Mother's Instinct Teaches Us To Take Better Care Of Our Children
What is a Mother's Instinct? Is it a feeling? Some kind of premonition , and is it even real? ( Mother's Instinct Review)
Leave children to their own devices, is the sentiment that echoes in my brain. But I guess in certain situations and predicaments, it can’t always be used. For example, as a parent, you wouldn’t voluntary say to your child that they can go for a walk at night, all by themselves. That’s something that makes your motherly instinct kick in. It makes your mind race, and all sorts of scenarios and horrible outcomes flood in. When I think about that statement, though, it’s a statement that although, us a society uses, it’s never used for good. Even if in the way that the statement is used, which is regarding toys or even technological devices, it’s something we shouldn’t say. Children are always the number one priority, even aside from ourselves, and they should always be protected. “ Leaving children to their own devices” is unsafe & Mother’s instinct is a film that proves that point exactly.
The phrase "children left to their own devices" refers to leaving children to do what they want to do, especially in relation to digital devices. While children can learn new skills from the internet and electronic devices, there can be negative consequences to leaving them to their own devices.
Another time where that statement can be used is in Andres Muschietti’s It, that came out in 2017. Although it is not clear if Bill & Georgie have parents, at the time when this scene takes place, it is apparent that Bill & Georgie are home alone. Bill is Georgie’s older brother, so takes on the role of being Georgie’s guardian. In doing so, he permits Georgie to take a boat, that he made for him, outside in the rain. As his guardian at the time, negligence comes into play, as you wouldn’t think anybody in their right mind would send a child out in the rain with a boat, which in a way, could be one of the ‘ devices’ that we’re talking about. But also, in this case, you wouldn’t want to be too hard on Bill, as he’s also a child, which means all he wanted to was make a boat for his younger brother, and it was raining, which meant it was the perfect time for it float, and Bill didn’t know he’d be faced with danger. On a rainy day, you expect small accidents to happen at least, where said child falls or something, but you don’t expect for them to die. Of course, films aren’t a guidebook to our lives, but they do teach lessons like this one, whether it’s fictional or not.
One thing that is different between the two films, is that Pennywise is at the forefront of IT, and the thing that is endangering the children. The second thing being that Bill & Georgie in that scene, are without parental guidance, whereas in Mother’s Instinct, Max ( Celine’s child), falls to his death while she is currently in the house, but the hover is on, and so with that, she doesn’t clock onto the fact that he’s in danger immediately.
With some instances, for example, if a child/ toddler, puts a battery in their mouth, and the parent stops them, that’s them seeing and in good time, being able to react. In that instance, the better thing is being able to stop them before the battery even enters their mouth.
A battery in a child's mouth can cause serious injury or death:
Burns: When a button battery comes into contact with saliva or moist skin, it can cause a chemical reaction that burns the skin in as little as one to two hours. This reaction can continue even after the battery is removed.
Choking: A button battery can get stuck in a child's windpipe and block breathing
In Mother’s Instinct, Celine doesn’t immediately realize Max is in danger, but is said to be feeling under the weather on the day. If you wanted to look at the film from a different angle and opinion, you could say that because of Max’s mood is the reason why he dies the way he does. In this film, there can be many different lenses you can look at it. You can choose to blame Celine, first, as she was the only parent at the time in the house, so she should’ve been in close proximity to Max, and he was said to be unwell. Another thing you can add is, maybe Max was in fact okay, and then that would further her blame even more, because mothers can be prone to spoil their children, so we don’t actually know her true her reason for keeping him at home is. Therefore, it begs the question if Celine didn’t keep Max from home that day, he might not have passed. But that’s where leaving children comes into play. Max is checking on the birds at the time, which seems innocent, which is the bottom line, both kids didn’t know any better. Children don’t see danger, before it happens to them, and by then, it’s too late.
Another argument that can be made, is children’s disobedience. Alice spots Max on the edge of the balcony, and asks him to come down, and as she can see, he’s not listening to her, she’s tries her absolute best to go through the hedge, and when that fails, runs to Celine’s house, bursts through the front door, runs upstairs, and by the time she reaches the top, she’s already too late. As Alice runs up the stairs, Celine finishes hoovering and notices her, also then seeing the expression on Alice’s face, and figuring it out. That’s always important in a film, when showing pain and sadness, by making it silent, makes it more powerful than with noise. Celine then runs outdoors to Max, who is already dead, but cradles him one last time like a new born, with blood sweeping through her fingers from his head.
Throughout the film, after Max dies, Alice’s paranoia grows, as her son is the only one who’s living. When the film starts, you can see that out of Celine and Alice, Alice’s motherly instinct is stronger than hers. Her mother’s instinct starts to blur into paranoia, which turns extreme. Mother’s instinct morphs into madness. But even then, her intuition was right. But you know what I think? Celine’s grief drove her mad, and after losing her son, it’s the only thing she could do.
In the real world, Mother’s instinct doesn’t exist. It’s just something people make up. Mother’s instinct and Mother’s intuition are one & the same. One that does ring true, for sure is Mother Knows Best. We learn from our mothers, and although mothers tell us they can’t learn anything from us, they do. Mothers were once their daughters & Mothers & sons are a whole different ball park. Even In Mother’s instinct, it’s interesting to see how different Alice’s relationship is with Theo, and what Simon’s is with Theo. Simon shouts as Theo, and says “ How dare you! At your best friend’s funeral”, which shows the power play and forms Simon is already putting on Theo at such a young age. It’s unbecoming and not very honorable, of a man, to react like that, is what Simon is already teaching him. But as a child, Theo saw his bunny in Max’s coffin and immediately reached out for it, again, children don’t know any better. Theo saw his toy, and that’s what he thought of. Also, in that scene, that’s where it’s most prominent on how a father treats his son, and how a mother does, Alice without question sides with him, as she points fingers at Celine. She dismisses his behavior, and immediately molly coddles him. Mothers molly coddle their sons and mistreat their daughters, but that’s not always the case, it can be vice versa, but that boils down to perspective.
In the last few minutes of the film, it reaches its climax. It can be so intense when the last 13 or 15 minutes of a film, have you on edge, as you wonder what’s going to happen next, and do you know what, it completely surprised me. To think, all of Alice’s accusations was correct. She planned it out, in such a delicate way. Of course, she never planned for her own son to die, but it just kind of happened. In the end, she murdered her own husband, Alice & Alice’s husband & his mother. She got exactly what she wanted. A second chance of having a son, when she completely ruined it the first time. Murdering her husband felt like revenge to me, as her husband blamed her for Max’s death, but Celine admitted that she blamed Alice instead.
Mother’s Instinct teaches us to take better care of our children, to keep your eyes on them at all times, to also pay attention to them, aside from in danger, but how they feel about things. It felt like Alice didn’t pay attention to Theo’s loss of Max, at first he didn’t understand, but when he did properly, he too wanted to join both Max & his grandmother. Negligence is the takeaway from this film, and what both films have in common. A child’s life is always your responsibility & to answer the question if the premonition is even real, is false, it isn’t. We just need to be willing to put our children’s needs before our own. The bottom line is, we have to care, but not care too much. Caring too much encourages smothering, and suffocating a child’s said freedom. You want to give them freedom, but not too much.
Fantastic read!!