I’m in a good mood today, despite having hit snooze so many times that I ended up having twenty minutes to get ready and get my arse to the Metro. Really, there’s nothing worse than starting one’s day in a rush. My mood was lifted, however, by the following article, taken from the Washington Post Express:

The Right To Remain Unadmired
A Halifax, England, hospital has banned cooing at newborn babies because of fears their human rights were being breached, the Press Association reported. Calderdale Royal Hospital prohibited people from asking mothers about their babies or looking at them in the maternity wards - because, it said, these actions disrespected the babies’ dignity. The staff even created a doll that carries the message, ‘What makes you think I want to be looked at?’ “These are little people with the same rights as you or me … People sometimes touch or talk about the baby like they would if they were examining tins in a supermarket,” said hospital manager Debbie Lawson.

That made me giggle. Although, surely the kind of attention they’re banning (basically coddling a child) is necessary for the bonding process between mothers and children, and for the formation of the skills for basic human interaction. It’s been proven that people - and even animals, for that matter - that are denied such bonding exercises in youth often become sociopaths, social outcasts. That’s just what this world needs.