A Schema for Lifetime Milestones
Assumptions:
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. |