Whatever. I think there's a happy medium that people miss...A LOT. I don't push my children into doing stuff, and crack the whip on them if they're not developmentally ready for it. On the other hand, I'm not going to say "Oh, well 35 years ago when I was a child, we didn't have that, so you don't need it" and sit on my bum either. How much children learn and what age has changed, and yes a part of that is because of technology, the fact that the world has gotten smaller, life has sped up a little, etc. But it's more than that. A parent really only teaches what they themselves know or think to share, unless they see something else to broaden their horizons or ideas. With the books, classes, playgroups, clubs, activities, and internet and its myriad of parenting sites, blogs, etc.....we have such a wealth of information and ideas to hear that our parents didn't have. An example: a friend of mine doesn't eat many vegetables because she "doesn't like them", and she was never really exposed to art. So, her children at 12, 10, and 7 never tried any vegetables except the 3 that their mom ate, and had never been to any kind of museum, had never seen brush strokes on a REAL painting (they'd seen prints at stores, but that's it???) One weekend, I kept them at my house a few days because she had family business to attend to. They ate foods they were "scared" to eat and LOVED them. It was Day in the District during that time, the one day in the year that all the stuff in the museum and arts districts were free. We went to a planetarium, to a Japanese drum show, to the Modern, the Kimball (more traditional), the Amon Carter (south, western), and the Cowgirl museums. They watched a rodeo, rode on a crane and in a dump truck, had their first picnic IN THEIR LIVES(?) in the Japanese Gardens and played soccer in a big grassy area at the beautiful botanical gardens. We did some star gazing at an observatory and checked out the stuff at the Astronaut museum...and they got to put on an astronaut suit and walk on a replica of the moon landing, and get on a 0 gravity table to see how it felt. Those are things that many (most, I would think?) children would just take for granted. But their mom, bless her, didn't think to do picnics because she's allergic to ants, she wasn't really exposed to art so didn't think to provide opportunities for the boys to experience it, didn't eat vegetables so she didn't think to cook them and let the boys taste them. Many times, that's how we parents are. My son was 3 when someone asked about his "scissors skills". It had never crossed my mind to give him scissors, so he didn't get a chance to try. I was a bit surprised. But that same week, he was at his small fry club and there was a little craft where they were using child safe scissors, and my son couldn't figure that part out. Well, I helped him with that part and went on....but you can bet that I went out and let him pick out the safety giraffe shaped scissors (over the lion and zebra) and I started letting him cut strips for me. We used that exercise to do other crafts that were fun. Hey, while we're cutting these free weekly papers they stick in our mailbox into strips (straight lines to start, lol), let me show you something awesome called paper mache! That's not me being pushy. That's me being involved. Now he's 4. Still not too good at it, but whatever. He can fake it good enough to do a craft in his preschool. I purchase a paper on Sundays and pick out the coupons I want. We sit down together with the radio on, while my youngest naps, and I cut my coupons, and he can cut the other coupons. (Learning to cut the line, and turn directions.....but not mess up mine, lol). He thinks he's helping, and I let him put his coupons in a little ziploc bag (which I empty when he's napping). It's just time together. At 4 1/2 he is still learning to ride his bike with training wheels. He does pretty good, but has some trouble going up or down the next portion of sidewalk (when crossing a street). He's not quite ready to take the training wheels off. When I think he's doing well enough, and he says yes, then we will. I on the other hand WAS 3 1/2 (we have pictures of me at a house we moved out of before my 4th birthday) on a bike with no training wheels. What they do well at depends on their skills, their personality, their interests......but there is nothing wrong with giving them the ability to try/practice things---all kinds of things! We do a lot of reading, writing, counting, scissors work, preschool educational stuff on my computer, etc when it's ridiculously hot or raining. He's ahead of many children his age but that's not because I'm shoving down his throat but because....it's hot. That's what we're doing in the heat of the day. But we also do a lot of stretching, walking/running, soccer, kung fu, etc. Yesterday he did his "horse stance" at kung fu where he was in a perfect squat, and his sifu put a cup of water on his thigh....he kept that squat for 10 seconds and did not spill the water. WOW! Only 1 other child was able to get the water on his leg, for a couple seconds. And his little legs were shaking a lot. Noone else was able to get the water on their legs at all. We're not competing with the other children, but he DOES practice a lot, because he loves it.....and there's nothing wrong with being proud of him for that. I think you shouldn't feel pressure to keep up with everyone else in the neighborhood, but you should give your children lots of opportunities to learn and grow. (I wasn't upset that my son didn't know how to use scissors, but I bought him some age appropriate ones and we have spent time together, with the scissors as just a side element in our time together, for example). Life is all about experience and learning, no matter how old you are. Consider it a confidence booster, not a way to judge others though.