Recently, we had a get together with some other couples that had babies, and with my sister and her 9 month old. Every visit was video taped.
And during a recent screening of some edited highlights, I was surprised to see how much baby-fight footage was captured. I've got footage of Sydney (age 1 yr) taking on my niece, Bailey (age 9 months) over a photo album, and getting alternately stared down and ridden like a bronco by her younger and more agile cousin.
I've got footage of Sydney chasing the cat around the house, with the inevitable result. I've got footage of an unfortunate long haired baby (Tal), being harassed alternately by Sydney (near bald) and grabbed by the hair and kicked in the head by Orion (bald).
All of the exchanges were punctuated by my yelling, "be careful!" or "no no no... we don't slam the other baby's face into the thing". Collectively, all of the bouts are probably 1 minute of footage out of 20+ hours.
But with some creative editing, I could start a website selling the 'baby's greatest HITS' video. It's the natural evolution from COPS and When Animals Attack. You wouldn't be able to take your eyes off the screen. And yet, something is stopping me. A little warning light that says that there might be some parents out there who would try to stage fights with their babies, just to get them featured on the website. Mixing babies with rattlesnakes, for example.
And so, restraint has prevailed. To watch the 1 minute of baby fights, you'll just have to wade through the other 20 hours of babies smiling and clapping their hands, crawling and being lovable. Contact me if you want a 20 hour marathon screening. I would be happy to oblige.