dad Stu with a foreboding sense of dread?
We hope you enjoy the latest blog from our Head of Growth, Stuart!
‘Dear Santa, please can my baby start crawling this Christmas?’
Be careful what you wish for.
This is a phrase I generally have an issue with. Be careful what you wish for is a phrase which tries to stop people taking chances on doing something which might be different, better. A phrase which stops people getting excited or having hope. It’s the motto and maxim of pessimists and energy vampires. So when a good friend said this to me just before Christmas my reaction was, predictably, dismissive. I’d been talking to him about seeing early signs that my 9-month old was trying to crawl and I was, as is my nature, as excited (and probably as annoying) as a small child on Christmas Eve. A date which transpired to be notable for unexpected reasons….
My friend has two older children so has been there and done it, and it has to be said has been an incredibly helpful (and patient!) sounding board for my frequent moments of baffledom and confusion. So when he uttered this phrase when I was saying I was excited about my daughter crawling, I was a little surprised but thought no more of it.
Fast forward to December 24th.
Having missed out on Christmas entirely last year because of lockdowns, my wife and I were busily packing bags. As a side note, 9 months in I am still constantly amazed what a HUGE amount of ‘stuff’ such a tiny person needs for a couple of days, but I digress. We were about to make the rounds of festive visits. We were ready for trips to visit her parents and then mine, to celebrate our first festive season together with family, our mini-me in tow. Christmas music played in the background, lights on the tree twinkled, my daughter played happily on her mat. An idyllic festive scene.
And then it happened. Within the blink of an eye she’d finally joined up all the moving parts and with a turn of speed which was surprising, commando crawled across her mat. Headed straight for the power cable for her monitor and the only piece of furniture light enough for her to topple. My initial wave of huge excitement – and the inevitable rush to grab my phone to film her in action (the internet must and shall hear and see of these things) – was tempered by a sudden sinking feeling.
We were about to head to two houses that, quite reasonably, weren’t baby-proofed at all. And we were going to be arriving with a newly mobile baby who had an innate curiosity solely for those things which might electrocute or squish her. I looked around our apartment and saw only danger and easily-grabbable things within the reach of the newly-mobile piglet. I steeled myself for a hawk-eyed, always-alert holiday season.
And then I heard my friend’s knowing tones echoing in my head.
Be careful what you wish for
He does have an irritating habit of being right about a lot of things, my friend. That being said, for the new challenges of a non-static baby, like hunting the potential hazards in the house (pro tip – lie on your back to get a baby’s perspective and see what you could grab/could kill you and then move/seal off accordingly) and impromptu games of find the baby, it’s been the most hilarious and fun experience yet. My elderly cat might not call it fun now he has a mobile baby in hot pursuit of his tail! But on the flipside, she does drop a lot of food for him to hoover up. You win some, you lose some in life, as my cat Johnny is finding out to his benefit and cost.
She’s still at the commando crawling stage. A week or two later and I’m wondering if she will progress to the more normal crawl or go straight to walking.
It’s been a source of fevered debate, with lots of discussions with grandparents about what my wife and I did (I walked early, but didn’t really crawl, my wife came to crawling a bit later) and whether that meant anything for our little one. Probably not. She seems to march to the beat of her own drum. And that is one of the many joys, being constantly surprised and amazed at her personality emerging.
But for now it is so much fun seeing her get slightly bolder and braver, going from crawling mostly around her mat to disappearing into different rooms, expanding her empire. Looking at how desperate she is to stand, I am thinking the walking stage is pretty close. So this weekend I’ll be going round the house with a handful of brackets in one hand and a drill in the other, attaching anything and everything to the walls.
Overall scores for crawling
During a lot of festive driving, my parents having retired to a village slightly past the middle of nowhere, I had time ploughing down motorways to reflect on some of the other milestones my daughter has passed so far, and how they went at the time. I’ll share one or two with each month’s blog, adding more as they happen. As a handy guide, for each one I’ll give ratings. Cuteness, divisiveness and terror. Rated with numbers of photos taken, volume of angry online articles and glasses of wine needed to recover respectively, marked out of 10.
For crawling, the scores are:
- Cuteness: A strong 8/10. The internet certainly heard about this. Ahem. Apologies to my social media following for the barrage of posts!
- Divisiveness: An atypical 0/10 rants rating. Seemingly one of the few things in parenthood people don’t argue about online. Which considering what is to come is a blessed relief.
- Terror: A middling 6/10, with a distinct sense of foreboding that walking will nudge this up to 10!
Thanks for reading!
Next month I promise to chat about some of the more fun milestones, along with some other thoughts on this exciting journey. Do you have some stories to tell or things you’d like to share? Whatever topic you want to discuss, or parent or carer experiences you’ve had, we’d love to hear from you and share your thoughts with all of the Happity community. And of course if you prefer we can share stories anonymously. If you’d like to contribute, please drop me a line: stuar[email protected]
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