{"id":22627,"date":"2013-11-01T13:52:41","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T20:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?p=22627"},"modified":"2013-11-08T17:00:59","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T00:00:59","slug":"emotional-baby-cute-or-not-so-cute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/emotional-baby-cute-or-not-so-cute-1101132","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcEmotional Baby’: Cute, or Not So Cute?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"emotionalMary-Lynne, the 10-month-old baby in a video called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Emotional baby! Too cute!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (see below) feels her mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s musically expressed emotion<\/a> very strongly. As her mother soulfully sings the 1988 Rod Stewart song \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My Heart Can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Tell You No,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mary-Lynne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s facial expressions move from wide-eyed wonder to scrunch-faced smiles to streaming tears to what appear to be grimaces.<\/p>\n

Since being published on October 18, 2013, the video has gone viral with its over 16 million views and 100,000-plus \u00e2\u20ac\u0153likes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (and counting), with most of the YouTube comments consisting of things like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cute baby,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153this is the cutest thing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever seen.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But with over 3,000 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dislikes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d there are also some who insist that the video is “not so cute\u00e2\u20ac\u009d; one of these is Tere Peman, who comments, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The baby is scared of mom[\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s] unusual voice. [S]he begin[s] to smile when [the] mother seems to stop singing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Peman, who says in her comment that she is a mother, too, goes on to suggest that the baby is, in fact, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153suffering.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Even the mother, Amanda Leroux, acknowledges this toward the end of the video when she stops singing and says to baby Mary-Lynne, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, you feel the pain in the song, yeah honey? Big tears. Are you crying? Oh, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re crying, monkey. OK, mommy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done. … It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a song.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

In a Skype interview with The Today Show<\/i> on Tuesday, Leroux says she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been singing to Mary-Lynne since she was in the womb, and was just trying to capture video of her baby\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s particularly potent emotional response to the song to share with her husband and family (Schlosser, 2013). Her intention was not for the video to go viral, and she probably couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have imagined that multitudes of people would be commenting on what she presents as an intimate moment of bonding with her child. Such is the nature of social media, though.<\/p>\n

And considering the widespread viewing of this video as well as the mixed, predominately positive responses of those who have watched and commented on it, GoodTherapy.org decided to check in with Ruth Wyatt, LCSW and child psychology Topic Expert, to see what she thinks of the video \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Emotional Baby, Too Cute!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

A Child Psychology Expert Perspective on ‘Emotional Baby’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wyatt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s immediate response was that Mary-Lynne, although an adorable baby, is not at all happy. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Clearly, this mother is wanting to share something with her daughter. Sharing our feelings with our children<\/a> can be a very important way we connect to them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says. However, Wyatt adds, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153As beautiful and important as it is for us to share our feelings with our children, we need to understand where our children are developmentally and what they can handle.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Noting how Mary-Lynne smiles when her mother stops singing and cries when she starts again, Wyatt says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My sense is that the baby [is] in some distress and that she [is] confused by her mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s singing, hence the shift in affect.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She adds, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Perhaps picking up on the sadness of the song or responding to the altered state of the mother, the baby does not seem to feel safe. My sense is that she wants the calm, soothing mom to return.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

She goes on to say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Babies have no language but they can feel and take in the cadence of our voices, our feelings behind our words. I think this mother just needs to tune in a bit more to these aspects of her baby and maybe save the sad songs for when the baby is a bit older.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Have you seen the video? What do you think? Is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153emotional baby\u00e2\u20ac\u009d cute, or not so cute?<\/p>\n