Decalogue 7: Jenna Wynn

I must say this is my favorite episode in the entire Decalogue series we have seen so far. It wasn't overly disturbing and it brought up a topic that [unfortunately] many children have faced. In my personal opinion, the word “parent” and “mother” can be distinguished in different ways. Someone can be both a mother, but it doesn't necessarily mean they're a parent. [As well as vice versa] It also depends on the interpretation of the actual meaning of the words though as well. To me, the grandmother was a parent, but she wasn't a good mother. She didn't allow her own daughter to learn and experience motherhood in her own way, or help guide her. Instead, she took an authoritative stance and pushed her daughter away from her own child. Although throughout the episode, you can tell the daughter is obviously not fit to be a mother, but at the same time I think it would have been different if her grandmother had allowed her to learn. Thus, the adorable little girl became more of a loaf of a bread than an actual human. The daughter felt desperate and felt that the only way she could save herself was by kidnapping her own daughter. This brought up her question “Can you really steal something that is yours?” When I think of stealing, I think of stealing an object. Kidnapping is different than stealing in my opinion. Kidnapping should have been used in that sentence because that adorable little girl was not an object, she was a human being. This is something that I especially feel strongly about. Too many times children are stuck in the middle of custody battles without the so-called “parents” don't even consider what the child wants. Both the grandmother and the mother were only thinking of themselves. The grandmother obviously didn't care too much about her own daughter, but cared more for her granddaughter. Then the daughter believed that just because her daughter was hers, it gave her a right to uproot her from a secure place, when she was obviously not fit enough to take care of her. This is also where the idea of what it really means to be a parent comes to play. Her grandmother obviously knew how to take care of the child, but like I mentioned earlier, if she had even given her daughter a chance to learn what it takes to be a good parent and mother, then maybe even their bond would have grown stronger. Nobody was giving anybody a chance in this film. Everyone was just being selfish, instead of allowing themselves to grow and learn from each other. No I-Thou relationships. Sadly, only I-It. It would have been so wonderful for the daughter if she could have had both her mother and grandmother by her side, being raised by a family of I-Thou relations. Unfortunately, her real mother left her, proving once more to me that the grandmother was obviously more fit to raise the child. A real mother would not have deserted her child like that if she had the chance to still stay by her side.