The children came from America, Japan, Uganda, and Mongolia. The film itself was abstract, giving us bits and pieces of these infants lives, which were up for interpritation and analysis from the viewer. I saw this as a very good film to take notes on and really showed me alot and made me think deeply about the development of humans.
Most of the movie ignored an adult presence almost entirely, and overwhelmingly showed more mother/child interaction than father/child interactions. This seemed to be an indicator of the message the movie was sending that mothers are more important in a childs growth and development than the father.
I am not quite sure if I would say one culture had a better method of parenting than another, but I think that their was a strong similarity between the methods used by more urban families (like in San Francisco and Tokyo), and similarities between more rural families (Uganda, and Mongolia).
In a rural setting, the children were exposed more to natural life, they walked barefoot, saw dead animals, and wore minimal clothing. They were left to discover their surroundings, and given enough supervision so they remained unharmed. The upbringing of urban children clearly was clearly done differently than in rural areas.
Interestingly, I saw that in urban societies, the children weren't neccessarily taught anything different, but taught in a different way. The California family for example had the mother read the daughter a book on animals, trying to make the child understand the relationship between an animal and the noise it makes. The Mongolian family on the other hand didn't need to read a book on animals to their child because the child was physically surrounded by animals all the time.
In some ways, it is evident that the rural and more natural life is an optimal environment for raising a child as they are given a much more physically interactive education of the world than kids in urban areas. Than on the other hand, Zoo's and domesticated animals (Cats and Dogs) make up for this and allow "city kids" to see these animals in real life.
An aspect of this movie that I really enjoyed were the numerous examples of the interaction between animals and children. This was the greatest area where I saw a remarkable similarity between all of the children. In every child's life their was a pet (the African children had the stray dog, the American, Japanese and Mongolian families all had a Cat). Each child had an uncanny ability to interact without conflict with their respective animals. The mutual comfort between the child and the animal showed me that young children are very aware of how temperamental animals are, and they could compliment that temperament by interacting with the animal accordingly.
I think that this movie, while entertaining, gave me a slightly skewed perspective and impression of human development mostly due to the absence of a parental figure in most parts. In Uganda, the interaction between the mother and children seemed far more natural than the Californian family where the parents seemed to have been intentionally removed from the child. The Ugandan mother was lenient enough with her children as to allow them to explore, and discover things, while ensuring their safety and monitoring their activities. The Californian child seemed to be more the subject of observation and intrigue from the point of view of the parents (kind of like a Rubik's Cube).
A particular scene which stood out to me was one involving the family living in San Francisco. In the scene, the mother, father and daughter are all sitting on the bed, and the father points to a book which pictures an elephant. He asks the daughter what sound an elephant makes, and she responds with a motion that was supposed to signify the elephants trunk. In the meantime, the mother is lying on the bed, talking with the daughter as well, but is mostly preoccupied with the book she is reading about parenting techniques.
In Uganda, Mongolia, and in Japan, their was no scene where any parental figure was reading a book on parenting instead of interacting. The interaction was very natural, and this showed me that parenting much have come naturally to these people. The American mother however didn't seem to be very confident in her own ability to raise a child and was reading a book. I think this shows that their is conflict between the drive to raise a child naturally, and the fact that a child isn't being raised in a natural environment.
Coming into this movie I expected that I would be thinking mostly about the behavior of the children, trying to connect it to how people act once they are fully developed, but actually, the actions and behavior of the children turned out to be such a complex topic on its own that without another movie about mature adults to compare this movie to, I wouldn't be able to give a valid analysis of what behavior in the movie "Babies" corresponded to a common adult behavior.
And just incase you wanted proof I went to go see the movie...
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