Having a baby is no easy task, especially in high school. In teacher Lacie Smith’s parenting class students were expected to care for a RealCare baby for a weekend. The challenge started at noon on Friday and was completed when the baby was returned to the classroom on Monday. Students were evaluated on head support, handling, quickness and accuracy of determining the issue, and more.
“It was weird having the babyat school because everyone would stare and talk about the baby,” senior Shana Alsafar said. “When it cried, everyone looked at me and I had to leave the class.”
Then came the next challenge: figuring out what it wanted. The babies were programmed to cry if they wanted to be fed, changed, burped, or were simply fussy and needed to be rocked.
“It was easy to get it to stop crying after I recognized what it wanted,” sophomore Kendyl Paul said, “but it was hard not being able to go out or do normal things.”
Having the baby made me realize how much parents have given up because they have a child.
— senior Shana Alsafar
But that wasn’t even half the struggle of waking up multiple times in the middle of the night. The RealCare babies were programmed with a random schedule which could allow it to sleep soundly through the night or to wake up the parent with its cries every hour.
“It was a horrible experience,” sophomore Sofia Watson son said. “The baby kept me up all night, and I had to wake up constantly to take care of it.”
That wasn’t to say that there wasn’t any funny parts.
“It was pretty funny when I was because trying to put the car seat in my car,” Alsafar said. “I had no idea how to do it, and it took me a while to figure out.”
This project gave students a great insight on responsibility and what being a parent was like.
“It was nowhere near the real thing, but it was an idea,” senior John Adkins said. “I didn’t want kids when I started, and I still don’t want them until l’m way older.”
Junior Zoie Garett had one last piece of advice to parents before having kids: “Good luck.”
