Parenting Observations...WHY IS NOAH'S ARK A THING??

While taking care of a young child, you are busy, certainly.

But between reading the Hippo book for the 10,356th time, waiting for you toddler to finally poop on the toilet (not next to it), or asking, “Please stop licking my kneecap,” the mind sometimes wanders. While settling my boy down for sleep one night, my eyes fell upon a book that he had been leafing through--a cute little rhyming board book about animals going onto Noah Ark, two by two.

(I'm trying to not make a Firefly reference, but I keep whispering "...hands of blue...")

The animals, while displaying a curious lack of respectable anatomy or accuracy, marched merrily across the pages, a sunshine smiling down on them as they made their way to an adorable, colorful little boat before the rain “drip-drip drops!”

(The monkeys did have jazz hands, so it wasn't a total loss)

It suddenly struck me like an antediluvian thunderclap: WHY IS THIS A BABY STORY??

Listen, I understand it all...at first. I get that animals are cute, pairs of them cavorting about are even cuter, and the image of a cheery, rounded little boat with tiny giraffes sticking their heads out of the top is near iconic by this time. I've seen mothers online declare that Ark-themed decorations are their favorite nursery themes, and been to several baby showers that had beanie babies on every table, rainbow-colored punch, and happy little boats floating as the table centerpieces. When I was in middle school, we had a Noah's-Ark themed fun day, where everyone dressed up like animals (I made a cardboard box into an ark-hat and wore it on my head. The whole day. Why didn't I get a date to homecoming again?)

If you do a Google search for "Noah's Ark Baby," the images are relentless, each with bigger eyes, rounder hooves, and happier scenes than the rest. (But seriously, someone should have trademarked that giraffe-sticking-out thing, they could have been making BANK). It's an endless cavalcade of animals, Santa-like Noahs heading the prow, and rainbows gilding the skies. It is very cute.

It is also very weird.

Here's what gives me pause. If you actually read the account in Genesis, even if you don't believe its true (like I do), you have to notice several things. First, the animals are a sideline to the fact that the story is about the judgment of humanity because most of the people who were living on earth were deplorably evil at that time, and that evil was finally brought to an end. That's what the story is about. Now, I’m not asking for a debate about the accuracy of the account, the final location of the ark, or your personal opinions of the possibility of a world-wide flood…I’m talking about the imagery in connection with the actual story. Because in that story, while those cheery, colorful animals were placidly bobbing above the turquoise waters (with happy dolphins in their wake!) the rest of the world had been very recently drowned to death in response to their wholesale rejection of righteousness. Like, apocalyptic-level, end-of-the-world, mass death. As in, there are corpses floating around the boat that the merry dolphins are probably gorging themselves on between high-fiving the monkeys and winking at the camera. When I do someday recount the story to my son, I will explain to him how the ark itself is a symbol of the grace of a Creator who still preserved life in the midst of unquestionable depravity. But the story, put in context, doesn’t strike me as the sort of bedtime tale I want to use as a nursery theme.

“YOU ARE BEING TOO SERIOUS,” you might say. “My nursery is ADORABLE and now I’m SUPER OFFENDED.” Well, admittedly, this is the bizzare sort of thought train that happens to a visual artist who is nursing her infant at 3am. But can you imagine if a tragedy of similar scale was used as substitute?

You take your little bundle of joy and lay her down in her crib, being sure to turn on her Bubonic Plague singing mobile (though…come to think of it, if that mobile is playing “Ring Around The Rosy,” it’ actually is debatably about the Black Death…huh (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_a_Ring_o%27_Roses ). You snuggle her little stuffed smallpox plushie under her arm (…also a real thing?? https://www.giantmicrobes.com/us/products/smallpox.html ), turn on her Dachau Oven nightlight (this had better NOT be a real thing...and I'm not checking to see if it is), and in the morning, you’ll pop in her favorite movie, an animated musical about the Titanic where everyone lives at the end.

Oh…that’s a real thing too.

(Image taken from Rotten Tomatoes https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/titanic_the_animated_movie/ )

We live in a weird world.

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So, let me hear your thoughts--are there any elements of Baby Life that strike you as odd? Do you have a Noah’s Ark-themed nursery? What do you think about sanitizing and changing stories from their historical context when telling them to children? How big do an illustrated animal’s eyes need to be before it’s obscene?

ALSO: For some really fun animal books for babies with GORGEOUS, accurate animal drawings, check out these selections.

Noah's Ark by Rien Poortvliet: http://amzn.to/2t2uEvi

(My boy LOVES this series) Kenneth Lily's Animal Builders, Animal Swimmers, Animal Climber, and Animal Jumpers (this is a link to Animal Swimmers): http://amzn.to/2tXL50p

Link of more Kenneth Lily books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Kenneth-Lilly/e/B001HMNHYG/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

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