Babies

No, don't get excited. We aren't having another one. I mean the new documentary we saw last week. We've been watching this trailer for months:

Babies

Sorry, can't seem to embed it here, it has been disabled, but go watch it by following the link.
It is a beautifully filmed documentary that follows four babies, from four different countries (Namibia, Mongolia, Japan and the U.S.) through their first year.
It is funny and sweet, and although there's no narration at all, it doesn't lag, it's a lovely film.
I haven't stopped thinking about it since we saw it last week. I'm no stranger to parenting ideas that seem outlandish to most people I know...but it was refreshing and inspiring to see such a movie on the big screen. There were a few moments that made me shift uncomfortably in my seat--the contrast between the modern babies in their "Mommy and Me" classes singing "The Earth is Our Mother" while the African baby was wallowing in dirt, drinking from a stream and chewing on some bones. The connection of the urban babies to the earth is dubious at best.
Then there was the Mongolian baby, frequently tied to things with a ribbon in his family's yurt while they did the chores--the stray animals would wander in and out, and sometimes his big brother would torture him, presumably while no adults were looking. The African mother wipes her diaperless baby's bottom with her hand when he poops, then cleans up with a corn cob. The Mongolian baby's mom washes his face with breastmilk. The city babies spend time in glass elevators, sparkling high rise buildings and clean rooms full of toys. Nobody seems worried when the rural babies lick animals or wander, crawling, through a herd of cattle. The Japanese baby collapses in frustration when she can't fit her blocks on a post.
I can't help but note that the urban babies are at a serious disadvantage--not just physically--although it's true, they certainly aren't walking around balancing something on their head at the end of the first year like the African baby. The disadvantage that is most disconcerting, however, appears to be the spiritual one. The African and Asian babies are left to their own explorations, most of the time, and they seem to experience a continuous companionable solitude. The urban babies already show stress at structure and schedule and behavioral expectations that seem inappropriate to their developmental stage.
Of course there are other factors, not addressed in the film that are relevant in this discussion--like what percentage of babies exposed to unclean water or disease (from all those flies on their faces) actually don't make it to adulthood? I wonder, if you offered a western lifestyle on a silver platter to those Africans sitting in the dirt, if you'd have any takers? On the flip side, I wonder how many babies brought up the way these Africans are raised feel a happiness and contentment in life that many of us can't possibly imagine? The babies who are more hovered over and "managed" have to fight and struggle for their autonomy and for the clash between their evolved expectations of the world and the way the world actually is; is it true that despite their babyhood there is some point where their advantage in the modern world is an undeniable asset? Which babies grow up to be more kind and which ones struggle to have relationships? Is depression more common in countries who parent in a westernized way?
It's left me with a lot to think about.
I don't know the filmmakers, or if they set out to make a particular point.
In summary, it's clear that all four babies are loved and nurtured and cared about in the way that their cultural training deems best.
Perhaps, in the end, that's all that matters.

Go see the movie! Take your babies and toddlers and children--they'll love it.