鈥淗ave you considered a delayed vaccine schedule?鈥�
鈥淚 think the school should serve only organic food.鈥�
鈥淪tay away from GMOs.鈥�
鈥淵ou should take your son to a chiropractor.鈥�
听
These are just a few examples of things that people said to me, either in the context of having my own children or when I was working as the director of a small private school. These are the kind of statements and questions that I heard, processed, sometimes mulled over, wondering if there was something I was missing. Maybe I wasn鈥檛 worrying enough?
I grew up with my own parents approaching the world in what, looking back, was a rational, evidence-based manner. My mom, who worked for many years as a nurse, would look at me in disbelief when I told her about some of the unsolicited advice I received about food and medicine as it pertained to her grandchildren. I wasn鈥檛 a big reader of parenting blogs, because I felt like that corner of the internet was like the Wild West of misinformation, so, as a parent, I felt grateful for my mom鈥檚 rational viewpoints and for the (vocally pro-vaccine) pediatric practice that鈥檚 cared for my children since they were born.
I had one exception to my 鈥渘o mommy blogs鈥� rule. . A parenting blog with a skeptical tilt was exactly what I needed from time to time, to make me feel like there were other parents out there who saw the world through a similar lens as I did. And then one night, while I was feeding Zeke at some ridiculous time of night, inspiration hit. I stumbled upon the 鈥淢oms4GMOs鈥� open letter, in which the women who would later become the stars of 鈥淪cience Moms鈥� took a stand for facts over fear in the face of celebrity-centered, myth-driven campaigns about food. It鈥檚 like it was my 鈥淓ureka!鈥� moment, because it felt so refreshing to see this potential new parenting narrative - one of facts over fear, science over myths.
So I decided, in that moment, that I wanted to make a film. I needed to make 鈥淪cience Moms.鈥� Of course, a lot happened between the time the idea hit and the time the film first played in front of audiences in Manchester and Las Vegas in October 2017 (and this is supposed to be a short article). But I think I could sum up what this project is by sharing the note I wrote to myself (and immediately shared with the Science Moms) during a quiet moment after the Vegas premiere: I now see this film as a catalyst to help people feel empowered to have conversations about topics they鈥檝e been silent about. The hope is that people will realize that they鈥檙e not alone in not wanting to give into the fear and hype around things like vaccines, GMOs, and other pseudoscience that鈥檚 invaded the culture of parenting.
And so here鈥檚 hoping that Science Moms can help shift the parenting narrative towards critical thinking and evidence, and away from fear and misinformation.
@ncnewell
Natalie will be at 9I制作厂免费 on Monday, March 26, 8pm, for a screening of "Science Moms" followed by a panel discussion. To find out more about the event,听click here.
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