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 | babes in toddlerland |
If I was asking—and I’m not, because I totally can’t handle the answer—would you say that I have a baby and a toddler, or two toddlers? Or something else entirely—maybe a toddler and (gasp!) a preschooler? I continue to think of myself as having a baby and a toddler, but I am beginning to suspect that that may no longer be accurate. Strictly speaking.
Okay, I’m asking. What do you think?
For reference: Sadie just turned one and is walking, Audrey is two and a half. And also walking. But that probably goes without saying.
I call them infants until they are 24 months. I think that’s the pediatric standard. Or maybe I just made it up.
I call them toddlers until their 4th birthday. Then I say preschooler.
But heck, I’m still calling my 7 month old a newborn. Obviously, things are skewed here!
Technically, I think toddler is from age 1-4. I can’t remember where I read that, but somewhere in the recesses of my brain, that’s the classification.
That said, I still refer to Jacob as “the baby” sometimes, and he’s in kindergarten.
In developmental psych, they are infants until they walk, toddlers until age 3, and preschoolers until age 5.
I would say that you’re very safe saying that you have two toddlers. Which, by the way, elevates you to superhuman status in my book. In case you were wondering.
I say you have a baby and a toddler still. But our baby is almost 2 1/2 (he’s our last so we’ll still be calling him “Baby” in 30 years).
I tend to think of toddler as anything past 18 months (up to age 4 I guess).
Obviously there is no hard standard. Call them all babies, because they all were, once. But I’m of the developmental psych mind: infants until around 1, toddlers until around 3, and preschoolers until 5. Which means two toddlers. But only technically. And just barely. And they all were babies, and still are your babies, developmental psych aside.
My “baby” just turned 18 months and I’m only now starting to call her a toddler. When I had a 2 1/2 year old and a 1 year old way back in the day, I always said “baby and toddler,” even though they were technically both toddlers. Calling them the same thing seemed too crazy to me given their vast developmental differences!