Learning to Walk

I will never forget the first steps made by my children. They each started at a different time, when they were ready. My oldest took the longest time to start walking. She did not walk until she was around 18 months old, preferring to scoot along on her bottom, pulling her little body along the floor with her legs. She refused to crawl, ever, because she could not carry things in her hands while crawling, so she just scooted along through life, doing just fine.

When they began to experiment with walking, my wife and I were right there, watching every step, ready to help as needed. We would hold their hands and encourage them along, "You're doing great, keep going!", Smiling at them and doing everything possible short of taking their steps. Yet, in spite of all our efforts, they would often fall. Every parent knows that falling is part of learning to walk. When your child is taking those faltering steps, you're ready to keep them from really getting hurt, but they must fall, its part of the process. My wife was probably a little more concerned for the kids than I was through this process. I'm more logical..I mean, their only 2 feet tall, how far can they fall? Now if I were to fall, from my six feet, that would be an entirely different story...

I've seen pictures of adults learning to walk again after a serious injury. It's not something I want to experience. What is a rather natural and simple process as a child, is hugely inconvenient and uncomfortable as an adult. It's much better to learn when you are young. Along the same lines, I think it's easier to learn the hard lessons in life early, if you can. Take the big risks early, explore, live life fully while you can still recover with little effort, because once your bones stop growing...its a whole lot harder to recover from a fall.