Survival of the fittest?
Little Guy is standing like a champ. If he holds on to something, he can stand unassisted. What is the problem, you wonder? He refuses to hold on to anything. He’s had this issue ever since he was small that he doesn’t use his arms for much of anything involving pushing and pulling. We had Early Intervention come for a visit, but he was only behind by a month in gross motor skills and he was ahead in a few others. Anyway, he’s rolling over like it’s going out of style and pushing up and all of the things he was delayed on in the first place. But he shows no signs of wanting to crawl or pull up. Since he won’t hold on, pulling up is kind of tough. Now, don’t get me wrong… I’m not in a hurry for him to start running around pulling things off of shelves and terrorizing the cats. On the other hand, what kind of child doesn’t have an instinct to HOLD ON. If he’s standing up and I let go, he falls backwards like they do in those trust falls. He doesn’t even bend his knees. It’s like he has utmost faith that I won’t let anything happen to him and he just let’s go. Someday I won’t be there to catch him, though, and he needs to learn to protect himself a bit. Does anyone have tips on how to teach him that lesson without just letting him fall? This is the sort of kid who leans forward so far when he’s seated that he tips over. He never even reaches out to steady himself. And, in fact, the early Intervention people tested his reflexes to see if he would reach out to protect his head if he was falling from a high spot… nope. I am a bit concerned about what will happen to him when Darwinism goes into effect.
4 Comments
Dale L. Edwards
My son, Scott, had a game he liked to play. He would climb up into the recliner we had at the time, and hang by his hands and let go and expect us to catch him. One day I wasn’t watching close enough, and by the time I realized he was playing the game, he had let go and landed on the floor. He had the most surprised look on his face when I didn’t catch him and he never played that game again.
When we had gone to my in-laws for the weekend when he was 18 mo old, he wanted to get through between the couch and the coffee table, but there were people sitting on the couch and he couldn’t get through, so he picked up the end of the coffee table (which weighed about 70 lbs) and moved it out of his way.
This is also the child, who at 3 mo disappeared from the living room, and I found him down the hallway to the bedrooms. He started rolling over and over, and he got quite a ways before I caught up to him.
At 6 years, we stopped at the Grand Canyon on our way back from California to see the in-laws, he scared the bejeebers out of me by heading straight to the fence along the long drop into the canyon, and started climbing the fence, His 2 and 4 year old sisters were following right behind him. Don grabbed 2 and I grabbed one, since I had their 2 month old brother in my arms at the time. We threw everybody in the car and didn’t try that again.
He’s 29 years old now, he’ll be 30 in February, and has 2 little girls of his own. He survived. There were times I had my doubts that he would.
Where I’m going with all this, is I would carefully choose the place and let him fall over backwards. Make sure it’ll be soft, but not too soft, so he can get the idea that it’s not a good idea to fall over backwards. Having said that, I’m not sure how old your son is. If he’s under a year, I’d wait awhile until he is over a year to try this.
Sorry I was so long winded, I have this habit of starting writing and not knowing when to quit.
Good luck,
Dale
Christy
Oh, Dale. I’m not sure if that made me feel better or worse. I wanted a girl, you know. There are many days when I do a dance of joy that I had a boy (especially when my 6-year-old niece keeps flipping her hair and saying she’s the “Shopping Queen” – ack), but when I hear the boy horror stories it makes me think again!
Christy
P.S. Little Guy is not quite 9 months old so he’s got a little bit before he’s climbing fences!
Jennifer
Christy:
I wouldn’t worry about it at all; I think the biggest health hazard right now is the high blood pressure it gives you to have to watch your child go through life with no fear! I say, surround him with a boppy, pillows, whatever, and let him fall a few times. He’ll get the hang of bending at the knees and figure out that falling face first isn’t so fun.
And by the way, it’s not such a bad thing that he has such blind trust in the fact that you’ll always be there to catch him. It’s a great feeling to know that they simply assume Mommy will always be there.
Jennifer