Babies

This one was an observational documentary. I don't know if I was expecting that, but I should have from what I'd seen from the trailer. There wasn't much fancy editing or music in it, but it would pop up every once in a while. I wonder why they chose that angle instead of using a voiceover and making it sort of an anthropological study or something similar to Marching the Penguins.

Something I found interesting with this type of observational doc is that sometimes they did this thing where they used "baby perspective," getting low on the ground with the baby. Or letting the baby explore their space with no interruption. That was a interesting angle to take. There were a lot of moments where the kid was getting into something and the mom or dad just didn't interrupt them at all. As if they weren't even there to stop them from crying or stop them from eating toilet paper.

It was also interesting to see the different cultural practices of the different countries. When they had the montage of washing their babies, the Namibian mother licked her baby clean...at least I assume that's what she was doing. The Mongolian family, apparently, never let their son off of the bed until he could crawl. That's at least how it was cut.

Watching this made me think. I've always wondered, what in the world are you supposed to do to keep babies entertained? I know that millions and millions of people have raised children successfully, and it's clear from this how. Nothing. You don't have to do a damn thing! The baby in Namibia played with dirt and rolled around. The baby in Mongolia couldn't even move. The baby in Japan and the baby in San Francisco had all these toys and books and all kinds of things to play with, but how much of it was really necessary, entertainment-wise? Building their intelligence at an early age...I guess that's a different conversation for a different day.