Reflection On The Movie Babies

Phuong Cao Nguyen

130096

Introduction to Cultural Psychology

November 15th

MOVIE ‘BABIES’ REFLECTION

The way a child is raised can bring up ethical questions. During the movie, I was fascinated by how I did not think of the interactions a baby has at first year of life could shape people behavior possibly throughout their life. We often think our faults in raising children are because of the environment or our circumstances but

To observe the parenting styles in this movie, I choose overlook the surrounding environment and focus on the interaction between the baby and the parents. It is interesting to see that parenting styles in different culture are not so different except in some living conditions which create more room for activities and

This applies for the American, Japanese and Namibia but not very apparent with the Mongolian parents. In the U.S. and Japan, interaction are not limited to nearby areas or family, as in Namibia, multiple families occupy the same area; while in Mongolia, families do not seem to live close to one another. However, there was also a big family gathering and the baby was sitting in his mother 's lap and join together. This signifies that certain values are maintained in the bigger family despite of living far away from each other. 2) Individualism is encouraged, thus such practices that helps the children to be more independent, without much help from parents are common for the American baby. We could see this from activities such as when she was left alone to play by herself, when she slowly peeled off the banana and gave the peel to her parent, her father did not try to fetch her back into the group when she wandered to the door and tried to open it. 3) The sense of self is contrasted with the Japanese baby, she was always put in activities with groups (other babies and mothers) when outside of the home; this shows how the value of one always relates

The manner on how to communicate, respond and relate themselves to group situations inferred from the experience created by their parents. The American baby is expected to be independent but the interaction with the family should be kept intact in leisure activities. There is one thing I find interesting about the way the American baby is looked after: she was left untouched to do things alone while her parents were still there keeping an eye on her (as when her mother was cooking, vacuuming and when she learned how to eat a banana). This reminds me of a popular parenting behavior in Vietnam, that the baby is constantly carried around by their parents or grandparents; that actually teaches them the sense that they should be carried all the time and the result is that they will cry if being let down. So every time the mother wants to do housework, she has to put her baby down, which will make them cry and somebody else will come to pick them up and soothe them. At the same time, the Mongolian baby is also expected to be independent but in a different way. He should not expect there would be too much intimate moments with his family except the bonding with his brother because his parents are too busy from working. However, the connection with long-distance relatives must be kept. Meanwhile, the Japanese baby is taught to always engaged herself in a group, be socialized. Similar to the