Newbie
Moms View Message Board: New to Moms View? Introduce Yourself!: Newbie
Hi,
My name is Tom and I found this site looking for people to correspond with about babies.
My wife is shy and will be here with me living this vicariously through me.
Annabelle my wife, and I have a 17 month old boy his name is Luke.
He seems intelligent (got from mom)and very tuned in to peoples emotions.
I would like to find a site that could help us determin how advance he is. I would like to know the progress of other "smart" babies and sort of compare . I dont think I am being competitive as I am a realist about things I just want to see if I am expecting enough from him or not.
I really think people dont realise how much a baby can actually learn and already knows.
I used to be amazed at how quickly my baby would learn untill I saw the same learning abilties in other babies and figured out just because my baby can identify colors and talk to us ect.at 17 months does not mean he is a genius.
Well, anyway if any moms have a problem with my being male and being on this site I will gracefully bow out and will understand.
I seem to relate better to women than men in this area.
Tom
Well, Tom, I don't have a problem with you being male. If you can stand visiting a mostly female site (which puts a high value on providing sisterly support for our members), we can certainly stand having male input - and often welcome it. Welcome to Momsview.
As for your son, well, I would strongly recommend that you not worry about how advanced he is. Just enjoy him, provide him with toys and experiences that help him to learn, and sit back and watch. You'll be able to tell fairly quickly when he is bored with a particular kind or level of toy - just offer a variety, including toys that will stretch him.
I happen to have a beautiful 15 month old granddaughter, and her parents think she is very bright. The toys we get for her range from "age appropriate", i.e., 12-months+ to toys for 3+ (always watching out that they don't have small pieces or pinch points, of course). She frequently doesn't play with the "older" toys in the ways they were meant to be played with, but she will as her coordination improves.
As you are learning, watching your child develop and change and grow, almost on a daily basis, is an amazing thing. Watching a human being develop from that helpless little pink bundle into a real personality with likes and dislikes, and learn how to express himself, is a wonder. I don't think I'll ever get over it.
One thing about bright kids - their parents have to run very hard to keep up with them. They can think of more things to get into, more ways to figure out how to take things apart, open supposedly secure containers, and just generally outthink their parents in a whole lot of ways. And often very bright kids are also very curious kids, which leads them to do or try to do things a parent wouldn't begin to imagine they'd want to do. Not bad things or harmful things (usually) - but certainly things that make you groan, like the time my 1-1/2 year old figured out how to work the screws out of his crib, and when he was three figured out how to get the screws out of his glasses. But this same boy took what seemed like forever to learn how to ride a tricycle - go figure.
Again, just observe, enjoy, and be amazed.
Ditto what Ginny said. It's fun to just watch them discover their world. I loved watching my kids learn new stuff and hearing them say new words and sometimes I wondered just how they picked stuff up. It was amazing, too, not only that they knew a given word, but that they knew what the word meant.
When Emily was just a toddler, now almost 15, and she crawled into a kid-sized chair we had, and said, "mine." I had no doubt that she also understood the concept of MINE, at that precise moment, along with the word for it!
Welcome... I think that the ladies here will be perfectly fine with a bit of the male perspective.. We have had male members in the past, so no worries about you being male.. I do suggest, since your username is non gender that you make sure they are aware that you are male. Put your name at the bottom of your post or refer to the male perspective in your post.
I think your wife should come out to play.. She has no reason to be shy here. She will be welcomed for sure.. I bet if you posted on the General board that your wife would like to post for herself but she is shy the ladies would call her out too. We love new members and we can offer support to her that she is probably lacking in her life. Just something for her to think about... We would love to have her.
As far as your child.... Let him be a child.. He needs to be stimulated, all children do, at a level that encourages him to learn more. But to focus on him being smarter than others isn't fair to him. There are important things (human things) that we learn as children that can be lost if all the focus goes on the fact that we can count at 17 months and the challenge for us to learn more (to read by two,etc) becomes the goal of our parents. Follow his lead, feed him information as you see his hunger for it but don't push him to be more than what he is, a child.. Do you get what I am saying??? Oh, and I do believe that children are born with knowledge that we may never understand and that some of us are born with minds that are more capable than others to retain different types of information. Love your son and enjoy his growth.. He will lead you, if you listen... No one can tell you how to raise your child because all children are special... what works with one will not work with another.
I suggest you ask this question on the parenting board because you will get more feed back there... Hope to see both you and your wife around often.. Happy posting.
Thanks everyone.
Some good imput. I will go to the topic board and thanks for the welcome. Not sure I can add too much.
And I will try to convince my wife to engage on this site.
Tom
P.S.
I am a stay at home dad semi-retired.
So I am engage more with my son than my wonderful wife who is a r.n.
Tom
Tom you aren't our first stay at home dad either. 
I hope she will decide to join.. If she does, have her put in the reason for joining that she is Dumb Tom's (ha ha) wife and we will sign her up for sure....
I'm a nurse, too!
See she already has a connection to someone else at the site.
Niiiiice Bobby hehe.
Actually I stand corrected on the nurse thing, Annabelle is 1 year away from graduation to becoming a nurse...details:}
I think Annabelle will sign up...hopefully.
Hi Dawnk I am sure she will have questions for you.
Tom
She is more than welcome..
Hi Tom.I was curious when you said you are semi-retired,so I checked your profile.Wow, are you ever a courageous man,being the father of a 17 month old at 50 ! I'm 53 ,and just the thought of it makes me tired.Tee Hee  But I'm just picking with you.I actually,sometimes,wish I still had little ones at home.Then I will spend a long day and maybe a night with some of my grandchildren...and I'm glad for the rest!!!! Welcome to Momsview.
Welcome to Momsview, Tom! This is a wonderful place. I hope you'll enjoy it here!
Tom, I'm sure you are not Dumb!! Welcome to Momsview!
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