Basic Milestones to Expect When Raising a Child

Raising a child is obviously an incredibly full-on experience and one of the most enduring and exciting that you are probably ever going to have. If you are a new parent or couple or you are about to become one, you might well be wondering what you can do to ensure that your experience of raising your child is as positive as possible. You'll want to be aware of some of the major milestones of raising a child that you are likely to come across. These can help you to appreciate what is happening now and what is going to happen next, in particular. Consider some of the most important and memorable milestones of raising a child that you may want to bear in mind. These are all things for which you can plan ahead in order to make the most of them.

One Month

There are a bunch of one-month-old development milestones of which you might want to be aware; since obviously, at this point, everything is still very new to you especially if this is your first baby. At 1 month, a baby's senses are not quite completely developed yet, and he may be extremely nearsighted and only able to see things if they are right in front of his face. Your baby is going to prefer to look at bright or colorful objects, as they are easier to see. At this point, your baby will also start to recognize your face especially during holding or feeding. You'll also find that a one-month-old baby needs a lot of feeding—more so than in later months—so this is something that you should try to prepare for too.

One Year

After a year, you will definitely feel more like a parent, and you will already have gone through so many amazing experiences with your child that you may feel quite unusual albeit much more steady. But when your child reaches a year, that is an obvious milestone—and one to be celebrated, of course. At one year, excitingly, your child may be able to respond to simple spoken requests, and they might use some simple gestures like waving or shaking their head. Repeating sounds will get lots of attention, so that's one way to ensure they are listening to you at this point.

Four Years

For most children, four years is when they start to enter the world of education, whether that is a school or a pre-school. This can be one of the most difficult periods of time for both them and yourself as a parent too. This is probably the first time you will have to say goodbye to them for a whole day which can cause a plethora of emotions. As such, it can be a challenge for everyone involved, and it's also one of the first experiences of the parent-child bond being put under pressure. But it is also the start of their learning years, which means that many more exciting things are up ahead.

Ten Years

If we skip forward to ten year old children, we find little people who are considerably more aware, emotionally available, and social than their four-year-old counterparts. Children at this age may begin to discuss relationships with other children, and those interactions may include special friendships or perhaps even bullying. In either case, this needs to be talked through, and it's something that can be resolved as long as it is dealt with in the appropriate manner.

Teenager

Once your child becomes a teenager, you might start to worry that things will become a lot more difficult suddenly. Even though much of what people say about this stage is overblown, it is nonetheless true that there are may come a time when you suddenly have a teenager in your house who needs your assistance with newfound challenges in life. Again, the thing to do is to see it as the necessary part of growing up and try to find the right balance of love and truth thereby guiding them where necessary.