random thoughts

something got me thinking...some great movies that I see with Aadu are all about father & son; the mother is often 'just another' character. The movies in point are 'The Lion King', 'Finding Nemo', 'Madagaskar'.
They focus on the father-son bond, the way their relationship matures, seasons, and finally they come up as a winning team !! All very fantastic, but my point is 'what about the mother?'
In Finding Nemo, the mother dies when Nemo was just an egg, so fine there is no scope for a mom-figure. But in the other two, it is too obvious that it is a father-son movie.
I have no issues that they are so; I am just concerned that they happen to be my son's favorite movies; and do not wish him to have an impression that father-son only matters. Well I may be going a bit too far with that...but hey .....these are random thoughts !!

I was reading to Aadu one of his 'I wonder why' series books about Mothers & babies, and found some very interesting stuff there. Here are some for you:

• Best mother: A baby Gorilla has one of the best mums, the mother may look frightening to us, but she is loving and gentle to her baby. She grooms her baby and feeds it for upto three years and protects & helps it for longer still.
• Gorillas, Chimpanzees, Gibbons & Orang Utans all make good moms.
• Tree Shrews are part-time moms. They leave their babies in the nest, only popping in to feed them every other day.
• A baby Elephant has lots of aunts: that's because Elephants love in large family groups of up to 50 animals. In fact a new calf has plenty of aunts, grannies, sisters and cousins too.
• When a Hippo mother goes off to feed, she leaves her calf with a baby sitter !!
• A mother giant Panda gives her cub so much love and attention that she can only cope with one at a time. By looking after her cub for a year or more, she is helping to make sure that her baby survives.
• If a hungry hunter threatens a Plover's nest, the mother pretends to be wounded. She flaps a wing as if it were broken, and flutters weakly along the ground moving away from the nest. She wants the enemy to think that she is injured and would be easy to capture. That way the enemy will go after her and not her babies.
• The badger is known for the cleanest nest that is provides to its babies. The parents regularly line their burrows with fresh dried grass & leaves. They even dig special holes well away from the burrow, which the entire family uses as toilets !!
• One more about Elephants: when a baby Elephant is being naughty, it's mother whacks it with her trunk !!

I feel I am becoming a Panda !!!
Which Animal Mom do you most identify with? Send me your answers....