Brace yourself, mothers. Not only does this child rock a baby blue knit and overalls – he’s up.
Yes, the heir to the British throne has become one of ‘those’ kids.
Prince George is walking. And he’s not even one yet.
He’s walking on his delicious, chubby, itty bitty feet. By himself.
I’m going to say it like it is – getting up your feet at ten months is quite a well, um, feat. When any mother says, “my child was walking when they were nine/ ten/ eleven months”, fellow parents marvel at the achievement.
So, when I saw Georgey-boy up on his feet, with his arms in the air like a back-up dancer from the Thriller film clip – I thought two things:
1. Cute.
2. This child is a genius.
Next week, he’ll probably be using chopsticks and tying his own shoes. Hell, tomorrow the kid could probably bake his own cake and update his own profile on Wikipedia.
Walking is a key moment. In a few steps, your child goes from baby to toddler. And they run – everywhere. But that’s not all – they slip over in the bath, they climb onto the couch and whinge endlessly because they can’t get down, they hide in places where you can’t find them unless you’re super-duper quiet and listen out for their tiny little breaths huffing from behind a curtain or a cupboard.
None of my kids walked before their first birthday. They did nothing. Just sat. Ate. Nothing. Maybe did some average type things like said ‘Dada’ and ate bits of toast soaked in butter. Many mediocre tricks.
But walking? And walking before turning one?
Big deal.
It’s been almost a year since we met George, when Kate Middleton walked out of the doors of the hospital in her beautiful blue spotty dress with her perfect baby boy.
It’s been almost a year of cute shoes, hats, overalls, chubby legs, dimply hands. And now? A few steps just takes the cake. The birthday cake.
So, just incase you needed convincing, here’s a baby fit to be King.
Just because we can, let’s take a little walk down memory lane…
When did your child start walking?
Top Comments
My younger grandson walked at 9 months. He never crawled (wriggled a little bit) and never cruised the furniture. I think he just got tired of wriggling on the floor and got up and walked. My elder grandson didn't walk until over 12 months. They're both bright as buttons, speak English and their native language, switching flawlessly from one to the other when talking to me or their Mum and Dad and none of this has anything to do with the age at which they walked. Mind you, isn't George a cutie!
I really don't understand why these kind of myths continue to persist in the 21st century, most kids that payed attention in year 9-10 science and every student that did at least year 11 psychology knows that THE AGE AT WHICH A CHILD BEGINS TO WALK/TALK IS NOT AN INDICATOR OF INTELLIGENCE aside from extreme cases e.g brain damage. A child's progress in these areas is part of their BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT not their intelligence, that is to say; A CHILD DOESN'T START WALKING BECAUSE INTELLECTUALLY IT IS READY TO WALK but because it has reached that stage of PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT at which this is now PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE. This kind of myth is sooooo damaging, and it is spread by PARENTS not children. No 1 yr old is turning to the other 1 yr olds in the sand pit and saying "You losers still crawling? I've been walking for days now."
A CHILD CAN'T BE TAUGHT TO WALK OR TALK BEFORE IT IS DEVELOPMENTALLY READY AND THE AGE AT WHICH A CHILD BEGINS TO DO SO IS NOT LINKED TO THEIR INTELLECT AS AN ADULT.
It is the same thing with puberty, these kinds of changes are to do with MATURATION not cognitive ability (intelligence). Could you imagine if people started bragging about how young their daughters were when they first started getting their period/developing breasts, or at what age their sons first started cracking morning wood? IT'S THE SAME THING PEOPLE. This kind of bullshit is so damaging to children, we as a society so often equate physical development with cognitive development/ability and it can be devastating to a child's self esteem.
Some parents start their children at school too early for the child's development, just because they are worried that the child will be labelled 'dumb' or 'slow' if it doesn't start school at the same age as everyone else, when really the child will probably grow up to think of itself as 'dumb' because it was force into a level of learning/understanding that was beyond it's level of development.
ATTENTION PARENTS: stop bullying each other! And more importantly: STOP BULLYING CHILDREN!!!!
Please stop yelling at us!
Like many people do on the internet these days I wasn't using capslock to convey yelling -just as many people no longer use exclamation marks to convey yelling- rather my decision was based on highlighting/summarising the key points of my message, which I thought was necessary due to it's length.
I'm afraid all-caps is always yelling on the internet. btw its not it's length (pardon my correcting you, the greengrocer apostrophe is my pet hate!) : )
While I can certainly see that you might interpret it that way; I wasn't yelling nor did I intend to convey yelling like I already stated. Yelling involves raising one's voice and as I was not using my voice I was not yell, and as I've just stated twice -it was not my intention to convey yelling. It was certainly not my intention to upset anyone but if you do feel upset by it perhaps -if keeping in mind that I was most certainly not trying to convey yelling- you were to read over my comment again, you might interpret my tone differently.
I personally use capslock (when I can't format text to appear bold or underlined) to -as I said previously- convey stress and/or highlight the key points I wish to make. It is something I've done for years and something that people I regularly email have done for even longer (including uni tutors/lecturers, colleagues, family and friends). I write most essay drafts, emails, online messages and texts like this when needed because I find it is the quickest and easiest way to get my thoughts down in a structured and concise manner. I also think it's much easier to read over.
Contributors and staff on this website often employ capslock for stress/dramatic impact/to highlight their key points, perhaps if you feel so strongly about this you should also take it up with them. I have not read in the 'comment guidelines' that the use of caps-lock is discouraged or considered anti-social.
I did however note that we have been asked to keep it 'respectful', but I don't find it 'respectful' that you've corrected my grammar errors. I INTERPRETED (caps-locks here to indicate stress that I would usually convey with italics) your comment as the kind of passive-aggressive behaviour that a school yard bully resorts to. I too notice the occasional grammar/spelling error in readers comments, occasionally I see them in the articles too -even articles on Time.com are littered with them. I -like most people- don't, however, choose to draw everyone's attention to them because I think it's demeaning and childish. I am not ashamed of my grammar errors, I know that grammar/spelling is not my strong point and I accept that. But perhaps next time you decide to make an unnecessary comment like that to another, first you'll think about how that might make them feel. Ironic isn't it, that you're comment was aimed at making me feel 'dumb' in light of what my original comment was about? I hope you are kinder to your own children (if you have them) when they make the same mistakes
Finally, in light of your last rude comment (and the fact that you don't actually have anything constructive to say about my original comments on myths about physical development in children and their impact on self-worth -a subject I feel very passionate about as the daughter of two psychologists) I can only assume you are trolling me. And we must not feed trolls! (look, I started a sentence with 'and'! Grammar blasphemy!) Perhaps if you could transfer your passion for starting arguments about tone in informal internet messaging (its standard practise of the tech-literate not to read into tone online, just like with texts from a crush) and !GrAMMar ErrORS! AND IMprOper CAPS-LOCKS!!!!, you could take that passion and use it for the greater good, like maybe write a letter to your local political representative about an issue you're passionate about, or do some volunteering -or channel it into a cardio workout. Of all the reasons to challenge someone's right to an opinion, why choose troll?? And in case you can't pick up my intended tone; every paragraph of this was written to be interpreted as polite, sincere and spoken in a calm yet serious voice - except for this last one which is coloured with an intended tone of indignation (and, yes, I'll admit it; a touch of sarcasm). Peace and grammar :)