Chris

My daughter was 15, about to be 16. She is my oldest child and she is very mature for her age. At her school they have a program where you take home a mechanical baby for the weekend. The baby has a special key that is attached to the "mom's" wrist and cannot be removed except for with a special tool at the school. This ensures that the "mom" takes care of this baby herself and doesn't pawn the baby off on "grandma" for the weekend. The baby cries whenever it wants to and needs to be held or fed or changed by the "mom". You don't know what it needs so you have to try all the ways and sometimes even those three things don't work and it just cries and cries. (Like a real baby.) The key must be held to the baby's back until it stops crying which can be for hours. There are different types of babies...some you just turn the key and go on, but hers was the kind that you had to touch the disc of the key to the back and hold it there. It can be in the middle of an activity or in the middle of the night...ya never know when the baby will start up. You have to hold this baby just right because his head will flop back, just like a real baby.

There is a computer chip in the baby that tells the school things like, how long it cried, how it was handled (you can tell by the head flopping thing), how many times it cried, etc. All of these things affect your grade, so you can't just say I don't care and leave the baby home crying all weekend. (besides that, the baby cries really loudly and its VERY annoying! LOL) It also has censors in the lips and in the bottle tip so that when it needs to be fed, you must sit there and hold the bottle to its lips so you hear the sucking sounds and know that its being fed. And censors in the diaper area that says its been changed and how many times.

Now my daughter couldn't WAIT to get her chance with this baby!!! She counted down the days til it was her turn...she named him Chris. She got off the bus on a Friday afternoon with the baby and its diaper bag and its baby carrier/carseat and its little blanket and bottle with this big smile...Mom, look at Chris, isn't he so cute!!! And he is such a good baby too, so far he has only cried one time.

Well, let me tell you that baby ruined her entire weekend. Friday night she had a football game (she was in the band) and had to bring the baby with her and take care of it every time it cried even when she was supposed to be playing....Saturday she was invited to a movie but didn't want to take this crying baby with her and ruin it for everyone else so she didn't go.....Saturday night she was up with this baby for 4 hours of constant crying..nothing she did worked to make this baby stop. By Sunday she was exhausted, but couldn't sleep in because the baby needed her again. By Sunday night, cute little "Chris" was being called "THAT THING!" I can't wait til tomorrow when I can get rid of "THAT THING! "That thing" finally gave her a break on Sunday night...until about 3 AM when it decided it was up for the day. Monday at school, Kristi was dragging butt all day and finally she came home on Monday afternoon and got to sleep. It took her a full two night's sleep to get caught up and back to normal.

Yes it was only 3 days, but those three days really had an effect on my daughter. I totally applaud the program...and as I said, I would hope that for many teens, it's as close as they come to having to deal with the "REAL thing."

See ya next time! :o)