Motherhood And The Wild Robot

Thoughts on motherhood inspired by The Wild Robot movie

Yesterday we took a day off our typical homeschool work, and went to see The Wild Robot as a family. Aside from being just a visually beautiful film, I was touched by the message, and found myself pondering the themes as they relate to motherhood.

Roz is a robot that has become stranded on an uninhabited island, and is given the task of caring for a baby bird. She doesn’t want to take on this task at first, but finds she must. She doesn’t know what she’s doing, she’s inconvenienced, her efficiency suffers, she makes many mistakes. Her robot plates are dinged as she rescues her charge many times, and the shine is rubbed off her shoulder, near her neck, where Bright Beak settles every night to sleep. But somewhere along the way she becomes more than her programming - she treasures her memories with Bright Beak, and they become a part of her, something that no reprogramming can take away.

The movie brought tears to my eyes several times, and I think the theme is a poignant one for this age. When motherhood is discussed for the modern woman, there seems to be an immense focus on everything negative. Why would any woman give up her dreams, her career, her independence, her body, her time, to devote her life to another? What if a woman becomes a mother and loses herself?   But the message of The Wild Robot is that yes, you will lose yourself, and maybe that’s exactly the wonderful thing about being a mother.

Even if motherhood is something one has entered into reluctantly, it holds the possibility to make a woman better - more - than she was before. All the dings and scrapes are not damages, they are marks of love forever left on your body and your heart, beauty in place of everything you’ve given up for your children. Just as Jesus calls us to lose our lives, to repent and believe and put off the old self with our sinful desires so we may gain eternal life in Him - so motherhood can reflect that transformation in its own, imperfect way. We also lay down our lives in everyday ways for our children, and the beautiful gift from God is that as we do, He hands our lives back to us again - maybe battered in the process, but polished; more brilliant than it could have ever been before, crowned with the splendor of sacrificial love.

I think there is a picture here too for the child. Roz must “make it all up” as she goes, but she does her best. She doesn’t teach Bright Beak in exactly the right way to swim or fly, but she gets up every day and tries again and again. She finds others to help teach her little charge, she puts immense energy and creativity into helping to launch him to his place as a full-grown bird. Bright Beak doesn’t always appreciate her efforts, and there is strain in their relationship, but by the end he learns to not just to see her mistakes, but to see that she has done her best. She has given of herself to help him soar - and without her, he wouldn’t have made it at all.

As children grow up, they sometimes see more of their parent’s flaws, and that is always going to be a hard transition. But we children have a responsibility to not just see the mistakes, but the sacrifices, and the love behind every step a good-hearted parent took to help us get where we are.

So if you have a mom and dad that are worth even a little bit of their salt, you should do as Bright Beak does and fly through glass to make sure they know - to tell them you made it because of them, and you love them for all the things they gave for you. Through all their foibles and triumphs, they made you who you are - and through your struggles and affection, you made them who they are too. That’s the exchange of parent and child, and it’s a glorious gift for both - something that The Wild Robot captures in a lovely way.