Tuesday, November 3, 2009

All baby animal shows aren't good for kids

Last night the kids and I were watching a how on PBS about baby animals.  One segment was about ring-tailed lemurs.  First the show explained that lemurs traveled in groups for their own safety.  Then it showed a baby lemur clinging to it's mama's belly, but said that the baby lemur was too weak, and it dropped to the ground.  Lemurs aren't strong enough to carry their babies, so if the baby is too weak to hold on, it can't be carried.

The rest of the pack was leaving the mom and baby behind, and the mother couldn't decide whether to stay with her baby (and probably both die), or to leave it behind and rejoin the group.  She would walk a few feet away, and then come back, and then a little further and come back, and you could tell she was having a hard time leaving her baby.

But then she finally left, and both my boys starting sobbing.  They were so heartbroken.  I've never seen them cry over something that didn't affect them.  It was a little bit funny, but sad at the same time.  More sad, though.  I kind of wished we hadn't have watched the show.  Because the segment before that was about male lions killing small cubs so that they could mate with the female/mother lions themselves.  Couldn't we have stumbled upon a happy baby animal show? 

5 comments:

  1. Hilarious, but sad. Poor baby animals. And you boys are so sweet for crying.

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  2. Oh, it makes me cry just thinking about it... poor boys, and poor mama lemur! :(

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  3. That's the funniest sad thing I've heard. I'm sure I would cry too though. Heck, I cry watching Forrest Gump and Cool Runnings.

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  4. It is kind of sad that a mother has to worry about watching animal shows with her kids.

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  5. We rented "Disney Earth" and had a few of the same moments... we told Zoe that the leopard and the baby gazelle were playing tag and then he uh, told her she was "it". Zoe is smart, and she knew being "it" probably wasn't a good thing. :)

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