"Learning to walk, again.
I believe I've made it long enough.
Where do I begin?"
I believe I've made it long enough.
Where do I begin?"
— Foo Fighters, "Walk"
One of the key cornerstones in an infant's development is learning how to walk. Typically, an infant will first learn to crawl and/or scoot along on their bottom, then pull themselves upwards, then stand without support, and finally walk.
Additionally, if someone has been using a wheelchair or other mobility aids all their life, walking unassisted for the first time can be a big deal for their physical development.
In media, someone taking their first steps is often seen as a joyous moment for their parents, caregivers, and anyone else watching them. Expect moments like these to be Heartwarming Moments, or on the happy side of Tear Jerker. Alternatively, these moments can be played comically if the first-time walker does something unexpected. If a parent misses their baby's first steps, it may indicate that they're not very involved in their child's life, whether because they're Married to the Job and don't have the time or because they're neglectful.note
Compare Baby's First Words, where someone very young talks coherently for the first time. If it involves an older character who was unable to walk, it may be part of Throwing Off the Disability or happen during a Physical Therapy Plot.
Examples:
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Advertising
- An ad for Walt Disney World's 25th anniversary (seen on the original VHS of Toy Story) has a boy trying to get his baby sister to walk so his mom can take them to Disney World. The ad ends with the family going there after all, and the baby ends up taking her first steps toward Mickey Mouse.
Anime & Manga
- Crayon Shin-chan: Shin-Chan's baby sister, Himawari Nohara, learns to crawl for the first time in a chapter when she saw Misae's dropped lipstick, immediately crawling out her futon to play with it (with Shin-Chan getting the blame when Misae wakes up and sees Himawari's face covered in lipstick markings). However, the Noharas didn't know that Himawari could crawl until a later chapter.
- Episode 13 of Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure focuses on the one-year-old Elle-chan getting her first pair of proper shoes after learning to stand upright. At the end of the episode, Mashiro helps her walk. By the start of the next episode, Elle-chan can walk unassisted.
Art
- Georgios Jakobides' First Steps features a grandparent (a grandfather in the first version and a grandmother in the second) assisting an infant grandchild with taking their first steps while the baby's sister watches.
- Vincent van Gogh's First Steps, after Millet features a mother helping her baby with their first steps and directing them to walk towards their father.
Comic Strips
- Hi and Lois: The April 22nd, 2024 strip
has Trixie preparing to take her first steps. Her family all watches and records the event on their phones.
- Off the Mark: In "Dog Excited For Baby’s First Walks", the family dog witnesses the baby take his first steps. The dog excitedly brings the baby a leash, believing that the baby is now capable of taking him for a walk.
Fan Works
- The Dissonance of The Earthling Saiyan: All of the Saiyans gather round to watch Baby Seleriak's first steps and are incredibly excited to see it. Raditz announces that he will be starting Seleriak's warrior training soon, as is customary in Saiyan culture. This prompts an argument with Chi-Chi, since she doesn't like this cultural practice.
- The Kedabory Verse:
- Kedabory's Muppet Mania: One of the baby home videos from "Muppets' Funniest Home Videos" is of Baby Beaker taking his first steps, which was prompted by being frightened by a leaf blower and trying to escape.
- Ma Fille: In "First Steps", after having a crappy day, Joe and Von Kaiser experience the surprise of watching Joe's baby daughter take her first steps, straight towards her father.
- Played for laughs in The Loud House fanfic Lisa's Birth. A one-year-old Lisa is trying to walk, but keeps falling on her butt. Leni, her older sister, helps her, since, despite being a Dumb Blonde, she knows how to due to having helped the twins to walk when they were one.
- Tales of Fairies: Nashi's First Steps has Mirajane emphasizing that Natsu and Lucy need to be present to see their daughter's first steps. This means running interference so Nashi doesn't have her first steps while her parents are out on a job, to the point of begging Gray to freeze the floor when Mira is too busy with customers, which he refuses, as he doesn't want to harm the toddler. Luckily for everyone, not only do Natsu and Lucy arrive in time, but Nashi straights up runs to her parents' arms.
- In The Years that Never Were, Seo taking her first steps at the Magic Box in chapter 48 is treated as a special moment by the Scoobies who think they should tell her mother Buffy or record it.
Films — Animated
- Ice Age 1: While taking shelter in a cave during a blizzard, the herd witnesses Roshan taking his first steps. Sid tries to get the baby to walk towards him, only to end up walking to Diego instead. After a couple more steps, he falls and immediately goes to sleep.
- The Loud House Movie: In the opening montage of the Louds' happy memories, one of them is of a baby Leni learning to walk for the first time.
- Robots: During the brief montage of Rodney as a baby near the beginning of the film, one of the scenes that's featured is him taking his first steps and walking to his parents. Albeit with help from some training wheels attached to his legs.
- WALL•E: After a lifetime of sedentary compliance, Captain McCrea's first steps in his fight against AUTO illustrates that he, and by extension the other humans on the ship, have grown a spine against Buy-N-Large and are willing to return to Earth.
Films — Live-Action
- Played for black comedy in Dr. Strangelove, when in the final moments of the film the titular doctor is so excited about the emerging end of the world, that he rises from his wheelchair with an impassioned "Mein Führer, I can walk!"
- A symbolic version in Gravity. Anxious rookie astronaut Ryan Stone is frequently visually compared to a baby, such as her pose and lifeline when safely in the space station resembling a fetus in the womb with an umbilical cord. The last scene of the film has her metaphorically being born, struggling to emerge from a liquid environment to emerge and take a breath. Finally she makes it back to Earth's surface and, like a growing baby, takes her first steps.
- Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: Grandpa Joe, his wife, Grandpa George, and Grandma Georgette have gone years without leaving their bed due to their failing bodies. However, when Charlie gets his Golden Ticket, he tells his Grandpa that he wishes he could come with him. This gives Grandpa George the motivation to try and stand for the first time in years. His standing and walking for the first time since Charlie was a baby is treated as a miracle by his family.
Literature
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Played for Black Comedy in "Cabin Fever", in which Greg notes that when his little brother Manny took his first steps, he ended up accidentally killing Greg's pet inchworm Squirm.
- The Secret Garden: The moment Collin first starts walking after having been in a wheelchair his whole life is a positive sign that the fresh air is doing him good and he's no longer an invalid.
- A Series of Unfortunate Events: In The Vile Village, Sunny taking her first steps coincides with the Baudelaires deciding to quit relying on the incompetent adults and head out on their own, abandoning the village for the mysterious wilderness.
Live-Action TV
- Good Luck Charlie: In "Double Whammy", PJ debates with Emmey over whose infant is faster, PJ's sister Charlie or Emmett's nephew Mason. They decide to hold a race between the two toddlers in the Duncan family's basement, only for Charlie to win the crawling contest at its end by standing up and walking.
- Modern Family: Subverted in the season 5 episode "Spring-a-Ding Fling". Throughout the episode, Lily tries to blame baby Joe on a few incidents she was responsible for, even marking baby powder footprints in her room with one of his shoes to make it seem like he just started walking. Just as Jay and Gloria were about to call her out for her lies, Joe picks himself up using a couch and starts taking his first steps, bailing Lily out of getting scolded.
Lily: Boy, did I get lucky. I'm going to blame everything on him until he learns how to talk.
- RoboCop: The Series: Robo sees his parents for the first time since he became a cyborg. He flashes back to when he took his first steps, with the two encouraging him. When the Flashback ends, she sees him and panics, and her husband, Robo's father, tells him to go away.
- Sesame Street:
- One skit has Snuffy and Gordon cooing over a video of Snuffy walking for the first time when he was a baby.
- One cartoon skit shows a baby girl walking for the first time.
Music
- Flow Go: In the song "I'm Walking", a fully-verbal baby walks for the first time, and sings about how he loves walking. He also crashes into a cat.
- Foo Fighters: According to Dave Grohl, part of what inspired the song "Walk", from the band's seventh album Wasting Light, was his first daughter Violet taking her first steps when she was little.
- The song "Crawl" by "Caspar Babypants" talks about how nice being mobile in general is, but it puts a lot of emphasis on how walking is better.
Theatre
- In Allegro, the Greek Chorus watches Joseph Taylor, Jr. as an offstage infant about to take his first steps with mounting anticipation. When he finally starts to walk, they sing the triumphant marching song "One Foot, Other Foot."
Toys
- The Baby Alive doll "Baby Wanna Walk" is an animatronic baby girl who encourages the owner to hold her hand as she walks for the first time.
Video Games
- Fallout 3: The first time the player has control over their character, the Lone Wanderer, is them taking their first steps as a baby, exploring their small apartment in Vault 101.
- Pixel Cat's End: At three weeks old, beans (newborn not-cats) are expected to be able to walk as this is considered a "milestone" that changes them from infant to young kitten.
- Yakuza 6: A symbolic version seen in the ending. Haruka's son, Haruto, is trying to walk for the very first time, with the baby's father Yuta Usami and the rest of the Morning Glory Orphans watching. Kazuma Kiryu, who had just faked his own death, is watching off to the side. Before he leaves however, Haruto stumbles and falls on his back. The other orphans try to help him up, but Haruka encourages Haruto to try again. This is enough to get him back on his feet, where he then starts walking towards them, which is interspersed with shots of Kiryu also taking his steps to leave the orphanage as well. It ends on Haruka saying "Hang in there" to Haruto to continue walking towards her, and unknowingly, Kiryu, as he walks off to his future.
Web Animation
- asdfmovie: One sketch in 14 has a baby walking as the mother tells the father that the baby is taking his first LIFE before the baby runs up and inflicts a Neck Snap on the dad.
- Close to You is an animated short film by Nintendo that centers around a baby following its pacifier after it starts to move around its room. By the time its mother walks in the room, she witnesses the baby taking its first steps to grab the pacifier. A re-upload of the short reveals that various Pikmin were responsible for moving the pacifier.
Webcomics
- Parodied in this Cyanide and Happiness comic. A father is crying Tears of Joy at his infant son taking his first steps. It's then revealed that the baby is an alcoholic and joining Alcoholics Anonymous and starting his first steps in a 12-step program.
- Eat My Paint: In "Baby's First Steps", a pair of parents celebrate multiple of their baby's milestones, including his first steps.
- Litterbox Comics: In "First Steps", Cooper (Vincent in the remastered version) is shown attempting and failing his first steps. Fran expresses her anxiety about how long it's taking him to achieve this milestone. A mother antelope comments about how she had the same worries during the minutes after giving birth before her baby started walking.
- Loading Artist: In "Picture Perfect", two excited parents capture their baby's first steps on camera and spend so long editing the photos to post on social media that their baby wanders away and ends up missing.
- Strange Planet: Two Beings watch a young Being take their first steps. They remark that the young one is having difficulties because their head is so big and how they now need to safety-proof their home.
- Parodied in Toonhole: In "Baby’s First Steps, the mother excitedly summons the father to watch the baby's first steps. It's then revealed that the baby is at a 12 step program and is an alcoholic.
Western Animation
- The Amazing World of Gumball:
- During the ending montage in "The Choices", baby Gumball takes his first steps while his parents are renovating their house. Richard gets so happy that he tosses his paint bucket in excitement, only for it to land on Mr. Robinson.
- In "The Origins", Darwin ends up growing a pair of legs and has trouble walking with them, leading to him initially walking on all fours. After he gets captured by a dog catcher, he stands up to grab the keys to open his cage and proceeds to walk on two legs.
- Arthur:
- In "D.W.'s Baby", the pregnant Mrs. Read tries to prepare Arthur and D.W. for the birth of their sibling by showing them videos of the two as babies. One has Arthur walking for the first time and Mrs. Read saying, "Come on, walk!".
- In "Mei Lin Takes a Stand", Binky wants his one-year-old adopted sister Mei Lin to take her first steps to stand, but she can only crawl. She tells fellow one-year-old Kate, along with Pal the dog, that she just doesn't see the point of walking. Luckily, Pepe the flea convinces her the value of standing on one's own feet through a story to entertain the babies and the dog.
- Bluey: "Baby Race" is a flashback episode of Chilli trying to get a baby Bluey to walk before Wendy can get Judo walking. Baby Bluey seems to hit every milestone except walking; rolling, bum-shuffling, even crawling backwards. This greatly discourages Chilli until Coco's mum Bella reminds her that she's doing great as her mother. At the end of the episode, it's revealed that baby Bluey took her first steps to reach her mother, which caused her mom to cry happy tears.
- Classic Disney Shorts: In Fathers Are People, we get a look inside a photo album with milestones in the baby's life. The photo for "baby's first step" has Goofy trying to get Junior's foot out of a spittoon.
- Family Guy: "Chitty Chitty Death Bang" has Lois lamenting having missed both this and the first words of Meg because she was too busy preparing her birthday party.
- Glenn Martin, DDS: In "Amish Anguish", Jackie accuses Glenn of being against technology because he's compensating for his complete ineptitude with it, recalling when they missed out on Courtney's first steps because Glenn was hopelessly struggling to operate the camcorder.
- Henry Hugglemonster: In "Ivor's First Stomp", Henry's family gets so excited for Ivor's first stomp, Daddo wants to try taking a picture of him, but when he gets called off to work while Momma gets bored of waiting for Ivor to stomp, it's up to Henry and his siblings to document it for them. However, despite Momma's reminder that Ivor won't take his first stomp until he is ready, Henry and his siblings still try teaching him how to stomp, with Cobby repurposing Ivor's baby swing as a "Stomp-o-matic Junior". When Henry, Summer, and Cobby each fail to get Ivor to stomp, they get into an argument over the camera that distracts them long enough for Ivor to take the Stomp-o-matic for a ride into town. Henry and his siblings chase him down with their bikes and catch him, and they realize that they've been pressuring him to stomp when he isn't ready. It's not until Daddo comes home when Ivor finally takes his first stomp, and Henry takes lots of pictures of him, even Daddo hugging Ivor because he's so proud of him.
- The Legend of Korra: A recovery version: After Korra becomes wheelchair-bound from the Red Lotus's venom, "Korra Alone" has flashbacks to Korra taking her first post-injury steps.
- A Looney Tunes short called "Goo Goo Goliath" showed a giant baby taking his first steps and then sitting on his normal-sized father.
- Rugrats:
- In "No More Cookies", Angelica recalls moments in her life revolving around her love of cookies, including her first steps, which were to reach a plate of cookies on the coffee table, and her first word, which was "cookie."
- In "A Step At A Time", Stu thinks Dil has taken his first steps so he sets up a bunch of cameras so he won't miss it. This causes the other babies to remember when they took their first steps.
- The Simpsons: In "Lisa's Pony", Homer feels like a total failure after breaking a promise to Lisa. He then watches old home movies of Lisa's first steps and first word, which also reveal him barely paying attention to them, making him realize he's never been there for his daughter and determined to regain her love.