Andy Cohen
Potties, Pacifiers and Pools: Symbols To Grow By
(Original blog post for Bambanani)
A milestone is a significant stage in a child’s development. But I wonder if it includes ‘stone’ in the word ‘milestone’ because there is something really rocky about navigating this terrain with our kids. Each child handles this individually and this has to be managed with absolute consideration. This is because the way a child transitions between life stages has everything to do with how they negotiate their inner sense around what it means to grow up. This is done symbolically. While there is, unfortunately, no rulebook to follow here, it can be very helpful to think about these milestones in a deeper symbolic way, in order to understand what else might be going on for them on a hidden psychological level.