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There's bound to be at least one baby genius in your prenatal class—a baby who achieves key developmental milestones weeks—if not months—ahead of the other babies and whose parents have clearly pegged him as Harvard material. I mean, if he's smiling at 3 weeks old and crawling by the time he's 4 months old, he's bound to get to Harvard on full scholarship in another 18 years' time, right?
As you've no doubt noticed by now, new parents seem to like nothing more than to compare notes on their babies with other parents, eagerly looking for evidence that their resident genius is either miles ahead of the other babies or at least holding his own. As Joyce, a 42-year-old mother of two, notes with her tongue firmly planted in her cheek: If your baby is excelling, you must be a super parent, and who wants to be judged as anything less?
Unfortunately, what most parents don't seem to realize and what many baby books mysteriously neglect to tell you is that no two babies follow the exact same timeline when it comes to growth and development.
While it can be helpful to look at charts outlining the approximate date by which your baby should have mastered a particular developmental task, it's important to keep in mind that what you're looking at is a rough timeline rather than a rigid blueprint for development. So take heart: the fact that your baby crawled, talked and walked a good month or two behind the other babies in your prenatal class doesn't mean that your baby is sentenced to a lifetime of being an "also ran." It simply means that he had other things on his mind than stepping into the baby fast lane.
