A Schema for Lifetime Milestones

Assumptions:

• USAian family, probably of European heritage, with sufficient physical, emotional, and financial resources.
• Reasonable health.
• No abusive relationships, either as a child or an adult.
• Not everyone will pass through every milestone. For example, someone might decide as an adult that s/he is an agnostic or atheist, and skip everything having to do with religious / spiritual communities.
• Not all milestones are positive; that is, most people do not celebrate the death of a parent, but do want to recognize it in some way.

Milestone	Religious or Secular	Approximate Age	New Privileges or Freedoms (examples; may not be comprehensive)	New Responsibilities (examples; may not be comprehensive)	Recognition, either extant or proposed
Before birth	Either or both	-6 to 0 months	You are beginning a new life.	Grow, little fishie, grow!	A blessing ritual, for the health and well-being of the baby and the family.
Birth / naming	Either or both	< 1 month	You are recognized as a separate being with a life of your own	You need to absorb and integrate everything around you.	Most religions have some variation on a naming ceremony, such as a baptism, christening, wiccaning, or bris. A non-religious family might simply choose to have family and friends over to meet the new baby.
Additional milestones you probably won't remember but your parents will, e.g., first tooth, first word, first step, first haircut, toilet training	Mostly secular	birth to about 4 years	You can engage in self-directed movement and locomotion, and limited decision-making	You continue to learn, absorb, and integrate an essentially infinite supply of information. You develop physical skills such as walking and excretory control. You develop the ability to make appropriate decisions for your age.	Your parents may take pictures or videos for a scrapbook. These will also be brought out later, when you start dating, to embarrass you.