Baby girl moved to tears by mom's singing in viral video

[Lisa Guliani]

This is incredible.

Kurt Schlosser TODAY


The tears streaming down the cheeks of a baby girl provide the perfect indication of how touched she was by her mom's singing in a video that went viral on YouTube Tuesday.

In the video uploaded on Oct. 18, 10-month-old Mary Lynne Leroux reacts to her mother, Amanda, singing the song "My Heart Can't Tell You No." The pair are identified in a story on the website for Canada's French television network, TVA.

The 1988 Rod Stewart song was covered by country singer Sara Evans on her 2011 album "Stronger."

Little Mary Lynne smiles when her mom first starts singing. But with the camera focused on her face, it's clear that the girl's eyes are filling with tears, and then her face starts to crinkle. She raises her eyebrows and smiles again before looking like she's about to start crying. A tear runs down her cheek.

"That's my granddaughter. It breaks my heart every time I look at her," reads a comment on the video from Herve Leroux. "She will probably be an actress one day. LOVE her to pieces. xxoo."

More than a minute in, mom keeps singing as Mary Lynne is clearly gripped with emotion. With a hard blink of the eyes, more tears come and the baby girl whimpers.

"Awww, you feel the pain in the song, yeah honey?" Amanda says after she stops singing. "Mommy's done."

And with that, the little girl lets out a laugh.

Watch this:

http://www.today.com/moms/baby-girl-moved-tears-moms-singing-viral-video-8C11487730

 

[mimimari]

Thank you for sharing this video Lisa! I just watched this from your link on FB. I think this is so touching.

I was thinking that the baby girl is very empathic and may think that her mother is actually sad while singing.

 

[Joe]

Watching this video I had a different interpretation of what was going on. Seemed to me that the child was distressed by the intonation of the mother's voice at times, and was probably not "touched" by the sentimment in the song itself as it seems it is being described. If I started to sing a song, any song, and a small child started crying I would probably stop and not sing that song again so as not to distress the child.

I suppose what I'm saying is that I felt sorry for the child more than I felt it was something to be admired.

 

[mimimari]

Watching this video I had a different interpretation of what was going on. Seemed to me that the child was distressed by the intonation of the mother's voice at times, and was probably not "touched" by the sentimment in the song itself as it seems it is being described. If I started to sing a song, any song, and a small child started crying I would probably stop and not sing that song again so as not to distress the child.

Thanks for sharing your perspective Perceval. I had not thought of it in this way, but that makes a lot of sense! Thinking of it in this way, songs should make children happy and smile, not cry.

 

[stellar]

Watching this video I had a different interpretation of what was going on. Seemed to me that the child was distressed by the intonation of the mother's voice at times, and was probably not "touched" by the sentimment in the song itself as it seems it is being described. If I started to sing a song, any song, and a small child started crying I would probably stop and not sing that song again so as not to distress the child.

I suppose what I'm saying is that I felt sorry for the child more than I felt it was something to be admired.

Oh I so agree. I just felt like I wanted to pick up the child and comfort it and tell the mother to put a cork in it.

 

[Josi]

Watching this video I had a different interpretation of what was going on. Seemed to me that the child was distressed by the intonation of the mother's voice at times, and was probably not "touched" by the sentimment in the song itself as it seems it is being described. If I started to sing a song, any song, and a small child started crying I would probably stop and not sing that song again so as not to distress the child.

I suppose what I'm saying is that I felt sorry for the child more than I felt it was something to be admired.

I agree, the baby seemed in distress to me, and would start to smile only when there was a pause in the mother's singing. If even possible, it would be really horrible to make a child sad by such sentiments in the song. :(

 

[Turgon]

Watching this video I had a different interpretation of what was going on. Seemed to me that the child was distressed by the intonation of the mother's voice at times, and was probably not "touched" by the sentimment in the song itself as it seems it is being described. If I started to sing a song, any song, and a small child started crying I would probably stop and not sing that song again so as not to distress the child.

I suppose what I'm saying is that I felt sorry for the child more than I felt it was something to be admired.

I agree, the baby seemed in distress to me, and would start to smile only when there was a pause in the mother's singing. If even possible, it would be really horrible to make a child sad by such sentiments in the song. :(

I noticed at the beginning the baby was kind of okay with the singing but definitely later on when the mom let up on the high note vocals for brief periods she looked more relieved than anything. But when I'm talking to a baby in a manner that's causing him or her to cry I would lower my voice and talk more soothing in case I am overwhelming them.

 

[Laura]

My eldest daughter used to start crying miserably if I sang one particular song: "Drugstore truck-driving man".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K2OZUgGqkw

No other song did it. (She was about 9 or 10 months old).

ADDED: I should also mention that this child grew up to have perfect pitch so my guess is that there was something about the note intervals that had an effect on her brain.

 

[Possibility of Being]

Watching this video I had a different interpretation of what was going on. Seemed to me that the child was distressed by the intonation of the mother's voice at times, and was probably not "touched" by the sentimment in the song itself as it seems it is being described. If I started to sing a song, any song, and a small child started crying I would probably stop and not sing that song again so as not to distress the child.

I suppose what I'm saying is that I felt sorry for the child more than I felt it was something to be admired.

That was my thought as well, but the grandpa's comment made me wonder if the video wasn't 'staged', and the baby is able to smile and cry more or less at will (by herself or trained, or both), and there was a third person who was giving her signs. Quite an interesting phenomena, if that's what it is. Why else would you say she will be an actress one day? Strong emotional reaction to a song doesn't justify such conclusion IMO.

 

[theos]

Interesting video. It's hard to tell if the baby is very empathetic to the emotion of the song or just distressed. Her quick recovery after the song is over makes me think it's the former. I know the Rod Stewart version of this song and was quite moved by it when I would hear it on the radio.

It's weird to see how certain intonations or note intervals can affect the brain and be highly moving or very annoying. When I was a teenager I was singing a Prince song to my cat. I overdid the high notes and screeching parts and my cat lightly bit me on the cheek to shut me up.

 

[paralleloscope]

It seems to me that the girl is in affect already when the video begins (maybe it's the watery eyes) and she gradually moves between sadness and release (chuckles).

Seemed to me that the child was distressed by the intonation of the mother's voice at times, and was probably not "touched" by the sentimment in the song itself as it seems it is being described.

Aren't sentiment and intonation connected, by the song itself and who is performing it? I cried all the way through first time watching, I guess both due to limbic resonance and I've been needing to, and interpreted the girl picking up on the melody's longing/ sadness and empathizing with her mom, or maybe the notes of the song just has that effect on her in particular (like the objective music experiments in 'Meetings with remarkable men').

The grandparent comment seemed strange, though I for some reason can't imagine that she is being hand directed of camera. The comment could perhaps also reflect the grandparents wish for a celeb grandchild, someone who could release their narcissistic pain, where the actor part could reflect the grandparent's view of offspring as a 'player' for their amusement or benefit? Don't know and it's idle speculation with so little data.

It's weird to see how certain intonations or note intervals can affect the brain and be highly moving or very annoying. When I was a teenager I was singing a Prince song to my cat. I overdid the high notes and screeching parts and my cat lightly bit me on the cheek to shut me up.

My sister often sings silly songs with exaggerated gospel phrases, partly because she enjoys expressive singing and being foolish and partly to annoy (in a friendly way), I usually physically cramp and get emotionally reactive when she does, really wising for her to shut it.

 

[Tigersoap]

Perhaps the baby is distressed by the voice of the mother because the notes & melody used in that particular song are triggering an automatic emotional reaction (sad song - cries/happy song-laugh ??).

I think the baby is just really sensitive to that & is in tune with her emotions but without knowing why.

 

[Lisa Guliani]

I think if the baby was really overly distressed, she would have cried harder, longer and louder.
I'm not sure what else was going on around her that may have caused her to alternate tears with smiles, but after having three kids, and recalling the times they cried, this child doesn't seem too upset about the singing.
Yes, she has tears and her face crinkles up, but she also smiles.
In my experience, when a small child like that cries and they're really disturbed or upset or uncomfortable, they're not so often distracted into smiling until the source of the upset is removed or stopped. This child was crying and smiling during the singing, so it makes me wonder. Maybe people trying to make her laugh while mom was performing.

Watching the video, I did wonder why the quiet tears didn't escalate, why she didn't begin to bawl, if she was really upset or uncomfortable as I've seen children do.

Still think it's an interesting video...

 

[ggen]

Watching this video I had a different interpretation of what was going on. Seemed to me that the child was distressed by the intonation of the mother's voice at times, and was probably not "touched" by the sentimment in the song itself as it seems it is being described. If I started to sing a song, any song, and a small child started crying I would probably stop and not sing that song again so as not to distress the child.

I suppose what I'm saying is that I felt sorry for the child more than I felt it was something to be admired.

After watching the video, I too felt that the baby was distressed. It seemed the intervals of smiling when the mother paused in singing, were in hopes that 'mama' was done. It definitely looked like this had happened before. I can see how mom and others might interpret her crying as empathetic but I'm not so sure.

Fwiw, I was a day nanny for a family years ago. When the little one I was caring for reached the 8 month to 1 year stage, and I was in the room singing with her, she would also cry. Unless it was a song with a simple melody and very little change in tone, she would scrunch up her face and tears would stream out. So I quit singing songs like that and stuck to simple humming.

 

[seek10]

Normally babies and even small kids identify with parents after reading parents facial emotions and voice , react accordingly. Since baby stopped crying when mother stopped, I suspect baby is reading mother's face, there is some difference in mother's face/voice that is getting reflected in baby's crying. that's the age of stranger anxiety. Kids watch for a minute or so and starts crying. Looks to me as normal.