I am sick of hearing about ‘baby milestones’. There is so much pressure on parents to start moulding their children into cookie-cutter images of colonial normalcy from day one. Arbitrary goals like ‘aim for 16 gestures by 16 months’ create pressure and competition with little to no explanation as to why this is important. I recognise that there are some developmental features that, if occur later or not at all, should be investigated to ensure that treatable illnesses are detected and suitable healthcare is offered. What I take issue with, is the insistence that all children ‘should’ be doing the same things by the same times, and that if they don’t, this is inherently a problem. An additional layer to this pressure is the seemingly contradictory messages around sensory exploration. We are supposed to expect our babies to explore the world with all their senses, and we are supposed to view this as normal. We are supposed to expect sensory seeking and/or avoidant behaviours, and for both to be considered normal. So if we are to expect and even encourage these ways of stimulating and soothing our children’s nervous systems at first, when and why do we start to pathologise them?