Extra Credit - Babies

Feeling helpless is a state that at one point we all felt. Regardless of our surroundings and our circumstances that sense of feeling is mutual. Something I found so intriguing about "Babies" was the tie and connection between all of the lives being documented. We don't think about people on the other side of the world and how close we actually are to them.

The interesting thing about parenting is that although parents choose to raise their children in different ways, in the end of it all most of the results are quite similar. The two western civilizations focused on in the movie; America & Japan seemed to be extremely alike, by this I mean that both of the families decided to raise their children with a guided structure. While the two other babies who lived in Mongolia & Namibia were much more on their own to discover. Instead of going to baby classes and trying to understand the world around them through books and television, the babies from the third world countries were experiencing all of the world first hand. This then relates to the parents from the western cultures trying to develop their children faster, while in my opinion the other two babies seemed to become much more independent in a shorter amount of time.

The opening scene of the movie was quite eye opening, these two very young babies from Namibia were working as if they were at least 10 years old. The baby from Mongolia acted quite resourceful and well developed very quickly. While the baby from Tokyo in one scene was very frustrated when she couldn't figure out how one of her toys worked. Instead of trying to help herself and solve her problem she threw a tantrum. The baby from San Francisco constantly seemed to get upset if she didn't get her way. Does this mean that if we have more access to constant attention we are more prone to developing slower? While babies exposed to less attention are more likely to find themselves and help themselves?

As all the babies started to learn to walk, all three of the babies besides the one from Mongolia were being watched very closely. What I found so beautiful about the film was how at the end the baby from Mongolia stood up on his own in the middle of a empty field and the look on his face seemed so proud. Although his parents didn't write down the day he took his first steps, as many western civilizations have the habit of doing, that moment would never be forgotten. I found it to be much more meaningful and natural. As a person who hopes to have babies one day, I would rather raise my child more like the babies of Mongolia and Namibia, their ways of parenting seem to result in very down to earth babies, who are ready to take on any challenge the world gives them.