Who Doesn't Love Babies?
I went to this beautiful coffe & play place yesterday where the toys are all wood, the food is all organic, the beans are all fair trade and the babies are named Fisher, Penny and Oona. It's the kind of place that is cropping up in lots of urban neighbourhoods where new mothers can go and feel safe that their infants won't be polluted by anything outlawed by Health Canada, or Dr. Sears.
And I was so jealous. All those new moms relishing each and every stage of babyhood: the hours their babies are sleeping, what rituals they use at bedtime, which bouncy seat is best, which organic cream works on eczema. Their earnestness is touching. At some point some of those moms are going to be third-timers and they will look back and laugh at their fear of dirt and plastic and all things that are not made of bamboo.
Click to see a movie trailer of crazy cute babies
I am so wistful of those days. I wish I could gain back some of that feeling of newness and interest in other people's minutia. I don't miss those petty anxieties, as I want to think I knew that I was bringing my child up in a bubble. What other sector of the world's mothers has the privilege of worrying about whether to feed little Caleb kale or sweet potato first? Or whether restaurant food is risky? Or if non-organic sheets could be dangerous? But at the same time, when you swept up in the world of babies, it's hard not to get caught up in the tiny details of life.
This trailer for the new documentary Babies is ridiculously cute, but it is also a good reminder that not all mothers have the time to be scared of dirt, or playing with rocks or roosters in the bed with baby.
Babies
A Focus Features documentary directed by Thomas Balmes, follows the first year of babies on four continents, it will be in theatres in April, 2010.
