A movie called "Babies"

A fascinating documentary called,  "Babies", was released in April of this year. It simultaneously follows babies from  four different places in the world: Japan; United States; Mongolia, and Namibia (Africa).

There is barely any talking in the film; what talking IS in the film is inconsequential and in the language of each of the countries.

The most glaringly difference in how the four babies are raised is the one from Namibia. The baby and other small children just live off of the earth, play with rocks, and drink water from ponds.

The next different one was from Mongolia. The child seemed to be left alone a lot or with his older brother who seemed to be around 4 or 5. This child wandered around in the countryside, climbed up on a rusty bucket with nothing on from the waist down, all the while I was cringing, hoping he wouldn't cut himself.

The babies from the States and Tokyo were very similar and were raised how we are accustomed to seeing children raised.

In one scene from Namibia, the baby, who walks around naked, poops. The mother grabbed the baby, ran his buttocks down her shin to clean him off, then grabbed a corn cob and wiped off her leg. Done.

Now in our society, picture the same predicament. The mother would probably use a couple of "wipes" to clean off the baby's bottom, and then put on a disposable diaper. She'd have to get rid of the used diaper and wipes.

The Namibia mother walks around with just a covering over her bottom. Her breasts hang heavy with milk, which she lifts up and feeds one, sometimes two babies at the same time. Her breasts are nothing but feeding machines. Everything is pretty natural there.

What I found similar in all four scenarios was the love the mother had for her child. It didn't matter how much or how little the family had; the love between mother and child was strong.

Another similarity? No matter what the country, no matter what the language - siblings will fight. Two of the babies have siblings and it's interesting to watch their relationship develop.

And finally, no matter if the child grew up in a mud hut, a condo, out on an isolated farm, or a crowded city, they all developed about the same time; they all crawled, walked and talked within a few weeks of each other.

I would highly recommend this movie. It was so interesting to watch, just to see how people live on other ends of this earth.

Here is a short clip from the film.

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