Motherhood is hard work. Babies don’t come with instruction manuals. And there are no 24/7/365 helplines to call if your baby needs fixing! No safety nets and no undo buttons. Moms have a lot of work when it comes to raising their offspring, and then there’s the doubt and worry about whether or not you’re doing it right! Questions like, am I being too overprotective? Am I protective enough? How do I raise this tiny alien, who kind of looks like me and acts like his father, to be a functional human? So many questions and so many possibilities!
This is a momentarily scary video that then turns into a “Whew!” moment. The maternal instinct is strong in this one, and in my opinion, is recovered with grace and epic superhero mom skills!
It’s just another day in the polar bear enclosure at the Oga Aquarium GAO Zoo in Japan. Momma bear, Kurumi and baby bear, Milk, are outside exploring the rocky terrain. Mom and baby have a fun, little exchange, before Milk rolls too far and for too long and ends up in the water!
Milk is young and doesn’t know how to swim, so he’s struggling to keep his head above the water. He can’t quite figure out how to paddle, and he starts to panic. The crowd sees exactly what’s going down, as they gasp in the background, stunned to see the poor baby bear appear to be in the middle of drowning.
Mom senses something isn’t right because she looks back just in time to see her cub in distress. She leaps and bounds towards him, and jumps right in, in a matter of seconds. She’s able to be right there enclosed around the straggling bear. What’s so interesting to note here are her parenting skills. Rather than just lifting him up immediately into safety, she offers support, giving him the encouragement he needs to get himself out without her entirely doing it for him.
The cub dangles for a few moments, but once his panic is replaced with her presence, he’s able to think more clearly and help himself. Mom supervises as baby crawls out and everything goes back to normal! All is good in the world again, and the two are back to playing, happy that even in the face of crisis, disaster was averted and a lesson was learned!
Click below to watch this scary moment become a teachable one.
