It’s been a minute since I have had the time or bandwidth to sit down and write one of these newsletters, but I am inspired because I started following a newsletter from a group of fellow RIE Associates in New York City and they write so beautifully, and they inspired me to get back to writing, too!
This week, I was moved by a video that a parent sent to me…her daughter is newly walking, and it really struck me…this child who was not taught to walk, moves in the same way that the Pikler babies did back in the 40’s! Take a look first at the Pikler video (a snippet of Seeing Infants with New Eyes)…and then at this video from 2025!
Notice how both children walk with their hands up, loosely at their shoulders…perhaps giving a little more stability and balance, but most importantly those hands are at the ready to catch them when they inevitably lose their balance…but look at how they hit the ground…not in a puddle, but either just for a moment to steady themselves and maybe get over a hurdle (2025) or ready to return to something familiar for a bit (Pikler!).
Maybe I was primed because I was thinking about how another parent had recently noticed this exact stance his daughter’s development…ready to brace herself, he said! Yes! That’s it…when you watch babies progress through motor development, from learning to roll, to learning to crawl, but particularly in learning to stand, walk, and go down stairs…you can see the way they naturally go cautiously, but not fearfully, as they venture into new territory.
As I watched that video I received this week, I couldn’t help but think of the parallel between her cautious, confident movements and my own journey in life. There are times and roles that I definitely (still) feel unsteady in, and while I wish I wish I had her confidence, I will try to remember that it’s okay to sometimes lose my balance and go back briefly to a position I feel more solid in…gradually, gradually getting more and more steady as I go.
Magda puts it this way…
You have to try and fail, and that’s what babies are ready to do, happy to do, can do, and do do.
And this is one of the things we so often, with the best of intention, do not let them do.
In life, you are upset and then you are happy, you are challenged to solve problems, you make choices, some are good, some are not so good, and hopefully you learn from the choices that you made, the good ones as well as the bad ones. I think, ideally, life is an ongoing, learning experience from birth till death.
Magda understood this natural wisdom deeply: Perhaps if we remembered this – that there’s no race, no rush- we’d be more comfortable like that confident toddler, trusting our own timing. Listen to Magda in her own words here.
As we grow up, we forget that it’s okay to not know everything, to not get it right the first time. We forget how to play, how to be comfortable with failure. We forget how to be.
Thank goodness for babies. And thank goodness for Magda Gerber.
PS…The cover image is from the amazing text Unfolding of Infants’ Natural Gross Motor Development.