Have you recently felt an invisible sense of urgency?

Every day, we hear that we have entered the age of AI. Science and technology are advancing so rapidly that even the phrase “changing with each passing day” no longer seems enough. It almost feels as if everything is changing by the second. New products, new packaging, new models… It is not only exhausting to keep up — even our wallets can hardly keep pace.

And yet, when we turn back to look at children, we see something very different. Their development has not accelerated.

A baby still begins weaning at around four months. The first milk tooth appears at about six months. A child takes their first steps at around one year old. The first adult tooth is lost at around six. This age-old rhythm is like a metronome — steady, faithful, moving back and forth at its own pace. No one can rush it.

Over all these years, children’s developmental processes have not changed because of modern technology. The mouth is still an infant’s first way of encountering the world. Then come the hands — exploring, testing, trying to understand. From lying down, to rolling, to sitting, to crawling, to standing, to walking — their control and coordination of both large and small muscles continue to follow a natural sequence and timeline.

Their inner development follows the same pattern. At first, a child only knows their own existence. Gradually, they come to understand that others exist independently. This marks the maturation of their senses and cognition — and it too unfolds according to its own timing.

I still remember the first time my child understood a joke. I felt a quiet excitement — because we were laughing at the same thing. In that moment, we truly shared something.

And I also remember the first time my child lied to me. I felt a mix of emotions — anger, surprise, concern… Yet at the same time, I realised that this, too, was a sign of growth. It meant my child was beginning to move beyond the concrete world and was starting to grasp abstract ideas.

This, too, is something that only time can reveal.

Over the years, I have come to understand that every child has their own developmental path — and their own pace.

Some children begin walking at ten months, yet still struggle with night-time control at two.

Some have not started recognising characters at four, yet can brush their teeth independently and drink neatly from a cup much earlier. Some speak very little at three, yet can build tall structures and tie their own shoelaces.

And yet, given time, all children will reach these milestones.

When I once worried that my own child was nearly one year old and still not walking, I reassured myself: everyone out on the street can walk — my child will too. And sure enough, on that very first birthday, my child took their first steps.

Childhood — and the innocence within it — is built moment by moment, through time and experience. From birth to entering school:

6 years,

2,191 days,

52,584 hours,

3,155,040 minutes.

No one can change this.

We can spend those 2,191 days alongside our children — laughing with them, trying things together, exploring the world with them. Or we can sit beside them, each absorbed in our own screens, letting devices take our place. Or we can fill their days with endless classes, trying our best to push knowledge and skills into them. It is still 2,191 days.

Those six years may feel fleeting to us — like something that passes in the blink of an eye.

But to a child, they are as essential and as precious as the food they eat and the water they drink. And perhaps, it is not only precious for the child.

Sometimes, when I look back at my own impatience — wishing my child would grow faster — I find it almost laughable.

I only wish that I had held them more often, held them closer, and for just a little longer.